Reckless (Wrecked) (6 page)

“I agree too, if anyone cares,” said Sarah sarcastically.  “Can I go to the bathroom now?  I’m about to lose it.”

“Yes.  I’ll take you,” said the female agent.

“Me too!” said Candi, jumping up from the table and going over to take Sarah by the hand.

“Nervous, Sugar Lump?” asked Sarah, looking as cool as a cucumber.

“Yes.  Very.”

“Come on.  Tell your big sister aaaallll about it,” she said, as they stepped out of the door, following the agent into the softly-lit hallway.

***

Agent Caffey was at the wheel of the large, black SUV, driving into a neighborhood Jonathan hadn’t seen in a long time.  Agent Booker, the lady, sat next to him.  The other guy with all the acne scars, Agent Gutierrez, stayed at the hospital.  The tearful mothers had been left behind, along with Jonathan’s father who’d finally shown up at the end.  Jonathan felt bad that his dad had missed most of the conversation and explanation, because he looked so lost and forlorn when they drove away.  It was just bad luck that he’d been working late and without any phones nearby until just before they were leaving.

“Are you okay?” he asked Candi.  She looked even worse than their parents had.

“Yeah,” she whispered.  “It’s just a lot to process.”

Jonathan nodded.  She wasn’t kidding.  His brain felt like it was getting a cramp in it from trying to put all the pieces together.  He knew they’d be up all night talking about this stuff.  It made him a little glad that they were all in this with him, even though it also meant they were at risk.  He pulled Sarah’s hand over into his lap so he could stroke it gently.  She had fallen asleep, her head on his shoulder.  She’d probably drool on it too, but he didn’t care.

“You’ll only be in this place for one or two days … three max,” said Agent Booker.  We just need to finish up the paperwork and arrangements to take you to the more permanent location.”

“And we’ll be there for how long?” asked Kevin.

“A month or so.  The trial process is moving along nicely.  The lawyers tell us you’ll be key to the whole thing, so they’ll be anxious to get you on the stand early on.”

Jonathan nodded, glad it wasn’t going to be that long.  School would probably be over before they were finished, but that didn’t matter.  They still had their senior year, and more importantly, Sarah’s pregnancy would still be in its early stages.

He looked down at her flat belly, trying to imagine what it would look like with a human being growing inside, getting bigger and bigger.  The idea was curious and warming to him.  He’d never pictured himself as a dad before, and while this was not the best timing in his life for it, he was confident he could do a good job.  His dad was the best ever, so all he had to do was think to himself,
What would my dad do?
  Plus, he could always Google stuff he didn’t know.  He’d already spent countless hours researching the hormonal issues of the pregnant female, fetal development over the months, complications, and even labor and delivery.  It had two outcomes for him: one, he felt more prepared, and two, he was scared to death.  So many things could go wrong, and Sarah was about to deal with the most difficult and painful things she’d ever known in her whole life.  And Sarah was a handful on her best day.  Sarah
pregnant
was going to be something else entirely.  Jonathan was glad he had the island experience on his side.  He had a feeling he was going to need it.

“Do you guys know this neighborhood?” Kevin asked, keeping his voice low so the agents wouldn’t hear him over their own conversation about company picnics and softball games.

Candi shook her head no.

“I’ve driven through here on my scooter before, when I was looking for some plant material for a botany project I was working on,” said Jonathan.  “The houses in this neighborhood have a lot of interesting things in their yards that houses don’t have over in our area.”

Kevin nodded, stretching his neck out to get a good look at the scenery as they drove by.  “It’s dark, but even so, I can tell it’s a nice area.  The houses here are pretty decent-sized.”

“The houses on the other side of this neighborhood are
really
nice.  Much bigger than these.  I couldn’t get near those, though, because they had walls around them.”

“Why can’t they put us in a house with walls around it?” asked Candi, grouchily.  “Seems safer than just being out in the open.”

“I think we’re safer with more escape options,” said Jonathan.  “And we need to blend, which we wouldn’t do in a very fancy neighborhood.  They’d see us as not belonging right away.”

