Page 102 of Traces Of You

Randy whippedthe door open to Oliver’s, marched upstairs and into his cousin’s bedroom. He didn’t give a shit Oliver wasn’t alone or that it was barely after dinner. Fucking cousin always was lazy.

“Get your ass out of bed.”

“What the fuck?” Oliver said, rubbing his eyes. His cousin was barely awake, couldn’t even focus. Every time he took shit to sleep, this happened. You’d think he would have learned after being drugged with his own damn meds.

“Oliver, what is going on?” Carol, or whatever the hell her name was, had the covers up to her chin covering her massive tits.

“I’ll take care of it,” Oliver said, sitting up. “Go back to sleep.”

His cousin climbed out of bed, then followed Randy down the stairs. He didn’t bother to turn the light on, he wasn’t staying.

“She’s in New York.”

“Who?” Oliver said. He was unsteady on his feet and still rubbing his eyes.

“Maureen, you dick. She got pulled over and her license plate ran. It was triggered. She’s there and we need to get there fast. You said you had a lead and that didn’t pan out to shit! It’s always me covering your ass. Our time is running out. Let’s go!”

“Oh fuck,” Oliver said. “I hate flying.”

Randy shoved him. “I don’t give a shit what you hate. We are getting my stash back now!”

28

AWARE AT ALL TIMES

The minute Ford was out the door, Reenie locked up and double-checked all the windows and doors.

Not that she was worried on the farm, but better safe than sorry.

It was like she said. There was no way anyone could find or hurt her on this property. And even if they thought she was in the area, it’d take time for Oliver to get here. He’d never flown and swore he never would.

She turned the TV on. Thanks to her catnap earlier, she didn’t think she’d be able to get much sleep.

There wasn’t much on TV, but she was flipping around.

She must have landed on something and dozed off because she jolted up when she heard a noise.

She shut the TV off and waited to see if she heard it again. There was nothing but some wind outside that she could hear.

She popped her head into her bedroom. Nothing going on there and the one window was shut. The only other room was the bathroom and no one could even fit through that window unless they were greased with oil.

The doors were all locked, but she opened the back one and had her phone on her, the flashlight app on and looking around.

There was rustling, but that was normal. Animals and the wind.

It didn’t slow her heart any to know they were noises she’d heard every night.

“Hello,” she said. There wasn’t an answer and she didn’t expect it. Or she hoped there wouldn’t be one.

When she was shutting the door, the same noise sounded again. This time in front. Like crunching on old dry leaves left over from the fall.

Her heart wanted to explode from her chest. She took a deep breath, then another.

She was making a bigger deal out of this.

But there was no harm in just looking. The last thing she wanted to do was call Ford and admit she was scared, not after insisting she needed the night to herself.

He needed nothing else on his shoulders.