Well, the alarm never went off and the police were not notified. The only thing that did happen is that the beams kept going crazy. And the doors locked so that neither of us could get out. Even if we could have made it past the beams.”
“They aren’t laser beams. Why didn’t you keep trying?”
“I don’t know! Honestly, with everything that was going wrong with the system I wasn’t sure what it would do if we tried to get out.”
“Okay. I understand. Although I don’t think it would have done anything bad.”
“Neither do I. But I guess I just wasn’t thinking right.”
“Okay. I get that. It was probably stressful. I hope Jerome’s working on the system before you use it again.”
“He is. He had a good laugh out of it.”
“I’m sure he did. But that doesn’t explain why you keep looking at the Stephens man over there. Did something happen between the two of you?”
“I don’t know. We just…talked.”
“You talked,” she says, disbelief in her voice.
“I get it. It doesn’t make sense. But we did. We actually sat there and talked until the cops came and let us out.”
“And it went…okay?”
“Yeah.” A smile tickles my lips. I liked him. “He was nice.”
“Stephens men aren’t nice.”
“Because that’s what we’ve been told. But really? Are you sure that that wasn’t a bunch of old wives tales, thanks to bad blood?”
“No. I’m not really sure of anything like that. But…I don’t know. Mr. Stephens really doesn’t like us. If you said you were talking to him and he was nice to you I’d say you were full of shit. He’d like nothing better than seeing the last of us.”
“I know. That’s one of the problems I have right now.” I lean closer. “Monroe asked me to take a walk with him at lunch. But he also asked me to keep quiet about it. He said he didn’t want his dad to know because he had a heart attack and he’s worried about upsetting him.”
“That’s sketchy. I mean, I get it…kinda. But it’s putting you in a bad spot, wanting you to hide something.”
“I know. I’m not super keen on that.”
“I think that maybe you should back out of it for now.”
“Yeah. Especially because of what he asked me…well, he kinda made it sound like a joke but it made me feel jittery.”
“What was it?”
“He said his dad would probably like it if we moved out of here and got a different place. But he laughed about it after he said it…like it was a joke.”
“That isn’t funny.” Harper makes a face and glances over at the other store. “Do you think he was serious?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so but I just don’t know.”
“So don’t go out with him. I mean…there are some big red flags with this guy. Besides the fact that you just don’t know him at all.”
Nodding, I sigh. “I know. I was really looking forward to the trek but there’s a little niggling doubt about it now.”
“Take some time. Go home and watch something or do something you’ve always wanted to do. Just wait awhile and see how things go.”
“You don’t trust him or his dad. I’m not sure that you ever will.”
She cocks her head, nodding. “You might be right. But that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong.”
