WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (36 page)

His
words failed to bubble-wrap my anxiety.  My voice cracked as I said,
“They’ve got my attention.”  I faced John.  “Where’s the key? 
If that’s what they want, then give it to them.”

Hovering
behind John, Kerry splayed her hand across her chest, covering a
necklace. 

This
told me enough.  “You’re wearing it.” 

Kerry
waited a second too long before replying, “I’m not.” 

I
reached forward and hooked her silver chain with my fingers.  “So what’s
this?”  A key dangled from the end.

She
jerked away from me.  “Let go.”  The chain snapped, slipped through
my fingers and pinged off her neck.  As John shoved me away, Kerry cupped
her hand by her chest.  The key slid off the broken chain and she caught
it.

Dylan
held his palm out.  With a no-nonsense sharpness to his voice, he said,
“Hand it over.”

John
stepped in front of Kerry.  “Back off.”

Dylan
waved a finger at them.  “That key is our ticket out of here, and I’ll be
taking charge of it from now on.”

John
grabbed Dylan’s finger and bent it backwards. 

“Ouch!” 
Dylan grabbed him by the arm, and twisted it behind his back.  “I bet your
mother’s so bloody proud of what you do for a living.”

John
cried out, kicked Dylan’s shin and elbowed his ribs.  

Kerry
banged her fists on Dylan’s back.  “Get off him, you idiot.”

Anger
flipped in my brain.  I yanked Kerry off Dylan, clamped my hands to the
side of my head and screeched so loud that my throat dried.  “Stop! 
Everyone just stop!”

They
stopped fighting, turned to look at me.

“This
is crazy,” I said.  “We have to work together.”

Kerry
traded a glance with John.  “She’s right.”

Dylan’s
hold on John slackened. 

John
moved away from him.  “Let’s all have a minute of timeout.” 

I
pointed at the fireplace.  “A minute?  How do we know what else
they’ve got planned?  They could send another bomb down any second.”

J
ohn and Kerry
shut themselves inside the master bedroom and began arguing.  Dylan
removed his jeans, flipped the sofa upright, and sat on it. 

I
cracked one of our breakfast eggs into a cup and spread egg white onto Dylan’s
burnt leg to keep the air off.  “How’s that feel?”

“Better. 
Thanks.”

After
bandaging it as best I could, Dylan put a fresh pair of jeans on while I pulled
the coffee table nearer so he could rest his leg on it.  I sat down, and then
flopped against his chest, the child-like part of me in serious need of a
hug.  “This is all such a mess.”   The bomb was a cruel,
unexpected spin on a problem already twisted tighter than rope.  For some
reason, I didn’t think it strange that all this had happened on the very
weekend that I’d found the courage to escape from my nightmarish husband. 
Maybe it was punishment from a higher power for having an affair.  But
then, who wouldn’t with a husband who often hit me and stole my car keys so I
couldn’t get away from him?  A husband who, whenever a bad mood overtook
him, would lock me in the basement so he didn’t have to face up to his
problems.  His personality changed on the day his dad died, and continued
to grow out of control.  If he had just listened to me, dealt with his
grief rather than let it eat away at him then...

I
felt like my life was on shakier terrain than during an earthquake, dangerous
both inside this retreat and out.

“Jenna,”
Dylan said.  “The situation is complicated, but not hopeless. 
There’s always hope.  Let’s just stick to our plan.”

I
nestled my head into the crook of Dylan’s neck, ignoring the dreadful chill
moving through my body while Kerry and John continued quarrelling in their
bedroom.  “Tell that to them,” I muttered.  “We’ve got to stop
fighting among ourselves.”

“I
know.”

John
shouted to Kerry, “Give it a rest, woman,” slammed a door and then came up
behind us.

Dylan
kissed my forehead before looking over the sofa at John.

John
stepped further into the room.  “I say we grab everything we can that’s
flammable, and set the boards on fire.”

Dylan
shook his head.  “You’re insane.  There’s no ventilation.  We’d
choke to death.”

“We’ll
just set fire to one board.  If it doesn’t work, at least we might end up
with a spy hole.”

I
patted Dylan’s thigh and stood.  “Why don’t I work on finding us better
places to hide?”  I kept my gaze off John and forced the lie past the
guilty knot in my throat.  “Get us ready for the ambush.”  I hoped
the truth of our intended double-cross was not written all over my face.

I
headed to the bathroom, feeling a slight pang of guilt about pretending that
we’d jump out and fight off whoever was coming for them. 

The
door was shut, so I knocked.  “Are you in here, Kerry?” 

“Yes,”
she replied.  “Come in.”

The
door swung open and I stepped inside.  “I’m looking for a hideout. 
Any suggestions?”

