Page 86 of Cowboy Heat

Lee sounds like he’s moving too.

No time to wonder where he is. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who isn’t in this house right now could just as well be on the moon.

“That’s good,” he says. “Familiar territory. Okay, no weapons, but anything you can throw? Use like a bat? Make these guys hurt?”

“No furniture. Hold on.”

The front door opens downstairs. I hear footsteps crunching over broken glass.

I’m at the closet of the first bedroom. There’s nothing in it. Both are bare. I move to the bathroom as quietly as I can.

“Nothing,” I say again. “I’m in the bathroom now but—”

I hear the men talking.

And someone starts pounding on a door.

The locked bathroom door.

“Shit. They’re trying to get into the room to Beau,” I rush. “I need to get them away from him.”

Lee is saying something, but once again, I’m hyper-focusing on the task at hand.

That’s when I decide to do something so stupid that I’m sure June will make fun of me for it later.

If I survive.

“I’m going to throw my shoe,” I tell Lee, because I feel like I should be updating someone.

“Your what?”

I take my shoe off, go into the hallway, and look right across from me to the master bedroom door. It’s open and shows a sliver of the big room, the bare carpeted floor, the dingy wallpaper with a citrus print that has no reason to be in a bedroom, and a window that needs glass cleaner.

So it only makes sense to me to throw my shoe at that window with everything I’ve got.

The Converse sails smoothly through the air like it’s been waiting its whole life to take flight. I think my daddy would’ve been proud of its arc too. Especially when it hits the window with startling accuracy.

The window doesn’t break but it makes an awful clatter.

I retreat backward as the men banging against the downstairs quiet.

“What was that?” Lee’s voice is small in my ear.

I tuck into the bathroom.

A bunch of footsteps come up the stairs.

“I got them to leave Beau alone,” I say. “They’re coming for me.”

Lee starts talking fast. It makes my heartbeat tick quicker. “If you won’t outrun them, you won’t call for help, and you can’t hide from them, then let’s make sure you can fight them. Go to the bathroom.”

“Here.” I have to drop my voice really low.

“Is there a shower rod you can detach or pull down? Maybe a long metal one?”

I look at a curved plastic rod. No way I can do anything with that against a gun. Maybe push the men over if they’re not suspecting it. “No.”

Lee doesn’t skip a beat. “You could break the mirror and use some cloth to make a knife, but that’s tricky.” His words are so fast he sounds like one of those announcers at an auction. “Hey, is there a toilet still there? With a lid on the tank?”