Page 90 of Kylo
My stomach clenched as I waved the pizza in Ernest’s face, then tossed it into the darkness in front of me.
Thankfully, the promise of food overrode any reservations he might have.
He rushed into the darkness.
I turned and crawled backward inside.
Footsteps clicked on the floor in the main area of the house.
Something crashed, and I had to squeeze my lips together to keep from crying out.
I reached up, pulling the clothes back into order, then trying to pull the luggage in front of the door before pulling the small knob on the inside until the magnet caught.
Then it was complete darkness.
The sounds were more muffled in the crawl space, but there was the sound of more things knocking to the floor, the crash of glass breaking.
I sucked in frantic breaths as I pressed my phone to my chest to keep it dark while I pressed the volume all the way down. Thelast thing I needed was for my grandmother to send one of her many worried texts and have the ding give away my location.
I winced as Ernest chomped on the food.
But he was a ravenous eater. By the time the men stopped ransacking my house, he would be long finished.
I scurried backward, trying not to notice how dirt scratched at my knees, shins, and palms, how the cobwebs caught in my hair.
I didn’t stop until I reached Ernest, using my body to barricade him in the back of the crawl space.
Outside the hidden door, on the other side of the mirror doors of the closet, I heard male voices, then things hitting the floor in my bedroom.
I sucked in a breath, trying to calm myself down.
“She just let the fucking dog in. She’s here somewhere,” Marco’s voice growled, making my stomach clench.
What if they turned the house upside down?
What if they found me?
What if Marco let them do to me what they’d joked about the last time I’d seen them?
My hands were shaking as I slid my phone into my shirt, unlocked it, then lowered the brightness until I could barely see the screen as I scrolled to my messages.
My grandmother was on top.
Below her, Traeger.
Then five or six text stream advertisements.
Then, finally, Kylo.
“Stop bullshitting and find her. Now!” Marco snarled.
My shoulders crept up toward my ears as I texted with shaky fingers.
HELP.
I sent that off before I realized he needed more details.
Marco is at my house with his men.
