The man looked as if he belonged to the truck. He was scruffy, thin, rough-looking, and dressed in clothes that bagged on him, as if he’d lost weight—either that, or they weren’t his. The woman, who Gabriel could only see from behind, was painfully thin herself. Stringy dark hair fell down her back. Faded jeans bagged where her ass should be.
Lolly’s hair was brown, but had she lost forty pounds, and taken up with a loser? Gabriel surveyed the rest of the room, and his gaze fell on the paraphernalia that was spread across the coffee table. Shit! He knew what he was looking at, and his gut tightened. If that was her, she’d started using meth, as well. No wonder she was so painfully thin.
No way in hell. His dad would have noticed something like that, known if Lolly had gotten into meth. The drug was wreaking havoc all over the country, and even in the military he had to deal with the shit. It turned users into physical wrecks, rotted their teeth out, took over their lives, and a lot of time killed them.
The man reached out to grab the woman where her ass should be, and instead of being insulted by the move, she laughed. Gabriel heard her too-loud rough laugh, as she fell back and into her companion. A hand came up and he saw the pistol she carried; it was a revolver, a big one, a .357 or even a .44. Adrenaline spurted through his veins, drastically intensifying his alertness. He didn’t have a weapon with him; it hadn’t even occurred to him that he’d need to come here armed.
The armed woman turned, and he stepped back enough that she wouldn’t be able to see him through the window. A rush of relief filled him. The thin, wasted, angular face didn’t belong to anyone he knew. Maybe it had been years since he’d seen Lolly, but no one could change that much, even on meth. That wasn’t Lolly.
That didn’t mean she was in the clear. Were these friends of hers? Had Lolly Helton changed in other ways, maybe not physically, but in the type of person she was? If she’d become a dealer and was caught up in this shit, he would turn around and take his chances in the truck. What else could he do? Somehow he didn’t think the couple in the living room would take kindly to being interrupted. Meth users were violent, unpredictable. They’d probably shoot at him as soon as he knocked.
But where was Lolly? He couldn’t leave without seeing for himself if she was okay. The Mercedes left out in the storm made him uneasy. Had these two broken in, killed her? With meth users, anything was possible, and none of it was good.
Remembering the reflected light from upstairs, he left the porch as silently as he’d stepped up, and moved back until he could see the windows. The curtains were drawn over the front window, so he circled to the side of the house. At least the curtains on that window were open. He had to move well out into the yard in order to see through the second-story window … and there she was.
Lolly was moving around the room, passing by the window now and then. Her face wasn’t thin and wasted, like the couple downstairs, and even from here he could see that she was intent on … something. She pulled on a sweatshirt, even though she already wore something that looked strangely misshapen and lumpy.
As if she’d put on every piece of clothing she could find.
As if she were preparing for escape.
Gabriel took a deep breath, ignoring the cold in his lungs and the chill that surrounded him. Shit, his dad had been right. Again. Lolly did need rescuing.
He looked toward the detached garage. Maybe he could find a ladder in there.
Chapter Five
Every household needed a ladder, he thought, even if the house was used only a few times a year. Surely there was one around somewhere; his dad had always said Mr. Helton was a careful man, and a careful man would have a ladder. The most logical place where a careful man would put a ladder was in the garage, right? Cautiously he opened the side door into the garage, turning on the flashlight so he could see. The garage was fairly small, built in a time when most families owned only one car, and mostly empty. There were some odds and ends, some folding lawn chairs, and—yes!—a ladder.
He dragged it out from behind the lawn chairs, and his heart sank. This wasn’t much of a ladder. For one thing, it wouldn’t reach all the way to Lolly’s window. For another, it was wooden, and it was old. The rungs weren’t in good shape; two were broken, and he wasn’t at all sure any of the others would hold his weight. But Lolly didn’t weigh as much as he did and she was the one who’d be on it, so maybe it would hold together long enough for her to climb down. If not … then he hoped she’d bounce. No, hell, he’d have to catch her, he thought sourly. The way his luck was running, if he didn’t catch her she’d probably fall on him and break his leg, or a few ribs.
Maybe Lolly had some other way of climbing down—the old sheets-tied-together rope, for instance. If she was making preparations to escape, then she definitely had something in mind. Maybe the ladder wouldn’t be needed. He sure as hell hoped not, because it was a half-rotten death trap.
But as he was hauling the ladder from the garage to the house, he looked up at the window again and saw Lolly tugging on the window frame with all her might, trying to wrest it open. She stopped, got another grip, and tried again. From what he could see the window hadn’t budged an inch.
Swearing again, but this time silently, he revised his plan. He’d have to go up and raise the damn window. No matter how she’d planned to get to the ground, she wasn’t going anywhere unless she could get out the window. He sent up a silent prayer. Maybe the ladder would hold together.
He had to look up to position the ladder and the icy rain felt directly on his face, in his eyes. A sudden gust of wind caught the ladder, almost tearing it from his grip. Getting the ladder propped against the house without making any noise was going to be tricky. Just in case, he mentally ran through the operation: the objective was to get up the ladder without falling and breaking his neck, open the window, get down the ladder without falling and breaking his neck, and position himself beneath the ladder so he could catch Lolly if she fell, so she wouldn’t break her neck. Simple enough.