Page 14 of Black Hearts
“Theo will handle Markus,” I said. “Whatever he says, I don’t care. We’re here, and we’re going to get Juliet back, one way or another. If that means we don’t go back to the estate…” I looked at Bennet, then Will. “It’s not like we’ll be missed.”
“Hey,” Will cut in, “speak for yourself. I, for one, don’t miss cooking for myself. Having Ed in the kitchen is amazing.”
“It ain’t like I have a future at that house, anyway,” Bennet said, “so I don’t give a shit about what happens to me after this.”
Well, at least we were all in agreement over that.
No one was hungry, not even by the time dinner rolled around. I wanted to wait for nightfall to stake out the house at a closer spot, see more. There was only so much Rave could witness, sitting so far away on the street; he’d be able to see Fred hightailing it with Juliet, but not much else. Given the fact that he hadn’t called, I chose to assume both Fred and Juliet were still in that house.
Waiting around was basically torture. We all itched to get out there, to just storm the damned house and take Fred out and save Juliet, but we couldn’t go in blind. This wasn’t a videogame; there was no restarting the mission once we crossed the point of no return. Once the ball got rolling, there was no stopping it, so we had to do it right.
When night fell, I told the guys to wait in the room. I didn’t need them with me while I crept around the house. No, it’d be easier to go myself. Less chance of getting caught, easier to run when it was just me.
I drove back to the street, parked behind Rave’s vehicle once again. The only light inside his car was the lit end of a cigarette, and he huffed, watching me creep across the road, moving to the sidewalk on the Osborne’s side of the street. I’d changed into a black hoodie—one of the things I’d brought—lifted up its hood to better obscure my face if anyone happened to see me. With my hands in my pocket, I was as nondescript as a guy could be.
There were streetlights, but they were dim and spanned the length of a few houses in between, and fortunately for me, the Osborne house was smack dab in the middle of two lights, the dimmest part of the street. I threw one glance either way over my shoulders before stalking up to the house, avoiding the driveway and the front door. Neighbors had lights off, blinds drawn. I wasn’t too worried about being seen by the neighborhood watch.
The Osborne house was a two-story house. I wouldn’t be able to get a good look at the upstairs, but I remembered the layout. I knew where her room was. I went around to where it should be, craning my neck back to gaze up. With the moon as my only source of light, I thought I saw something black on her window, something that I didn’t remember being there before.
Were those… bars?
Shit. Fred really was making Juliet a prisoner in her own house, worse now. I bet anything that Fred didn’t plan on leaving Juliet alone in this house ever again; whatever routine they had before would be different now.
I went around, peering in any window I could, sticking close to the house while doing so. The lights were all off; I couldn’t see much. Honestly, from here, it looked like just another house. Nothing special about it at all, minus the cages on the window upstairs. Looking into it right now, you’d never know there was a girl inside, being held prisoner by her own father. You’d never know a woman had lost her life here years ago.
If I had to guess, I’d say Fred was sleeping, as was Juliet. I wanted to break in the house now, grab Juliet myself, and get her out of there, but I didn’t know if I could pick the lock to the door and get in and out without Fred knowing. I could possibly catch him off-guard, but at the same time, he could do the same to me. He could be sitting in wait somewhere I couldn’t see from the windows, waiting for someone to try something.
No, I had to have the others. Maybe we’d try tomorrow night, use the cover of darkness to our advantage. We could cover multiple points of entry into the house; Fred couldn’t be everywhere at once.
I finished up my creeping, returning to the sidewalk and heading back to my car. As I approached my vehicle, I saw Rave standing outside his car, arms folded over his chest. In the darkness, he looked like a mixture of Lincoln and Markus, someone born to the shadows, someone who knew exactly how to blend in with them.
“Hey,” he spoke once I reached him. “You wanna take over for a few hours? I need to catch some sleep.”
The last thing I wanted to do was sit in my car and watch the house for hours on end, but if Rave needed some sleep, he needed some sleep. There was nothing I could do about it. “Sure, man. Get some rest. I’m thinking tomorrow night we make a move.” That would give me some time to sleep, too. Had to be well rested for the mission: saving Juliet at any cost.
“Cool, cool. I’ll be back in a few.” He got inside his car, and I watched him start her up and drive away.
Once I was back inside my car, I texted the guys, just to let them know what was going on. They were up; I knew they weren’t asleep, waiting for me to come back. It was pointless now, though. With me being on watch duty, we definitely wouldn’t make a move right now. I texted them both and got messages back quickly.
And then I waited. I watched. I did all that on repeat for hours on end.
I didn’t know how Rave did it, frankly. Sitting in one spot, doing nothing but watching an empty street, was one of the most boring things I’d ever had to do in my life. The fact that it was nighttime wasn’t helping; all I wanted to do was fast forward time and get Juliet out of there.
Though I was tired, I stayed awake the entire time, paying attention to absolutely nothing. I didn’t listen to the radio, preferring my silence. Time crawled by, and I swore it felt like more than a few hours as I sat there, doing absolutely nothing.
I wasn’t cut out for this kind of work. I much preferred action over inaction; Rave might be used to this shit, but I wasn’t, and the moment we got Juliet back, I vowed to never do it again. Surveillance sucked ass.
It was six in the morning when Rave returned, and he parked in front of me again. I started up my car, wanting to get the hell out of there, but he got out and walked over to me, handing me a small bag of warm breakfast food he must’ve picked up at the local fast food joint.
“I’m assuming nothing interesting?” he asked.
I unrolled the bag, snaking out whatever was inside. “You guessed it,” I said, unwrapping a breakfast burrito. “I’ll be back with the others tonight, but if something happens—”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll let you know.” Rave tapped the side of my car before walking away.
I pulled around his car and took a bite from the burrito. Within two minutes, the whole thing was gone. I didn’t realize how hungry I was; I didn’t eat much of anything yesterday. I suppose I should stop and get more food, not only for me—that burrito wasn’t exactly filling—but also for Will and Bennet, too.
I had to use my phone to GPS where the nearest food place was, and it turned out to be the same one Rave had stopped at. McDonald’s. You could never go wrong with McDonald’s when you were in a hurry at odd hours of the day. I got some food, and then headed back to the motel, where Will and Bennet waited for me.
