Page 52 of Stilettos & Whiskey
Giving him the stink eye, I opened the back door, and whoosh, was yanked out of the command van. A plastic bag slapped against my face, blinding me momentarily. Ugh. I ripped it off. My family? They were all grinning like hyenas.
“Better hurry, the rain’s coming,” Jacob called.
It took everything I had to close the door. Sand pelted my skin as I fought to stay upright. I stumbled into the community restrooms and sagged in relief. The wind was brutal.
I blinked. Damn, urinals. Lucky me, I had walked into the men’s room. Screw it. My bladder was about to burst. After the day I had had, I didn’t give a rat’s ass if somebody got offended. I entered the first stall and relieved myself.
Thunder reverberated off the mountains.
Shit! The way my luck was going, I’d get caught in a microburst. I flushed the toilet, opened the door and watched a rattlesnake slither across the floor.
My cellphone rang. I swiped right. “What?”
“You lied to me,” Gemma cried.
I winced. “About what?”
“Your apartment fire.”
The hurt and anger in Gemma’s voice made me cringe. “I may have omitted some details, but you’re in Hawaii and there is nothing you could have done to help.”
“Oh shit! You’re using your Debbie Sunshine voice. What else happened?” Gemma demanded.
Crap. I chewed on my lower lip. I didn’t know what to do.
Gemma snapped, “Tell me.”
“Dad hasn’t called you?”
A thread of panic in her voice, Gemma pleaded, “Just tell me what’s going on.”
If the situation were reversed, I’d want to know. So, I told her everything.
“We’ll be on the first plane home.” The line disconnected.
Dad was going to kill me.
Chapter Thirteen
I opened the restroom door and looked out. Lightning danced across the towering bank of dark gray clouds. The wind plucked at my hair as I made a run for the command van.
Halfway across the parking lot, two taser darts hit my lower back. A crack of thunder masked my cry of pain as I fell to the ground.
“Gotcha, bitch.” I was half-carried, half-dragged across the parking lot.
Fear knotted my stomach. That high-pitched, nasally voice belonged to Roger Evans, and I had let him get the drop on meagain. The Armageddon pendant wasn’t going to do me any good if I couldn’t move.
“Help me get her in the van.”
Rough hands lifted me and dropped me on a filthy metal floor.
“Go! Go! Go! Before her brothers realize she’s missing,” Roger commanded as he slid the door shut.
The van took off at a high rate of speed. I rolled this way and that as the vehicle careened wildly out of the RV park.
Horns honked and tires screeched.
That stupid driver was going to kill us all. I managed to open my eyes a bit. Roger’s delighted smile gave me the willies.