“Speak for yourself, babe,” said Sarah, waking up and yawning.  “I could totally blend in a fancy place.”

Jonathan shook his head.  “As a new arrival you’d stick out, and being beautiful you’d stick out, so I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you.”

Sarah pulled Jonathan’s face over to her, palm to cheek.  “You always know exactly what to say to a girl, don’t you?”  She kissed him on his lips, making him go warm again.

“No, actually I don’t ever know what to say.  I think I just get lucky.”

Sarah laughed, dropping her hand back to her side.  “Lucky you, lucky me.”

Jonathan patted her hand that still rested in his lap, happy that she was content.  Sometimes she woke up from naps more cranky than when she had laid down.  Tonight was a good night, which was strange considering all they’d gone through so far.  Maybe Sarah functioned better when under stress.  He was going to have to pay more attention to that, maybe even make a chart.  The more he thought about it, the more excited he became over the potential project.  He hoped they’d have a computer with Excel on it wherever they were going so he could put this all together.  Maybe if he could analyze her activities and moods enough, he could calculate when they were going to change, and adjust his reactions and manage them accordingly.

“What are you cooking up there in that bean of yours?” Sarah asked him, suspicion lacing her voice.

“Oh, nothing.  Just some math stuff.  Statistical information, mostly.”

Sarah patted his hand.  “Whatever floats your boat, babe.”

“Dude, you’re the only one I know who does math to calm himself,” said Kevin, chuckling under his breath.

“That’s unfortunate, because it’s quite effective.  You should try it sometime.  Even just reciting your multiplication tables is relaxing, and it has the side benefit of improving your math skills.”

“Geez, Jonathan, you’re giving me a headache just suggesting that,” said Candi.  “I’d rather count sheep.”

“That’s math,” said Jonathan, cheered by the idea of his sister having the same interests as he did.  “See? We agree.”  He turned to his sister in time to see her roll her eyes, which was something she did at him at least ten times a day.  He’d actually counted them over a week’s period of time, and he noticed that as the week got closer and closer to Friday she did it more often.  Her biggest eye-rolling day was Friday.  He’d concluded that it was the stress of school building up in the week that caused it.  There was no other good explanation as far as he’d been able to determine.

Before anyone else could weigh in any more on the concept of doing math to relax, the SUV pulled up into a driveway.  The house it belonged to was dark, not even a porch light on.

Jonathan frowned.  It seemed to him that if you wanted a house to stay incognito, you’d use timers on the light fixtures to make them go on and off at normal hours.  He looked around at the other houses and all of them had at least a porch lamp on.

“This is the place,” said Agent Caffey.  “Stay here in the car for a couple minutes while I do a quick sweep.”

He was gone for five minutes and thirty-eight seconds before getting back into the car and driving it forward again.  The garage door went up with a touch of a button, and they pulled inside, waiting for the door to go back down before getting out.

The girls slid out on one side and Kevin and Jonathan slid out the other, all of them standing now in a mostly empty garage.  Jonathan looked around, taking in the empty shelves, some discarded boxes on the ground that used to hold golf balls, and dust everywhere.

“Follow me,” said Agent Booker, walking up to the door that led from the garage to the interior of the house.  Jonathan noticed she rested one of her hands inside her jacket, where her shoulder holster held the gun he knew was there.  He swallowed hard, thinking about what that meant.  Even here, in a safehouse, things weren’t necessarily secure.

She was inside before he had time to consider it any further, and then he heard her talking to someone.  His heart skipped a beat, thinking that a bad guy had been waiting in there and she was maybe negotiating with him; but when no shots came out of her gun and Agent Caffey just followed her in, he breathed easier. 
Must be colleagues.

Kevin was inside now, and he wasn’t yelling, so finally Jonathan knew it was safe.  He watched as his sister and then Sarah entered the house.  He brought up the end of the line, turning around once just to make sure no one was there.  All he saw were footprints in the dust.

***

Sarah woke up.  She had no idea what time it was, but outside it was still pitch dark.  The FBI agents had given Sarah’s phone to her parents at the hospital, explaining that the kids’ location could be tracked using the chips inside, so she couldn’t tell what time it was.  This stupid room she was sharing with Candi didn’t have an alarm clock or anything.

