Page 114 of Sing Me Home
“Then we’ll move on to your boyfriend,” the man said.
“I’m her cousin,” Bowen scoffed.
“I don’t care.” The man released a dastardly chuckle that made my skin crawl. “But you better help her figure out a way to make it happen or else.”
“Or else what?” Theo’s hands were locked at the back of his neck, eyes wild.
“You can have your guys put the guns away,” Charlie said, her tone tinged with terror. My chest tightened at her fear. “We’ll coopera—” she screamed, and my airways tried to close up permanently.
“Son of a—” someone shouted.
Another man cackled. “That coward just passed out.”
“And pissed himself,” the first man added. “Just wow.”
Then the message ended.
“Who passed out and pissed himself?” Theo asked. “Bowen?”
James shook his head likeDon’t be idiotic. “Lorne. One hundred percent.”
“They’re at the barn on Dupree Ranch,” I said, checking Charlie’s location to be certain, heart in my throat. If those thugs hurt Charlie…. I couldn’t think it. “I’m going.” It wasn’t up for discussion. I took off for the nearest side-by-side.
“I’m coming with!” Liam hooted, football tucked under his arm. James was right behind him.
“They’ve got a gun!Weneed guns!” Griff yelled, pointing to the house, where my dad had a slew of pistols and rifles locked in his safe.
“Yeah. Sure.” Theo snorted. “How’re we getting those out of the house without our parents noticing?”
“Besides, do you wanna have a wild west showdown?” James asked like Griffin was insane.
“Shouldn’t we tell our parents, at least?” Griff responded.
“No,” I growled. “Charlie and Bowen need usnow. There’s no time for a phone tree or for a decision to pass through a committee.”
“He’s right,” James said. “They’ll just tell us to sit tight and wait for the cops.”
“Agree,” Theo said. “I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not waiting a half hour for Sheriff Anderson to mosey over here.”
The Seddledowne Sheriff’s department response time varied from three minutes to three hours. We couldn’t take that gamble.
“Let’s go!” I said, breaking into a sprint.
“I’ll draft an SOS text to the Dads while you drive,” Theo said. “Then we just have to hit send when we’re ready.”
I dropped into the driver’s seat of Blue and Anna’s six-seater Polaris. It was the fastest ATV here. Like the Dukes of Hazzard, my cousins slung themselves in from every direction. I cranked the engine and flipped us around, pedal smashed to the floor as we flew over the hills.
Riding shotgun, James shouted over the wind, “We can’t pull up right to the barn. We’ll have to park a ways off, so they don’t hear us coming.”
“That’ll take more time though!” Theo yelled.
“James is right!” I agreed. “We’re in good shape.” Thanks to Spartan Race training. “We’ll just have to run the rest of the way.”
“What if we park at the obstacle course and run up the hill?” Liam hollered.
James nodded.
Even though Theo was older, James had always been our leader. He was level-headed, brilliant, and could Macgyver himself—and us—out of the worst situations. James was who you wanted with you when the zombie apocalypse happened. If he thought it was a solid plan, that was good enough for me.
