“There was no way I was leaving everyone behind.” She shrugged. “I went out one bedroom window and came in through another.”
It was the truth. The second she had realized the man outside of the locked bedroom door wasn’t Darius was the moment Eve had gone through the main window. After that there had been no other path for her to take other than to go to her favorite window. She had climbed into Darius’s childhood bedroom like a gentle breeze easing its way across a summer day. No one had heard her. Not until she had wanted to be heard.
A talking point she would get an earful about from Darius later, she was sure.
“Where was she keeping you?” he asked now.
Mitchell thumbed over his shoulder. The movement made him wince. Still, he promptly answered.
“The house next door.”
“The house next door?” Eve repeated. “My house?”
Mitchell nodded.
“It’s empty,” Darius added.
The sirens were becoming louder. Backup was about to arrive.
It seemed to apply a new sense of pressure to the woman on the floor.
“If I were you, I’d think real quick about what happens next,” she said. “You can either tell the truth and get us all killed, or you can lie and buy yourselves more time to figure out what I won’t tell you. Because I guarantee you that you can’t do both.”
Eve couldn’t see the woman still, but she easily heard the smile in her voice.
Just like she heard the anger in Darius’s when he responded without hesitation.
“I suggest you shut your mouth,” he said, frost on every word. “You lost any shot at bargaining with me the second you threatenedher.”
“I now see where my fatal flaw was with this one,” the woman replied just as quickly. “I thought Miss Myers was insignificant.”
She snorted.
“Judging by the look on your face, Detective, I guess we were dead wrong about that.”
WINNE CAME IN CONCERNED. After glancing at Theo’s beaten face, she left the kitchen angry. She took several even, quick steps back into the living room where their mystery woman was being cuffed.
Then Winnie slapped her across the face.
It was so loud it echoed.
“That’s for hurting them,” she exclaimed.
Her father, Price, had been the first responder on scene and was the one currently working on the woman’s handcuffs. His surprise was instant and mirrored in Theo, who rushed to Winnie’s side.
For a moment, Darius thought the move was unnecessary.
But then he noted her balled up hands, her widening stance and the absolute mask of anger that covered her face.
Winnie was about to attack again.
This time probably giving more than one slap.
It was a guess that proved to be correct as the young woman launched herself again at the hired hand.
Then everyone was yelling.
The woman at Price, Price at Winnie, Winnie at Theo for grabbing her, and Theo at Winnie for fightinghimto get to the woman.
