Clearly enough. Darwin suddenly said, “Whoa there, bitch,” and lunged across the kitchen to place himself between her and the back door. He shoved her forward.
Niki shook her head and stuck the driver’s license in the front pocket of her baggy jeans. “For a woman driving a Mercedes, you don’t have much money on you,” she growled. “Where’s the rest?”
Lolly tried to think, to reason. Her heart was pounding, she was shaking from head to toe and nausea roiled her stomach, but she could still think. Right now, her brain was the only weapon she had. “In the bank. We can go to town and I’ll give it all to you, I swear I will, just … don’t kill me.” She shot a glance toward Darwin. “And don’t let him near me.” If she could actually get to town with these druggies, she’d find a way to escape … to get help.
“They’d be closed now, right?” Niki asked, looking at the last gleam of light that pressed against the windows.
Dear God, she couldn’t spend the night in the house with these two. Her stomach lurched, and she barely controlled the urge to vomit. “Yes, but I know the bank manager,” she lied. She had no idea who the manager was now, and she had never banked here anyway. The first and only account she’d ever opened was in Portland. Would they realize that, if she lived in Portland, she wasn’t likely to have an account here? Desperately she plunged ahead. “He’ll open up for me. We can leave right now.”
Niki considered it, her head tilted to the side and her feral, too-wide gaze locked on Lolly, but after a couple of seconds she shook her head. “No, he’d get suspicious if you did that. We’ll wait until morning.”
Lolly’s heart lurched, just like her stomach. She felt the hard beats hammering inside her chest. The ice was coming; by morning there would be no way down the hill. The road would be a sheet of ice, and she’d be stuck here with these two. She heard what sounded like frozen rain hitting the kitchen windows; maybe it was already too late.
Niki gestured with the gun, waving Lolly forward. Lolly followed the silent direction, passing the woman with the gun more closely than she liked, exiting the kitchen and walking through the dining room with Niki directly behind. When they reached the living room, Lolly saw the contents of her purse scattered across the couch and floor. Her key ring, with the key to the Mercedes between the key to this house and the one to her apartment door, was resting between two cushions. If she could get to the Mercedes, she’d take her chances driving on ice. Even if she slid off the side of the mountain, that was better than being stranded with these two. She needed those keys …
Niki gave Lolly a shove toward the staircase. “Go on,” she said, jabbing the pistol barrel hard into Lolly’s spine. Lolly took the stairs, her knees shaking so badly she half-expected to fall at any moment. Niki led her to the bedroom closest to the head of the stairs, which happened to be Lolly’s own room. “Any guns in the house?” Niki asked brusquely as she switched on the lights and looked around the neat, sparsely furnished room. “And don’t lie, because if you say no and we find some, I’ll shoot you in the face. Got it?”
“No, no guns,” Lolly said, her voice shaking so much her words were barely understandable.
Niki opened all the drawers, gave the contents of the closet a cursory glance, and was satisfied. There wasn’t much here, so searching wasn’t exactly a chore. There was Lolly’s underwear in the top drawer of the chest, some pajamas, and four clean changes of clothing hanging in the closet. Niki looked out the dark window, noting the two-story distance between the window and the ground with some satisfaction. Lolly looked, too, but at the window. Was that a film of ice already forming on the glass?
Niki’s crossed the room, and Lolly stepped out of her way. “I’ll be watching this door from downstairs,” she snarled. “If it opens even a crack, I’m going to send Darwin up here to deal with you.” She glanced at the simple lock on the doorknob, and smiled. “And don’t think that flimsy lock will do you any good, not when we have these keys.” She indicated the pistol in her hand and took imaginary aim at the lock, making a shooting noise, then she grinned.
The sight of those rotten teeth made Lolly shudder, but suddenly something she’d heard, or read, clicked in her brain, and she realized what drug these two were likely on:
It was meth—another type of ice, and just as deadly.
Chapter Three
Dazed, Lolly listened to Niki’s footsteps as the woman descended the stairs. Voices drifted up from the living room, angry at first, and then softer. Darwin laughed. The sound sent a shudder rolling through her body, which seemed to be the signal that now her brain could allow her body to feel again because she suddenly felt like one huge, head-to-toe ache.
She began trembling. Her shoulder and side hurt from being shoved into the newel post, her scalp ached from her hair being pulled so viciously, and her cheek and one side of her head throbbed from being slammed into the linoleum. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might yet be sick, and she felt both sweaty and icy cold at the same time.
Shock, she thought, just before her knees wobbled and she collapsed on the side of the bed. That didn’t help much; her vision tilted, as if the world was turning over, and she toppled to the side. She lay there panting, trying to control her breathing, but the raw, ragged sound of her gasps filled the quiet room.
Knowing what was wrong didn’t make her feel any better. If Darwin had come through the door right then, she’d have been completely helpless.