“The doors are locked!” Eli yelled. “Do you think she’s being attacked?”
“Help! Help me!” she screamed.
Fuck.
“I’m going to break a window!” Eli said.
Kellan gaped at him. Break the window? What was wrong with him?
“Stop,” Kellan snapped as Eli picked up a large rock.
“What? Something is wrong with her!” Eli said, sounding desperate.
“FBI!” Kellan yelled. “Come out with your hands in front of you where I can see them.”
He could feel Eli glaring at him as he drew out his gun. Yeah, he ran with his gun strapped to his back under his T-shirt.
Leaving it at home would be stupid considering the amount of criminals they’d apprehended. And the people they’d pissed off along the way.
The door opened and surprise filled him as he saw her step out, her hands in front of her. She was shaking, her head moving around frantically as she tried to take everything in.
Behind her something rustled and he moved his gun back to the open door.
“Don’t shoot him!” she cried. “Please!”
“Come out!” he barked. “Now.”
“He doesn’t understand you,” she said as she stepped back toward the open door.
“Why? Does he not speak English? It doesn’t matter, he needs to get out here,” Eli said.
“Of course he doesn’t speak English.” She reached back through the open door.
“Don’t move,” Eli and Kellan ordered at the same time.
She gazed between them in shock. “But he’s scared. He won’t come out without my help. And why do you want him to come out?”
“Because he was hurting you,” Eli said. “You were screaming for help. Why would you defend him?”
They’d seen this a lot. Where people defended their abusers. Kellan hated it. Hadn’t he heard it about his own father? How some of his father’s friends used to justify the way that he’d smack them around. How he’d talk to them.
Oh, he’s just upset over the loss of Marie.
He’s entitled to a few drinks if it helps.
It’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be.
At least Kellan had gotten his father to aim most of his anger toward him and not his brothers.
She stared between the two of them, then shook her head. “Are the two of you really FBI agents?”
Eli drew his ID from his back pocket and showed it to her. She peered down at it. “Yes, I’m FBI Agent Eli Jones.”
“Wow.”
“Who is in there?” Kellan demanded. He was tired of her prevaricating. When they wanted something from her, then she should immediately give that to them.
There shouldn’t be all this back and forth.
