Gray dropped his gaze to the bottom of the window. Like everything else here, it had seen better days. The paint was peeling off, and some of the screws had come loose and rusted.
It was a house forgotten by the rest of the world, but it was no prison.
Jackie would be able to escape if he was here, which left two options. Basement or elsewhere, and Darius had only mentioned a basement very reluctantly. Technically plausible, yet kind of unlikely, because people didn’t build basements in the desert. The foundation was usually too rocky.
Gray moved on to the door next and deduced the same thing there. Escape was possible. The door was a shove or two from coming off its hinges.
As he went on to the last window, Darius joined him.
“I think he’s here,” Darius murmured under his breath. “Look into the hallway.”
Gray scanned the small kitchen first. There was a light in the window that seemed brighter than it probably was, and it showed mint-green cupboards, fading wallpaper, and a table with four chairs. Then he tilted his head to peer out into the hallway, and he narrowed his eyes at the floor. Poorly installed linoleum flooring with a plank wood design was curling up along the edges where the floor met the wall, but that wasn’t the only place. There was a cut-out square in the middle of the hall. A small rug had been thrown haphazardly on top but didn’t cover more than half of it. And coincidentally, a bump under the rug could only be one thing. A latch.
“You see it?”
Gray nodded. “It’s gotta be a basement.”
A shadow suddenly appeared across the floor, and Gray sucked in a breath and ducked down. At the same time, Darius dodged sideways and plastered himself to the house wall.
Gray peered up at him for direction.
Darius inched toward the window slowly, only to back away again. Then he pulled out his phone and rounded the corner of the house, though just for a second or two. Maybe he’d done it to shield the lit screen.
“Willow’s blowing up my phone.” He kept his voice down and tried glancing into the kitchen again. “He’s getting beer and—something. I can’t see. Maybe we should—wait.” He strained his neck to see better. “He’s heating something in the microwave.”
Gray sighed in frustration. “I wish we could get some confirmation.”
“I think we’re about to,” Darius murmured. “When I passed the living room, he was finishing his TV dinner. I don’t think this is for him.”
A silence followed, each second chipping away at Gray’s patience. Jackie hadn’t seen his parents since last year. If Gray remembered correctly, the guy had been kidnapped in August. Was it too long? Had Jackie reached his limit? It was a matter of time, nothing else. Everyone had a limit.
“Now,” Darius whispered. “He’s bringing the food to the basement. You can look.”
Gray straightened and zeroed in on the movement in the house, and the first thing his stare landed on was the revolver tucked into the back of the man’s jeans. With the rug pushed aside and the hatch in the floor open, the man carried a tray slowly down the stairs. Gray guessed they were steep, perhaps more of a ladder than stairs, considering how careful the fucker was being. With each step, he dropped at least a foot.
“We should free Jackie tonight.” Because all Gray could picture right now was that son of a bitch forcing himself on Jackie. Would he do it before or after dinner? It was fucking sickening. “He’s just one guy, Darius. We can take him. They’ll be two tomorrow.”
“We can’t afford any mistakes now,” Darius replied grimly. “It’s highly possible Warren calls this—whoever the fuck he is—before he heads out. If he doesn’t answer, it could make Warren suspicious.”
Gray cursed and went around a corner. They were so close. Mere feet away. And yet, Jackie wouldn’t know that he was getting rescued soon.
Stay strong, Jackie. We’re coming.
“We should get out of here.” Darius joined him and stalked over to the fence, which he leaped over with a hand planted on the top. “We have planning to do.”
Gray hated it with every fiber of his being but jogged after and jumped over the fence. Fuck, it felt wrong to leave Jackie behind.They returned to the mountain range, and Gray went with honesty and felt this was the wrong decision.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” Darius said, “but we’re not doing shit until I’ve spoken to Willow.”
Fine.
Gray brought out his flashlight and lit up the ground so they could find the boulders where they’d left their backpacks.
Darius pressed his phone to his ear and stayed at the bottom of the hillside. “Switch to UV before you sit down anywhere,” he advised. At Gray’s confused expression, he added, “UV light exposes scorpions.”