Kerry
was on her knees, head over the toilet bowl. 

“Are
you all right?”

“My
stomach’s a bit dodgy.”

 “Who
doesn’t feel sick with all this going on?”  We needed to start getting
along.  I pretended to care.  “Here, let me help.”  I swept her
hair off her face and handed her a strip of toilet paper.

“Thanks.” 
She sat on the floor below the sink.  “Please don’t hate us, Jenna. 
We’re not as bad as you think.”

I
tried to keep my face emotionless.  Getting her offside wouldn’t do anyone
any favours.  She might tell the monsters outside where we were hiding.

“Life
is tough for us right now.  We’re only doing this for the money.”

Trying
not to judge her didn’t last long.  “I’m sure that’s no different to all
criminals.  And who hasn’t got a sob story to tell?”

She
grimaced, and then sighed.  “John got laid off a while back, and just when
we thought things couldn’t get worse, they did.”  She paused. 

I shifted
position, feeling unnerved by her probing eyes.

“We
received a phone call about errors on our computer.  It had been freezing
up a lot lately so when the guy said he could fix it, stupidly, I
listened.  I downloaded something called Bugz Remover five, and a few days
later, all our money got cleaned out.”

“Seriously?”

She
nodded.  “I’m not techy, so I don’t know how they managed it.  Do
you?”

I
shrugged.  “I’m no expert with computers.”  I perched on the toilet
seat then sniffed the air.  A faint smell of burning threaded into the
bathroom.  “Did you tell the police?”

She
nodded.  “Of course.  But in the meantime we had not a penny to our
name.  I love John, but he’s been about as useless as a bag of farts
lately.  So, I tried to get back into journalism, but it hasn’t panned
out.”

“You’re
a journalist?” I asked, surprised.

“Not
really.  I had to give up my training to look after our son.  It’s
been such a struggle.”

I
froze, my mind stuck on the word ‘son’.  “You have a child?”  I’d
never pictured these people as parents.  This news hit me like a bolt of
lightning to the chest.

“Yes. 
Elliot.  I just want to give him a good start in life.  He’s five,
wants to change his name to Spongebob Squarepants and live underwater.”

I
laughed. 

“And
he wants to play guitar.  But music lessons are expensive. 
Everything’s expensive.  So when these...”  There was nothing
forgiving about her voice.  “...scammers stole every last penny we had—”

“It
must have been awful.”  I paused.  Nothing I said would reverse her
run of bad luck.  “Elliot’s a cute name.”

“Yes,
better than Spongebob.  He’s a cheeky, noisy five-year-old.”

I
smiled, studying her.  I saw from the softness of her eyes that she loved
Elliot dearly.  Until this conversation, there’d been a long emotional
distance separating us.  But with every new word that came out of her
mouth, the distance shrank, and my heart clenched.  I realised she was
human.  She had a heart.
 
And she had what I longed for. 
A family.  “Wow.  So where is Elliot?”

“At
my mum’s place.  But she’s not well.  We need to do the exchange,
then get back to him.  After this job, we’re out.”

I
smiled in approval.  A question I’d not dared to ask earlier tumbled into
my mind.  “Why drugs?  Why go down that road?”

“John
borrowed some cash off our neighbour without telling me.  When we couldn’t
pay it back, things got a bit... heated.  Then our neighbour offered us a
way out.  Collect a package and he’d call it even.  We were naive,
didn’t know it was drugs at first.  Then he offered us cash to do it
again.”  She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed.  “We said
no.  Then he punched John in the stomach and threatened to hurt Elliot if
we didn’t do it.”   

“What
an ass!”

She
lowered her voice to a whisper.  “We took Elliot to my mum’s place this
morning to keep him safe, and came here so we wouldn’t have our neighbour
breathing down our necks all night.  If we don’t return with the drugs
tomorrow evening, sharpish, then...”  She shuddered.

I
gulped, felt a surge of sympathy.  She’d fallen in a ditch and wanted to
push her family to safety.  “I’d like children one day.”

“What’s
stopping you?”

I
plucked a clump of wool off my jumper and leaned against the wall. 
“Things at home have been tricky.”

Her
eyebrows dipped.  “Your husband’s that bad, eh?  That’s why you’re
here with Dylan?”

I
blinked fast, confused. 

She
pointed at my left hand.  “Your finger has a tan line.  You used to
have a wedding band on there, and the way you and Dylan act... well, it just
seems like new love to me.  Sorry, my journalistic streak shows its head
now and then.”

It
was new love, but also agonising, because I wished I’d met Dylan years
ago.  I studied my finger.  “Anyway, I want a divorce.  Meeting
Dylan has reminded me that life can be good.”

