Page 79 of Out to Get Her
No sudden movements. Nothing to set him off.
“Hey, Zach. Why don’t you put the gun down, and we can figure out how to get you out of whatever’s going on?”
“Don’t think so.”
But she felt the barrel pull away from her head, and a small flashlight clicked on, illuminating the bedroom. He shifted so she could see the gun now aimed at her face.
“How about instead, you lock that dog in the bathroom? Nice and easy.”
“Zach, we can fix—”
“Now, Sam.”
His voice was cold, and his words were measured and steady. This wasn’t some innocent guy who’d tripped backward into this. These were the words and the voice of someone who’d thought long and hard and was solid in his decisions.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I’m going to bend down to call him out.”
“Really don’t want to have to shoot you.”
“I know you don’t,” she said, although she was becoming more unsure of that fact by the second. “I’m not going to give you a reason to.”
She crouched beside the bed and called Dexter’s name. He responded with a whimper at first, and Samantha couldn’t tell if he was scared of the storm or if he’d already had a run-in with Zach before she got there. A quick glance at a small bloodstain on Zach’s jean hem told her it was the latter.
It took three calls before he scooted out from beneath the bed and into Sam’s waiting arms. She stood with the dog and made eye contact with Zach. Eye contact reminded people who they were about to shoot. It gave them a conscience check.
But the man staring back at her had already checked his conscience. She was wasting her time.
“Bathroom.” He waved the gun at the other end of the room. “Remember, I don’twantto shoot you.”
The bigger problem here was that Samantha didn’t know exactly what he did want. And if she didn’t know that, she couldn’t use the information to her advantage.
Hell, she didn’t even know who this guy was anymore.
She carried Dexter into the bathroom with Zach a step behind her, placed the dog on the linoleum, and closed the door with him safely inside.
Still facing the door with her hands in the air again, Samantha said, “Okay, we can—”
A sharp blow hit the side of her head, and the room went black.
ChapterTwenty-Six
Erin’swhole body relaxed once she saw Sam’s Honda parked in front of the house.
She’d been a mess of nerves driving back from Trey’s house. Rain had filled the ditches and water began to spill onto the roads, and the winds had picked up to the point where even Erin had to admit being out there was dangerous.
But she made it home just as the winds died down temporarily once the eye passed over, and her body relaxed a little at the sight of that parked car.
Samantha was safe. She was here. They could work out anything else together.
Even what she’d learned from Trey.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe Trey was wrong. She’d done a good job on the ride over of convincing herself that was the strongest possibility while she dodged stray cane stalks and tree branches.
“Hey, guys! I’m back!”
Erin shut the door behind her. It closed easily now that the eye was over them, and the wind and rain had both come to a halt. For now, at least.
“McFlyyyyy!”
