Page 67 of 4th Silence

JJ.

Of all the people who shouldn’t be here right now, it’s probably him.

“Don’t let him leave!” Charlie shouts, still barefoot and fierce.

The sight of JJ spikes my adrenaline as I close the last twenty yards.

“What the hell is going on?” JJ thunders as Charlie comes to a stop beside him.

Alex pops out of his car, taking cover behind the door. “Step aside, JJ. I’m leaving.”

“Not until I get some answers.”

“He has the purse!” I shout. “Don’t let him leave!”

I reach the passenger door and grab the handle. Locked.

The Sherman is right there on the seat.

I jab at the glass. “There’s something inside that purse. He just clocked me with it.”

I glare across the hood at Alex. “And it hurt, you son of a bitch.”

“JJ,” Alex says, his voice courtroom calm. “They’ve lost their minds. They came here uninvited, and Meg did an illegal search of the property.”

JJ eyes me.

“He’s not wrong,” I say. “Well, except the part about us losing our minds. He’s definitely wrong about that. And he hit me! I found the Sherman hidden in a table. I didn’t touch it, but I know there’s something inside it. He hit me with it and my head is freaking killing me!”

The knock of a motor—I’d recognize that sound anywhere—draws my gaze to the gate where my van pulls in behind JJ’s SUV.

Oh no.

The driver’s door opens. Mom hops out like she’s storming Normandy. She plants her feet, lifts her arms, and points a gun.

My mother.

With a gun.

JJ showing up is one thing, but Mom? I can’t wait to hear how this all came to be.

“Mom!” Charlie barks with that same sharpness she used on me. “What are you doing?”

“I took one of your guns from your safe.”

“I see that,” Charlie mutters. “Someone remind me to change the code.”

“Helen,” JJ says, his voice dropping to an I-will-destroy-you level, “put that gun down before you hurt yourself. Or I swear to God, I’ll have you locked up on a list of gun charges the length of my arm.”

Poor JJ. No escaping the Schock madness.

All eyes but mine swing to her. I’m fixed on Alex. I dart behind the car. JJ has the front blocked, and unless Alex runs me over, he can’t go backward.

He’s trapped.

And now?

We get answers.