“Probably not,” he answers my question grimly.
He doesn’t like it when I point out all of the negatives of our situation. This is pretty much when he tosses me over his shoulder, throws me on the bed, and makes me scream his name. He’d be doing that right now if we hadn’t just collapsed on the bed after some pretty strenuous doggie-style sex.
“I wonder what they look like,” I say. “I don’t look very much like my mom. At least, from what I can remember. I lost the pictures I had. There was one of her and me, one of her alone, and one of her and me and Marie taken right before Child Services took us away. I wonder if he has any photos of my mom. Like from their wedding.”
He doesn’t answer. This is one of those conversations I have, one-sided, while he broods over how to fix it for me. There’s no fixing my family. Half of them are dead and the other half are lost to me.
“I wonder if I look like my brother,” I continue. “Like how you and Cora look so much alike.”
“You think we look alike?”
“Oh, yeah. Totally. Your personalities are similar too. I wonder—”
A commotion from the living room makes me halt midsentence. Beau and I exchange looks, then we bolt out of bed and start throwing our clothes on. Something’s wrong. The voices are agitated and growing louder. Beau upends the table in the corner, rips two legs off, and hands one to me. They’re not very big, but they’ll do some damage if we have to.
Beau jams what’s left of the table under the doorknob. There’s no lock, so this is the only barrier against us and whoever’s out there. Beau goes to the side of the door that opens and signals me to go to the other. If they have guns, we don’t have much of a chance, which is why I motion for Beau to crouch down low. We at least have the element of surprise and the possibility of knocking their legs out from under them and maybe the gun from their hands if they should get past our barricade.
Someone knocks on the door. “Beau! Gwendolyn!”
“Carter,” Beau whispers.
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to know we’re here,” I whisper back.
“Come on out,” Carter says. “I have some good news for you.”
“Do we trust him?” Beau asks.
I shake my head. “He’s not using my right name.”
Beau motions with his head toward the window. “Just a minute!” he answers Carter.
This isn’t right. Something is very wrong here. I go to the window and look out a crack in the blinds. We’re two stories up, so I have a good view of the street. One of Javier’s men waits by a car. He’s here. He’s come for me. I shake my head like crazy for Beau not to open the door. My heart is hammering double-time. He’s come for his revenge. I tighten my grip on the table leg. Sweat drips in a slick line down my back.
The doorknob turns, but the table keeps the door from opening.
Someone pounds on the door. “Eeeeden. It’s meee,” Javier taunts. “Let me in, precious. I’ve missed yooouu.”
That voice crawls out of my worst nightmares. He’s talked me into and out of so many things with that voice.
Beau swings his gaze away from me and toward the door. He knows who’s on the other side, and now he knows my other name. My past and my future stand on either side of the door. Javier will kill Beau. What he does with me after that I don’t care. There won’t be anything left of me to matter.
Something solid hits the door, shaking the whole wall. There’s no way out. There’s only Javier coming in. The door is slammed again. This time the table makes a terrible noise. Beau hunkers down next to the door, balancing on the balls of his feet. I take up my position on the other side. He squeezes my arm briefly as I pass. The door is hit again and again. The table gives way and a guy in black breaks through the door. Debris flies at me. I’m hit with chucks of wood and knocked to the floor.
The guy turns toward Beau, gun drawn. I whack him in the back of the knees and he goes down, howling in pain. His head hits the bed frame with a sickening thunk. His gun clatters against the wood floor and disappears under the bed. Beau rears up, going for the guy. He doesn’t see Javier coming in through the door, but I do. I leap between them. My back explodes in pain. I fall…
Chapter 37
Beau