Lucky Break (Lucky 3)

Jason settled in to wait.

LAUREN RAN BACK into the house. She normally wasn’t scatterbrained. In fact, she was pretty organized by anyone’s standards, but her sister’s escape had distracted her.

She checked the kitchen first, thinking maybe she’d left her phone on the counter.

No luck.

However, she felt a cool breeze from the far side of the room and slowly walked to the back hall. Jason had long since fixed the broken locks and windows and nobody used this part of the house. An unsettling feeling overtook her. She flicked on the hall light, and sure enough, the glass panes above the outside door had been smashed. Someone had probably stuck their hand inside to open the door, which now swung in the wind.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold raced over her skin. She knew exactly who’d broken into the house.

“Beth.” Lauren shook her head in a combination of dismay and frustration. She hadn’t thought her sister would come back here. Once again, Lauren had underestimated her devious sibling.

Suddenly, and Lauren hoped irrationally, she was afraid. She needed to get out of here. She couldn’t walk over the broken glass without making noise or hurting herself. Her only option was to sneak out the front door as quietly as she’d come in. Then get Jason and figure out what to do.

Plan formulated, she took two steps back, hit a solid body and screamed.

A firm hand clamped over her mouth. “Be quiet.”

She considered biting him, but his grip was too tight. Her eyes teared at the painful pressure.

“I’m going to let go and you aren’t going to scream. Understand?”

She recognized Brody Pittman’s voice and nodded.

He slowly eased his grip.

She turned to face him, rubbing her sore cheeks at the same time. “Where’s my sister?”

“Bedroom.” He nudged her in the side, pushing her closer to the door. “Just in case you get any funny ideas about trying to run-” He poked a sharp object into her back.

He had a gun.

Bile rose in her throat, but she remained calm. Her sister was a few feet away and Beth wouldn’t hurt her.

How do you know that, a little voice in her head asked. How could she assume anything about her sister now?

They approached the bedroom and Brody gave Lauren a rough shove into the room. “Look who I found.”

Lauren stumbled in and came face-to-face with her now red-haired sister. “Beth!”

“Lauren, why couldn’t you have just stayed away?” Beth asked, sounding annoyed.

“I forgot my phone-” Lauren glanced around her room and realized Beth had been going through the drawers, tossing things onto the floor in search of-“What are you looking for?”

“The diary,” Beth said. “Just give me the diary you were talking about and go away. Forget you ever saw me here.”

Lauren blinked in surprise. “I can’t do that!”

“Of course you can. And you will.”

“First tell me what is in the diary that’s so important?” Lauren asked, needing to understand all the unanswered questions. “Why did it freak you out so much that I found it? And what are you looking for in the house?”

Brody groaned. “I’m tired of all this yapping. Her boyfriend’s waiting out in the car. Just give us the diary!” He waved the gun at her, his frustration and intent clear.

Shaking, Lauren glanced at her sister.

“Put that away, you imbecile!” Beth’s tone allowed for no argument.