Page 77 of My Rock Star Neighbor
I turn over again.What is that noise?Is Maddie trying to torture me?
Beep.Beep.
It’s that alarm.That sensor alarm that Luca suggested installing.I sit up and grab my phone to turn on the camera.
A figure dressed in dark clothes with a ski mask is climbing up the fire escape.
I blink.Is this for real?
Did Luca hack my camera to play a practical joke on me?
No.
He’s on the fire escape above us.And getting on the ladder.With ahammer.
My blood runs cold.
Maddie.
I jump out of bed, grab my T-shirt and sweatpants from the nearby chair, my keys, and run next door.I bang on her door and then fumble with my keys.My hands are shaking.I find her key and unlock her door and slap on the lights.
“What the…?”Maddie sits straight up in bed.
“Guy on the fire escape.Need to get out.Now.”I pick up Sherlock.
Maddie is out of that bed in a flash and grabs her bag and her laptop as I pick up her sneakers by the door.
“Keys?”I ask, holding tight as Sherlock squirms.
She grabs the keys from the hook, and I grab her sweatshirt next to it.
CRACK!
We both jump.He’s hammering the window behind the curtain.
I push Maddie out the door, follow her out, and close the door firmly behind me.
“Where do we go?”she asks.
“I don’t know.My place isn’t safe.”
“Did you call the police?”she asks.
I shake my head.“I came to get you first.”
There’s a thud.He must be in the apartment.We need to get out of here.
Now it sounds like he’s hitting something with his hammer.Maddie flinches.
We run down the hallway to the staircase.
“The laundry room?”I ask.“He came from the roof.”If he doesn’t know the building, he won’t know the bookcase leads to a laundry room, and we can bolt the door.Plus, that back door escape route means we wouldn’t be trapped down there.
Maddie nods, and we hurry down the stairs.On the first-floor landing, she dials 911.Her fingers tremble.Sherlock is quiet, as if he knows we’re in trouble.Maddie tells the police there’s an armed intruder in her apartment and whispers our location.
“They’ll be here soon,” she says.
As we near the bottom floor, I insist on going first to make sure nobody is waiting in the vestibule.I hand Sherlock to Maddie.
