She didn’t speak the threat, but it was clear. Maybe she wouldn’t hurt her daughter, but Delaney couldn’t know for sure.
She heaved herself through the window and landed hard on the dusty floor inside. The smell of mold and decay filled her nostrils as she scrambled to her feet. Her hands swept along the wall until she found a door frame. She stepped through, hereyes adjusting to the low light. It was an empty living room. She headed toward the back of the house, found the door, then fumbled for a handle.
She unlocked it and pulled the door open.
Violet stood rigid, the gun trained downward. Charlotte cowered against the railing.
“Go on, honey,” Violet said, gesturing with the weapon. “Inside.”
Charlotte launched herself at Delaney, who lifted her up again, the little girl’s arms immediately wrapping around her neck.
Violet followed, closing the door behind them. The sound echoed through the empty house like a gunshot.
The room was cloaked in darkness.
Would anyone think to look for them here? And if someone did show up…
What would Violet do?
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Avoice had reverberated through the woods. Noah and Jasper had followed the sound.
On the road fifty yards away, a police cruiser’s taillights disappeared around the bend. Noah hadn’t dared follow it, fearing Violet would see them. Instead, he hid behind a massive oak tree, his breath catching in his throat as he watched Violet herd Delaney and Charlotte toward an abandoned house. The gun in Violet’s hand gleamed in the moonlight, pressed far too close to Delaney’s back.
“We have to move.” He was desperate to do something.
Jasper clamped a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll hear us.”
He shrugged away. “We have to do something.” It was killing him, seeing Charlotte clutched against Delaney’s chest, his niece’s hair tangled from the night wind.
“We need a plan.” Jasper sounded confident, like he did this every day. “We can’t just charge in. She’s armed.”
As if Noah hadn’t noticed. He closed his eyes, fighting the urge to sprint across the clearing. Every cell in his body screamed at him to go. But Jasper was right. One wrong move, and Violet might panic.
The trio disappeared behind the dilapidated house.
Noah fumbled for his phone, but the screen showed what he already knew. Not a single bar.
“Do you have service?” he asked Jaz. “We need to call the police.”
“No, and even if I did…”
Noah glared at him in the darkness. “What?”
“It’s just… I’m trying to imagine what would happen if we alerted the cops.”
“If?If!”
“They’d move in, sirens blaring, lights spinning.” Jasper continued, ignoring Noah. “They’d surround the house and demand that Violet let them go.”
“Right, and then…” He followed his brother’s logic forward.
“That’s the thing about hostage negotiators,” Jasper said. “They try to rationalize with captors. But Violet is not rational. So how will it end?” Jasper watched him in the darkness, patiently waiting for Noah’s thoughts to catch up with his.
“Do you think she’d hurt them, really?”
Jasper peered back at the house, where a faint light now showed through one of the windows. “The woman I knew would never have done any of this. At least, I didn’t think she would.”