“Stupid friggin safehouse,” she grumbled, throwing back her covers and padding over to the door.  She was wearing the underthings she’d bought for the prom and a government-issue undershirt she’d found in a dresser drawer.  Luckily the floors were carpeted, keeping her feet from getting too cold.  She would have been pissed to not only have to get up in the middle of the night once again to go to the bathroom, but also to have to find a way to warm her feet up.  She hated trying to sleep with cold feet.

She opened the bedroom door, expecting to see a man standing there, but the hallway was empty.  There were four agents in the house with them - not the ones from the hospital, but new ones.  Their job was to watch over the four witnesses until morning, at which point they would be relieved by even more new ones.  Apparently, Agents Caffey and Booker were not house-watchers or babysitters.  

Sarah sighed.  Jerks were probably downstairs playing cards and drinking beers.  She didn’t have a lot of faith in these guys.   From the minute that turd, Agent Gutierrez, had told them their last witnesses had been stabbed, she’d questioned both their professionalism and their skills at protection.  She closed the door behind her as quietly as possible, making sure it latched.  She didn’t want Candi waking up and freaking out about an open door.

She made her way down to the bathroom and went inside, not turning on a light.  She hated waking herself up all the way like that.  Maybe she’d have a chance at going back to sleep if she stayed partially out of it in the dark.  She sat down to do her business, her mind wandering to their days on the island.  They’d been safe there for a while - no drug dealers to worry about, no guys with guns or knives out to get them.  It had been pretty much perfect until those drug dealers had come along and ruined it all with their stupid pot plants. 
Assholes
.  She didn’t bother cleaning up her language since the baby couldn’t hear it inside her head.

She finished and got up to leave the bathroom.  She was just about to pull open the bathroom door when she heard whispers.  She was going to just step out and join the conversation, when she caught the words
“Finish them off …”
coming from someone standing just outside the bathroom, maybe just a little down the hall nearer to her room.

Her heart dropped into her stomach, making it burn with anxiety. 
Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!  They’re here!  The murderers are here!
  She wrung her hands, trying to decide what to do.  She scanned the bathroom for a weapon, quickly squatting down to open the cabinet door.  Using the nightlight that was plugged into the wall near the floor, she found a basket inside.  The only thing even semi-lethal inside was a metal nail file.  She pulled it out and held it in her fist, the point coming out of the bottom.  She waited until there was no more sound and crept closer to the door, panicked she wasn’t going to be able to get to whoever it was before they reached Candi or one of the others.  The little Sugar Lump was sound asleep, snoring away, oblivious to the danger coming for her.

She opened the door slowly, sticking her head out inch by inch to look down the hallway.  She saw a shadowy figure, standing just outside her bedroom, his hand on the door handle, turning it.

 Sarah didn’t know what to do. 
What if it’s an FBI agent just checking on us?  If I attack him, he’ll shoot me for sure, or maybe even Candi by mistake.  But if it’s a murderer and I just stand here, he’ll get Candi before I can do anything about it! 
Her mind was spinning with the possible outcomes, but when she saw that he was actually stepping into the room, she made her decision.  The FBI agents had no reason to go into the rooms.  They were just supposed to stand outside and keep watch.  And since this jackwaggon was in here creeping around in the dark, she had to assume the worst.

She raced down the hallway as silently as possible, thankful the carpet was thick.  She reached the door, just as he disappeared inside.

She didn’t think twice, she just acted.  She pushed open the door, saw the guy’s back in front of her, and jumped on it.  She grabbed his head and twisted it, yanking him back with her whole body, making him fall backwards.  She stabbed the nail file down towards his neck, not sure if it was going to do any good, but knowing she had to do whatever she could to stop him.

He yelled like a wild man, and then Sarah heard Candi scream.

A light went on, but all Sarah could see were the stars swimming around her brain from having hit the floor so hard and having the heavy weight on top of her push all the air out of her lungs.   She clung to his struggling form with all her strength, even wrapping her legs around him.