Jackson pursed his lips. “Oh, so you’re the friend with the big mouth?”
We both shot West a dirty look.
West nodded toward the end of the block. “I’m going to wait by the car. Holler if you need me.”
I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to get the energy into one spot. Hazel was inside, with someone unhinged enough to hold her cat for ransom. I didn’t want to cause a scene or start a fight, but if I didn’t get her out of there in the next few minutes, I was barging in, subtleties be damned.
What could he do? Call the cops? “Yes officer, these two broke in to take a cat that I stole and have been using as leverage to extort a lot of money.”
“Okay, you go,” I said to Jackson, pointing at the front door as I was already slinking around to the side of the house. I crouched in the corner by the bush and waited for him to approach the front door.
I looked in the first window I came to and saw Callum there, alone, flipping through the channels on his TV. I ducked below the window. Then I heard a knock. I peeked in the window again and Callum rolled his eyes before throwing the remote at the couch and heading for the front door. I sprinted.
I passed one window on the way, but it faced into a hallway. I jumped over a short chain link fence into his yard, with agility that would have shocked me if I wasn’t so high on adrenaline. The yard was unkempt, with a shed that was practically falling over in the corner, and overgrown dead weeds wherever you looked. One sad lawn chair with a broken arm sat among them.
There was a door leading to the yard, and a window on either side. Movement caught my eye in one and I moved toward it. It was high up, but still chest level for me. When I peered through, Hazel was looking back at me, her eyes wide.
“What are you doing here?” she mouthed.
“Open this.” I tapped at the window.
“It’s stuck,” she mouthed, pulling it up to show me. The window frame was covered in layers of caked-on grime and paint.
“Keep pulling,” I said, this time pressing my own hands to the glass and pushing up with as much force as I could muster from this angle. A sharp noise cracked out, and the window jerked upward an inch.
I put my hand underneath and pulled up even harder. It continued to move up in the track, struggling and resisting with each push.
“Go. Go. Go.” Hazel looked back. “I can hear him.”
A vein in my neck bulged as I pushed open the window just enough for Hazel to be able to squeeze through.
“Give me your backpack,” I said.
She handed it through. When I took it, I realized it wasn’t a backpack at all. Vermont’s face pressed against the mesh side.
“You got him!” I said, unable to contain my excitement.
Hazel put one leg out the window and I reached up to help her.
“What the fuck?” A man’s voice roared and Hazel was jerked backward, her leg hitting the window frame in the process.
All I saw was red.
Callum stood behind Hazel, gripping the side of her shirt.
“Let her fucking go,” I seethed.
He narrowed his beady eyes. “Give me the money and I will.”
“Get off me, asshole!” Hazel squirmed, and my rage took over. Without thinking, I set Vermont on the ground. I put both my hands on the windowsill and hoisted myself up and through the window, doing a kind of duck and tuck roll-to-stand that felt pretty cool, but probably looked ridiculous.
“Back up,” Callum said, glaring at me.
I shoved his chest without a second thought. “We’re leaving, and we’re taking the cat. And you’re going to leave Hazel alone, got it?”
“No, I don’t got it,” he said, trying his best to look menacing despite the ridiculous cropped muscle tee and flannel pajama bottoms he wore.
Hazel bit down on the hand holding her sweater and he yelped, letting go.
