Page 230 of Mountain Grump

I accidentally clickedthe wrong thing when my phone alerted me to someone on the driveway, so I’m still standing in the garage, trying to find the notification, when a text comes through.

Gym Owner: Stay in the house. I’m on my way.

“Stay in the house?”

I start to type a reply. Then I hear the sound of a car approaching.

Stay in the house. I’m on my way.

Goose bumps erupt down my arms.

Ethan must have the camera connected to his phone too.

And he must know who’s coming.

Leaving the pile of gardening tools scattered on the ground, I rush across my front yard straight to my front door.

The car is close. And I know they’re within sight when I reach the door. But I don’t look back.

My hands are shaking as I shove the door open.

And brakes screech as I step inside.

My pulse is pounding in my ears when I slam it shut.

And anxiety has tears prickling my eyes when I twist the dead bolt.

I step back from the door just in time to hear someone shout my name.

But it’s not Ethan’s voice.

It’s Ralph’s.

“Get back out here, you bitch.”

I scramble for the handle on the closest window and quickly crank it shut.

From a few yards away, he sees what I’m doing and darts for the other open window.

I do too.

But I’m closer.

The window is still open an inch when he tramples through Quackers’s bush. And I’m so grateful I saw her flap away half an hour ago.

I get the window shut all the way just as Ralph tries to wedge his fingers in the opening.

He presses his hands against the glass and sneers at me. “You think a little glass is going to save you?”

I take a step back.

“Uh, Ralph.” The other voice is muffled.

I look past my cousin to see a second guy, about the same age, standing next to the driver’s door of an older sedan.

So, he came with a friend. Not more of our family.

“Ralph!” the guy shouts again.