Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
I listened for a minute and then saw the woman wave at me. How she’d spotted me in the shadows peeking out the window I hadn’t a clue, but she had seen me. She moved closer and the man with her followed.
Shit.
I stepped out of the barn.
“Hello,” I greeted.
The lady looked to be in her late sixties or even her seventies, maybe. “I’m sorry to disturb you dear, but we’re trying to get to highway ten. It’s a big confusing on the map.”
I looked at the map. “I’m sorry, I’m just visiting, and I don’t know the area very well.”
“Well, if you’ll just look–” she pointed, but the husband interrupted.
“Millie, she obviously doesn’t know where highway ten is so let’s not waste her time.”
“We’re here,” She ignored the crotchety old guy and put a bright pink pointy fingernail on the map and I saw that it said Line 10.
“Oh,” I said. “If this is where we are, this is Line 10. That’s not the same as highway ten. That’s over there.” I pointed a few inches over to the left.
“It looks like if you take this road twenty-four over, you can then get to highway nine and that’ll easily get you to highway 10. It looks pretty straightforward. I don’t know the area, though, so not sure I’m the best judge.”
“Line 10,” the husband said with a eureka look on his face, “That’s the last time I let you navigate, Mill!”
Something about his demeanor wasn’t sitting right with me. I frowned.
She waved her hand, looking mildly embarrassed. “Well thank you so much, dear. You’ve been a huge help.” She looked me in the eye, smiling big.
I backed away, expecting them to head off. The old woman stared for a moment.
“Are you alright, dear?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Have a nice day.”
She looked at me for another beat and the husband just stood there, looking out at the fields in a way that made it seem phony.
My spidey senses were suddenly on even higher alert. Tommy said no one knew about this place. Surely these old people weren’t here to kidnap me or kill me or something, right? Why wouldn’t the husband have looked at the map himself? It was pretty obvious that they were on line ten and not highway ten.
“If you’re sure…” she nudged in a way that seemed like she was urging me to say I wasn’t fine.
“Yes, Ma’am. I need to get back to my, uh, chores. Have a safe drive.”
She nodded, looking a little frazzled suddenly, and then they headed back to the car and started pulling out of the end of the driveway. I walked back to the barn, but as I did I felt an eerie feeling, so I glanced over my shoulder and there was Millie, on her cell phone looking right at me and with a very serious look on her face as the car pulled away.
I got back into the barn and went to a different stall and looked out the window, watching to ensure they were actually gone. I decided to wait and make sure nothing was off. The whole time I waited, I was plotting, thinking of ways to defend myself. There was a big cop-sized flashlight upstairs that would be good for knocking someone over the head. Above the door in the barn was a horseshoe that I could bash someone with. Beyond that, I didn’t know what I’d do other than run or hide. Maybe there were tools or something in another stall. Tommy had bullets upstairs. Did that mean there was a gun somewhere? Maybe there was one strapped under the bed like back at his house.
I pondered dashing up to look, but kept watch out the window instead. I must’ve stayed there twenty or thirty minutes before I felt like I was safe. When I was half way up the stairs I heard a vehicle pull in. My heart started racing.
I peered out the window carefully and saw the silver Jeep. I was so relieved I must’ve sounded like a tire that’d sprung a leak with the long breath I let out.
A moment later, he opened the doors and then I heard him get back in and pull into the barn and then get out and shut the doors. I emerged from the stall to see him getting out of the vehicle with a tall paper coffee cup in one hand, another coffee cup held by his teeth at the rim, and in his other hand he had a bouquet of flowers and two big paper bags with rope handles. He looked good in tight jeans with a tight black t-shirt, his hair pushed away from his face with sunglasses. He gave me a little smile and a sexy wink as I walked up to him and then he handed me the cup in his hand and took the cup from his teeth into that now free hand. He leaned forward and kissed me quickly on the lips and then motioned, with his chin, for me to follow him upstairs. His eyes were sparkling. He looked happy.