Page 105 of Locke 2

He said he wouldn’t take long.

???

CRACK!

I’d dozed off in a ball, with my knees pressed to my chest when the sound burst in the air, jolting me awake.

I gasped and sat up. Blood roared in my ears as I glanced around the truck, attempting to figure out where the sound came from.

Was that a gunshot?

It was.

Trembling, I grabbed the phone and turned it on.

No reception.

I climbed out of the car and moved along the road, aiming it high in the sky.

Still, no reception.

Frozen from the cold already, I returned to the car and slipped inside. I continued to stare out the windows, waiting for Jem. Something had gone wrong. I just knew it. Maybe Nick found him.

But what if he was still scoping the place out? Maybe because it was getting dark, he was taking longer.

“None of that explains the gunshot,” Aurora said. She was seated behind me now. Her voice was quiet. “What if Jem got shot?”

My mind raced. “Or that was a warning shot because he was caught on the property. People do that, right?”

“If you say so.”

I shook my head, already spiralling. “This was stupid.”

She didn’t answer. Minutes continued to bleed by. I knew this because I was obsessively checking the time on the phone. He’d been gone for over an hour. But he promised he’d come back. Maybe an hour wasn’t long for him, and I was just anxious.

The darkness crept in. The blackness in the wild magnified my senses. I tensed, barely moving, attempting to hear every sound. My skin prickled. I could see only in front of me. The breaths coming out of me. The windows fogging up. Fear crept over me like a cold, wet blanket.

“Aurora?” I whispered.

“Do you sense it?” Aurora whispered back, “There’s someone at your window.”

Rap, rap, rap!

I jumped, catching a figure at my window. The doors were locked, but I still jumped away from the door, like it might rip open any second.

The knock came again, and then a light shined through. My eyes squinted as I brought my hand up to shield myself from it.

“Hello?”

Shit.

I recognized the voice.

Nick had found me.

Forty-Four

Kali

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