Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 110671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“You can rule out all scorpions and spiders right away,” Darius told him. “Your boots are too high for them to even get to you—and if you were ever stung or bitten, it’s usually no worse than a damn bee sting.” He paused. “Rattlesnakes would be the only threat. They’re all over this place.”
Gray shot him an incredulous look in the dark. “There you go with your fucking bedside manners again. They’re the worst!”
“Oh, relax. They can sense you right now, and they’re getting the fuck outta dodge.” He elbowed Gray lightly. “Baby, you’re more likely to win the lottery.”
“People get bitten by rattlesnakes all the time,” Gray argued.
“People win the lottery all the time too, but that’s beside the point,” Darius said. “You’re stuck on the risk of dying…? Ain’t gonna happen. They’d have to go for the jugular or something. Worst-case scenario, you get a bite in the leg, and it hurts for a while before you can get antivenom.”
“I feel like you’re downplaying that a whole lot.”
“I’m really not, and you’re gonna have to trust me for now.” Darius pointed ahead of them, and Gray was surprised to see they were nearly at the house. “You ready?”
Gray nodded and took a steadying breath. “For the record, though… You told me there were no sharks when we got stranded, and what a load of horseshit that turned out to be.”
Darius gave him a look before continuing. “I’ll take the eastern side, including the trailer. You go west, and then we meet up at the front of the house.” He pulled out his phone, probably to check if Willow had any updates.
“Anything?” Gray asked.
Darius shook his head and pocketed his phone again. “We’ll proceed anyway. We’re just looking.”
So far.
They split up once they got closer, and Gray finally found his focus. He eyed the backyard and got a bad feeling. There was a sandbox in the corner of the lawn. The light from the living room illuminated the space enough to let Gray see all the various escape routes. The windows, the sliding doors on the porch, the picket fence was a simple jump, and the highway was right there. Hell, even the desert was an option. If Jackie was really here, they couldn’t keep him in one of the rooms. Nothing short of chaining him to a post would keep him in place.
Unless he’d been pushed down mentally to the point of collapse.
Gray knew it was a possibility, and he had once felt the effects of it himself. Especially on the yacht, when the slightest thing could trigger a crushing blow of defeat mentally. He remembered when they’d lost Linus, who’d jumped overboard to die a free man. Gray had been so fucking fragile. Rhyme or reason hadn’t existed, and he’d just shuttled between states of chaos and surrender.
Deeming there were no sensor-driven lights or anything on the porch, Gray jumped over the fence once he reached the short end, and he carefully snuck over to the bedroom window. And it was a bedroom window. He peered inside and found a bed, a nightstand, a desk, and…drawings on the wall. They had to be made by children.
Nothing looked like it belonged in today’s modern world. Time had stopped out here.
Gray continued through the driveway and shook his head at the rusted-up doll stroller.
He stopped to peer into the car, but it was too dark to see much. A couple beer cans on the passenger’s seat. The padding was torn in places. But…hmm. Knowing this would be the last car to have an alarm, he tried the door, and it opened with a clunky release. Score. After checking over his shoulder, Gray planted his knee on the driver’s seat and popped open the glove box.
He pushed aside a pile of trash—candy wrapper, rubber bands, some crinkled paper, tissues—and found what he hoped was the registration for the car. Given that it was too dark, he smoothed out the piece of paper on the floor and pulled out his phone to take a picture. A quick flash lit up the cramped floorspace before Gray hurried to put everything back. He closed the door as soundlessly as he could and crept closer to the house wall.
Deep breaths.
Gray walked carefully toward the end of the house, and he saw Darius around the corner, not by the house, but at the edge of the road; the man was going through the mailbox.
Gray cursed the lack of light. Even the moon was useless.
He had to resort to another photo using the flash if he wanted a picture of the license plate at the back of the car.
He checked the house and the road once more, then took a quick shot.
“Hey,” Darius whispered. “Don’t do that.”
“I was being careful,” Gray whispered back. He pocketed his phone and returned to his inspection of the house. The first window on the front revealed a room so small that it should’ve been a closet. It was as if the two bedrooms had originally been one space, and then someone had put up a wall to split it into two. Whoever had drawn the short straw and gotten a closet for a room only had a single bed, a nightstand, and a chair. There was nothing else in there.