I slammed the door, put my back to it and then slowly slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I could barely breathe. I’d comeso closeto being caught.If I’d opened the door a few inches wider, if the lights had been on, if the breeze had been different and the cop had smelled the weed.... And there were still tens of cops out there, just a few feet away.
I sat there in the darkness, every muscle and tendon in my body tight with tension. Every footstep on the street outside might mean another knock at the door. Every murmur of one cop to anothertransformed in my mind todo you smell weed?What if the filters Sean had fitted didn’t work as well as he thought?
After an hour, the cops found their man, hiding behind some garbage cans in someone’s backyard. They left without a single shot being fired. I finally slumped in relief, a limp, exhausted wreck.
Minutes after the sirens had died away into the distance, I heard the rumble of an engine outside and then footsteps.Sean!He’d come after all. He was going to be mad as hell when he found me here, but I was so glad to see him, I didn’t care. I was going to throw my arms around him and—
I pulled open the door to greet him.
It wasn’t Sean.
32
LOUISE
There weretwo of them and the first thing I realized was,they weren’t surprised to see me.They grinned when they saw my face. They weren’t expecting the house to be empty and they weren’t expecting Sean.
“Who—” I started.
One of them stepped forward and shoved me hard in the stomach. I folded at the waist and staggered back, winded, catching myself against one of the tables. My eyes were on the floor as I tried to heave in air, but I heard the two of them stroll in and shut the door behind them.
“Jesus,” said one of them. A heavy accent I didn’t recognize, vaguely European. When I managed to look up, they were looking around at the plants in wonder. “So that’s what he’s doing.”
I had no idea what was going on. When they’d pushed their way in, I’d thought they were there to rob us, but they sounded surprised. If they hadn’t known this was a grow house, why were they here?
I finally managed to straighten up and get a better look at them. Two men, bulky with muscle, both with shaved heads. One of them pulled out a knife—a huge, ugly thing with a blade as long as my hand.Oh Jesus!“Who are you?” I croaked.
“We know your boyfriend,” said the other man. “He paid us a visit. So now we’re paying you a visit.”
I swallowed. “He’ll be back. He just stepped out.”
One of them shook his head. “He hasn’t been here all night. We’ve been watching this place. Would have been in here an hour ago, if the fucking cops hadn’t showed up.”
Oh Jesus.I’d had the police there. I’d had the policeright thereat my door and I’d wished for them to leave. My stomach turned. This was the world I’d chosen. I was a criminal, now, and the police don’t protect us.
Sean’s words came back to me:what would you do, if someone broke in?My plan seemed so stupid, now. The knives and the baseball bat were in the far corner of the room, where I’d thrown them.Idiot!And the men were looking at me in a way that made my skin crawl. When I’d bedded down, I’d kept my top and bra on, but it had been too hot for jeans so I was standing there bare-legged in my panties. I swallowed and looked around at the plants. “Take them,” I said. “Take everything.”
They laughed. And that’s when I realized they weren’t interested in the weed.
They were there for me.
33
SEAN
It hadn’t takenas long as I’d thought. She hadn’t needed me to stay the night. A little after one, I was ready to go back to the grow house. I shook my head tiredly. All that arguing with Louise, and I’d be there most of the night anyway.
I hadn’t had a chance to eat since lunch. I figured I’d grab a pizza on the way and eat it when I got there.
But on the way to the pizza joint, something nagged at me. That argument with Louise...she wouldn’t normally give in that easily. The girl was stubborn as hell.
At the next intersection, I changed course and swung by our apartment block. Louise always parked her rusty old Japanese car in the same place.
But tonight, it wasn’t there.
“Shit,”I muttered, and drove straight for the grow house.
34
