Lolly tiptoed to the door, pressing her ear to the wood, holding her breath as she listened. The intruders seemed to be right at the foot of the stairs, but from years of living in this house she knew that sounds from both the living room on one side and the dining room on the other carried right up the stairs, because when she was young she’d often listened to the parties downstairs.
The argument over Darwin’s attack hadn’t lasted long. The voices were lower now, and the occasional bout of laughter sent chills down her spine. She didn’t think for one minute she’d survive until morning. Right now Niki planned to take her to the bank tomorrow morning for a big withdrawal, but that plan wasn’t going to last. One of them would come to their senses and realize it wasn’t going to work, or they’d realize they were iced in. One of them would get carried away, and Lolly would end up dead long before morning.
The voices and laughter stopped. She strained her ears and after a moment she caught some grunting and the occasional moan. Her stomach heaved, but thank God they were otherwise occupied. Now would be the best time to make her escape.
She took one quick look around the room, to see if there was anything else she could use. Only the pillowcases were left, but any covering was better than none, so she stripped them from the pillows and tied them over her head. Her pajama shirt doubled as a muffler. Over that she tied the remaining flannel shirt, and she was as ready as she could get.
Grasping her makeshift rope, once more she tugged on the knot securing it to the bed. Walking backward to the window, she tested the other knots as well. They seemed solid enough; they would have to do.
It was now or never. She unlocked the window and pulled upward on the handle. Nothing happened. She pulled again, putting more muscle into it. Still nothing. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. The stupid damn window was stuck, and if she couldn’t somehow get it open, then she was stuck, too. Desperately she gripped the handle with both hands, bending her knees and putting her leg muscles into the effort too, and with what sounded like a deafening noise the window rose a scant inch before stopping again.
She leaned her head against the cold glass, only vaguely noticing how good the chill felt against her forehead. She could do this. She had to do this. If necessary, she’d break the glass and take her chances that the noise would be heard. One way or another, she was getting out of this house.
Something thunked against the side of the house, just below the window, and she almost jumped out of her skin. She didn’t know what had made the sound, but what if Niki and Darwin had heard it, and came to investigate? She turned her head to stare in frozen agony at the door, trying to hear if they were coming up the stairs, but this far from the door she couldn’t hear anything. Frantic, almost sobbing, she grabbed the window handle and began tugging viciously.
A man’s head suddenly appeared on the other side of the window. A squeal almost popped out and she choked, slapping a hand over her mouth. She stared, so frightened she could barely move, and abruptly she recognized him. Her heart leapt, and her knees almost buckled. The relief that washed through her was as warm as the sun she longed for at this moment.
Gabriel McQueen.
Chapter Four
By the time Gabriel reached the turn off the main road, the combination of rain and low clouds had deepened to the point that he needed his headlights on to see. The wind had picked up, too, tossing the trees and whistling around the truck. Wind was bad; it would make the limbs and trees begin coming down just that much sooner.
He would much rather have been with Sam, but he never once thought of turning around and simply telling his dad that he hadn’t been able to make it up the mountain. Giving up wasn’t in his DNA; he’d fetch Lolly off the mountain if he had to drag her down by the hair, which probably wasn’t what his father had had in mind when he sent Gabriel on this mission, but then the sheriff didn’t know Lolly the way Gabriel knew Lolly.
She’d always been a spoiled brat, nose in the air, convinced she was better than anyone else. Some kids took teasing well; Lolly wasn’t one of them. Hostility had rolled off her in waves. Once she’d looked at him with complete disdain and said, “Worm!” He’d hidden his reaction, but inside he’d been furious that she’d dismissed him so completely with that one word. He was the sheriff’s son, he was popular and athletic and invited everywhere, and she thought he was a worm? Who the hell did she think she was? Oh, right, she was a Helton, and she didn’t associate with people like him.
She had held herself separate from everyone else, not part of a crowd, never at any of the parties. Looking back, Gabriel wondered now if she’d ever been invited to any of the parties. Probably—but only because she was the mayor’s daughter. None of the kids had liked her, and wouldn’t have willingly invited her anywhere. He didn’t know if that had bothered her, because she certainly hadn’t been a joiner. The only school activity she’d been involved in was keeping her nose buried in a book, if that counted.
He wondered if she was still that way—different, and alone. From the distance of years, he could now also wonder which had come first: her attitude, or the teasing. His own parents seemed to like her well enough. Would his dad have bothered to send him on this errand if it had been anyone other than Lolly Helton who was out of cell range and possibly unaware of what was coming? Harlan McQueen had been lifelong friends with the Heltons, and that hadn’t changed just because the Heltons had moved to Florida, trading ice storms and snow for the occasional hurricane.