“So
we’re both trying to escape from something.”

“Or
run to something better.”  I engaged her eyes.  A thin, invisible
thread of some sort began stretching between us.  I had more in common
with this stranger than I thought.  Damn.  Double-crossing her
wouldn’t be so easy now. 

Kerry
started to push herself up.  Her arm jarred the bath panel and she slumped
back down to her bottom.  “Ouch,” she said, rubbing her elbow.  The
panel pinged loose.  Her eyebrows jumped as she looked up at me. 
“Well, well, looky here!  I think we’ve just found your hiding place,
Jenna.”

“What? 
Under there?”  Intrigued, I tugged at the plastic moulded panel until the
whole length came away in my hands.  I slid it sideways.  Peeking at
the space beneath the bathtub, I twisted my lips and said, “No.  I’m not a
contortionist.  I won’t fit.”

“Sure
you will.”  While still on the floor, Kerry squeezed her upper body into
the tight space and drew her legs in.  She tucked her head under the end
slope of the bath and moulded herself around it.  “If I can fit under, so
can you.”

“You’re
shorter.”

“You’re
slimmer.”

“Okay.”
 I laughed.  “Let’s not split hairs.”

Just
as Kerry began to wriggle free, John’s voice whipped out from the living area.
 “They’re coming, man.  Shit!  Come and look through this
hole.  There’s at least four of ‘em.  I think they’ve... 
Hell!  Stay where you are.  They’ve got guns!”

“Jenna!”
Dylan’s voice rang brittle with fear.  “Quick.  Hide.” 

“We’re
out of time.”  I slapped my hand over my mouth.  Frozen. 
Furniture scraped in the living area.  Glass smashed.  A harsh
drilling sound echoed through the house, making me flinch. 

“Why
are they here early?”  Kerry’s face twisted in horror.  “The exchange
isn’t until tomorrow afternoon.”

“I
thought you said it was...”  I trailed off, dragged in a sharp breath and
threw my hand against the tile-slick wall.  “Oh, crap.  We’re not
ready for them.”

An
eerie stillness rapidly descended on the house.  I guessed this silence to
be the calm before a storm, chaos powering up.

John,
speaking from the living room, broke the silence, “Leave her, man. 
There’s no time.  Look!  Hide up there.  Quick, before you blow
the plan.  I’ll stack stuff to cover you up.“ 

“Jenna,”
Dylan said in a gritty voice.  “Where—“

A
hail of gunshots rang through the house, shaking both the window and bathroom
door.  The ear-popping booms made me jerk backwards.  I
screamed.  My elbow hit the edge of the sink with a solid thunk. 

After
further drilling, and a burst of thumps which sounded like boards being dropped,
cold air wafted into the bathroom, raising the hairs on my arms. 
Damn! 
They’re inside the house.
  Elbow throbbing, I touched a quivering
finger to my lips and stared down at Kerry.  “Shush.  They’re
inside.”

I
heard John shout, “Oh, shit!”

Kerry
tugged the hem of my jeans while trying to wriggle out.  “I’m stuck. 
Help me.  We need to swap places.”

I
grabbed her ankle and pulled.  Blood pumped through my body so fast that
my head spun round and round like a tornado. 

“Ouch!”
she said, her forehead slamming against the bath.

Another
gunshot rang out.  Kerry’s leg slipped out of my grip. 

A
deep male voice shouted from the living room, “Grab him.  You!  Go
find the girl.”

 My
lips quivered.  I forced back my panic and nausea, stared into her widening
eyes.  “We don’t have time to swap.”  I didn’t know why I was doing
it, perhaps because of Elliot, but I gripped the end of the bath panel and
dragged it across.  Nausea grew with every inch it slid. 

Kerry
clamped her hand around my ankle.  The key dropped onto the tiles. 

I
stuffed it into the cup of my bra, and pried her fingers off me.

“Jenna! 
What are you doing?  This isn’t the plan.” 

“Where
is she?”  A man rasped.

“Not
here,” John replied in a strangled voice.  “It’s just me.”

 My
heart gave a jolt as footsteps pounded floorboards in the main part of the
house. 
Oh, Christ!  They’re searching for Kerry.

I
clicked the panel into place, trapping Kerry in.  “Whatever happens, don’t
come out.  I’ll hide somewhere else.”  I shook so much I didn’t think
she’d understand my words.  “Your son needs at least one parent.”  

Nails
scraped on plastic.  “Jenna!  Let me out.” 

I
switched the bathroom light off.  Then, fear threatening to cripple me, I
wobbled into the shadows of the hallway.  As I dashed into the bedroom,
footsteps and heavy breathing came up fast behind me.