Mine to Keep (NOLA Knights #3) - Rhenna Morgan Page 0,3
get back home and enjoy my one day off?”
Her dad crossed his hands over his swollen belly. With the blind Kevin had raised, the jaundice in his skin was even more evident. “Already told ya. Not gonna worry about bills and medicine and doctor’s appointments anymore. Gonna live my life the way I wanna live it with the time I have left. So, don’t go giving me any grief about it.” His stare slid to Kevin and he added, “Not either of ya. Understand?”
No. She didn’t. Not even a little bit. She’d already lost her mom to booze and partying. Just sitting back and accepting her dad giving up wasn’t even remotely in the cards.
Outside, the muted rumble of a car pulling up and idling in front of the house made its way through the thin living room window. With their house being the last one on the dead-end street, that meant her dad’s buddies were rolling in early to help him get his drink on.
“Are you kidding me?” Bonnie said, twisting for a peek behind the blinds. “It’s barely after three o’clock in the afternoon.”
Before she could get a glimpse, Kevin shot to his feet, knocked her hand aside and looked for himself. He straightened and shot their dad a look that was all business. “It’s them.”
“God damn it, boy. I told you this wouldn’t be good.” He folded down his footrest the way a gunslinger stowed his gun, stood as quick as he could and waved toward the hallway. “Get Bonnie out of here.”
“She can’t leave. If they see her, she’s fucked.”
“Then get her to my room. Hide her in the gun closet. I’ll stall.”
“Are both of you out of your mind?” Bonnie interjected.
Rather than answer, Kevin snagged her laptop, shoved it in her backpack and manhandled her down the hallway. He lowered his voice as they neared her dad’s room. “You gotta be quiet, Bonnie. No fucking around, all right? Not a single fucking word no matter what.”
“Are you for real right now?” Bonnie twisted as much as his pushing allowed and tried to look in his eyes. “What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing you need to know about.” He jerked open the closet’s bifold doors, slid the clothes aside and opened up the gun closet. The hidey-hole where her dad once kept his illegal firearms was a simple unfinished cabinet with now empty gun racks, but the outside blended with all the rest of the paneling in the room. Kevin shoved her inside and paused only a moment. “Promise me.”
A knock sounded on the front door, and Kevin’s already pale face blanched a deeper shade of white. In all the years she’d known her brother and through all the crazy trouble he’d gotten himself into, she’d never once seen so much fear in his eyes.
Bonnie swallowed hard and pulled her backpack tight against her chest. “O-okay.”
Lips mashed tight together, Kev gave her a sharp nod and closed the door.
The hangers scraped across the metal rod and the bifold doors whispered back into place.
What the ever-lovin’-hell were the two of them up to?
What they’re always up to, her conscience whispered back to her. Doing things outside the way the rest of the world lives and then ending up with their asses in one sling or another.
Voices sounded in the living room, but her heart pounded too hard for her to hear. A sickly sweat built along the back of her neck and her spine.
God, she was sick of this crap. Her whole damned life she’d done her best to stay in the shadows and out of the messes her family created. Why they couldn’t just have normal jobs, pay taxes and lead calm lives like everyone else was beyond her. Everything had to be a party. A scheme, or the next great con.
The voices grew louder, her dad’s gruff take-no-shit tone volleying back and forth with another one she didn’t recognize.
A second later, something cracked. A heavy thud against wood followed by scuffling and grunts. The clatter of the metal screen door against its frame.
Then quiet.
Painfully terrifying quiet.
But she kept her promise and waited.
And waited.
Her legs trembled with the need to move, and her forearms where she clutched her backpack tight ached.
Where the hell were they? She had to have been in the cramped space at least thirty minutes. Maybe more. It sure as shit felt like more. If whoever it was was gone, why didn’t they give her the all-clear?