Page 60 of Barbed Wire and Burglary
He didn’t answer, and she didn’t expect him to.
“What about Aaron?” She followed him to the door, stuffing his pistol in the back waistband of her jeans. “Is he getting called in to work, too?”
“Probably. I’m about to find out,” he added grimly.
She locked the door behind him. While she was double-checking the lock, she heard him jog down the stairs and shout something. Her brother shouted something back. Then A.J.’s truck rumbled to life and roared off.
A few seconds later, a vehicle honked.
What in the world?She moved to the window and peeked outside. Aaron was sitting in his truck, honking like a moron. She was surprised he hadn’t left the same time A.J. had.
Before she could call him and ask what was going on, her phone vibrated with a text message. It was him, of course.
Meet me outside.
A.J.’s warning echoed through her mind, but Aaron was her brother, and she was armed. Also, running outside for a quick chat with him before he took off might shed more light on what A.J. had been called away for.
She unlocked the door and stepped outside without her jacket and immediately regretted it. Her breath came out in white puffs as she hurried down the stairs.
The passenger door was open. Her brother was waiting for her behind the wheel with his head tipped back against the seat. His hat was pulled over his face. She’d recognize his favorite ratty Stetson from a mile away. It was sweaty and stained, and she was forever threatening to throw it out, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it yet.
“You alright?” Concern filled her as she hopped inside the truck, slamming the door shut to provide a barrier against the cold. In the midst of all the chaos they’d endured lately, she’d all but forgotten he was still in recovery mode.
The sound of the doors locking made her tense in alarm.
“I’m fine, thank you,” a woman trilled, pushing Aaron’s sweaty old Stetson higher to reveal her hateful eyes. She raised a gun and pointed it at Aurora.
Aurora’s hand flew toward the pistol A.J. had lent her, but her assailant cocked her weapon, halting her movements.
“Hands on the dashboard,” Elise said coldly, sitting up straighter.
Aurora glared at her and slapped her hands harder than necessary on the dash. The cell phone she’d been holding flew out of her hand, hitting the windshield and cracking its case.Seriously?She’d paid a lot of money for the stupid case, but that was the least of her problems right now.
“What are you doing in town?” she snapped. Elise should’ve been miles away by now. Out of the country, even.
Elise reached over to yank the pistol from Aurora’s waistband. “Toss your cell phone out the window.” She tapped a button, and the window rolled down.
Aurora wasn’t surprised by the request. Anyone with abrain knew that phones contained tracking devices. As she reached for her phone, her cracked phone case nearly slid off, which gave her an idea.
“Slowly,” Elise warned. “Any sudden movements, and I’ll shoot!”
Unsure if her hasty little brainstorm would be successful, Aurora took theslowlypart of Elise’s order as an opportunity to slip her cell phone the rest of the way from its case. She was careful to keep the front of the phone facing the window to her right so the maniac seated on her left wouldn’t notice. Holding both items out the window, Aurora dropped the cell phone case while shoving the phone itself up her sleeve.
I did it!
She heard her phone case clatter against the pavement. Then the window rolled up, and the truck lurched forward. Since Aurora was locked in, it would make any attempt at escaping trickier, but she still had her cell phone. That was something. It was only a matter of time before Aaron and A.J. thought to trace it.Not soon enough for me!
She focused on controlling her breathing and curbing her panic while she did a rapid assessment of her situation. From the corner of her eye, she could see pieces of plastic and vinyl dangling above Elise’s knees, indicating she’d hot-wired Aaron’s truck.
“No one will be looking for us,” Elise spoke in a casual voice, as if they were discussing nothing more important than the weather. “Not for a while, anyway. I made sure of it, so you and I would have time to…chat.” The emotionless way she said the wordchatsuggested she had something more ominous in mind than a simple conversation.
“Fine.” Aurora masked her growing alarm as best she could. “Let’s chat.”
Elise hung a right on the road skirting the lake, then another right before pressing down harder on the accelerator. They zoomed down a back road, leaving the main part of town behind. The cars on the road thinned to a trickle. Eventually, Elise and Aurora were alone on the road.
“Nice chat,” Aurora noted sarcastically, trying to goad her captor into saying something.
It worked. “This is your fault, you know,” Elise snarled.
