“Do you think we got away?” Helen asked.
I looked in my rearview mirror as the silver car turned onto the road behind me. From the driver side, a handgun emerged and fired off two shots taking my side mirror. Dammit, that would cost a pretty penny to replace.
“Not yet.” I mashed on the accelerator as Helen let out a squeal. If my cheater ex had taught me anything, it was how to drive like a cop.
Cherry Anne bolted like her wild mustang namesakes.
Helen held on as I turned down street after street, her face a nasty shade of green.
“What if we give them the head? Maybe then they’d leave us alone.”
“We’ve seen too much, Helen. The only way we’re getting out of this is to make it to the police station.” Even if Luke wasn’t there, someone would be, and they’d know how to get in touch with him.
But after several turns, I was utterly lost. Every time I thought I’d gotten rid of the silver car, there it was. It was like they had a GPS tracker on me.
Somehow we managed to make it back to Garrett’s house where Garrett stood out front. He waved as we approached, a big smile on his face.
I glanced in the rearview mirror, the silver car was gone, at least momentarily.
“Open the garage,” I shouted out the window at Garrett. His face was confused, but he did as I asked, running inside and opening the door. It was tormentingly slow as it opened and I inched Cherry Anne inside.
Once inside, Garrett pushed the garage door button, and it slowly began to close.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Someone is trying to kill us,” Helen said throwing her arms around his neck. “They have guns.”
“Let’s go inside and you can tell me everything,” Garrett said.
I hesitated. If Garrett was the killer, I needed to get away as quickly as possible. But it was either him or the people in the silver car. I ran my hand over the phone in my back pocket. If Luke wasn’t going to respond, I’d have to call the police. That’s probably what I should have done in the first place anyway.
“Rylie, are you okay?” Garrett asked. Helen turned to look at us.
“Fine,” I said, not wanting to make a scene in front of his mom. “Let’s go inside.”
He bent down and kissed me on the cheek. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll take care of it.”
I walked past him into the house. There was no way I was going to rely on him to get me out of this situation.
25
Babbitt greeted us when we entered. He gave Helen and me a big slobbery kiss but stopped short of Garrett. His hackles raised and he let out a low growl like he had at the dog park before he’d chased the person in the hoodie away.
“What’s wrong Babbitt?” I asked looking from him to Garrett who had a panicked expression on his face.
“I must smell like the jail,” Garrett said. “It’s okay buddy.”
Babbitt continued to growl but let Garrett past him to the door leading to the illusive secret basement. “You can hide down here until the police come,” he said motioning for Helen and me to go downstairs.
Helen smiled and started down the carpeted stairs, Babbitt following closely behind.
“I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right down,” I said.
Garrett hesitated. “Okay, but hurry.”
I nodded and went to the bathroom in the hallway—the same one I’d been in the first time I’d been in his home. It was amazing how quickly things had changed. Thoughts of the severed head in my trunk made my insides squirm. What was I doing here? I needed to leave.
I flushed the toilet to mask my voice as I called 9-1-1.
“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?” the dispatcher asked.
“I need assistance.” I gave her the address and hung up the phone. I probably should have stayed on the line, but I couldn’t risk Garrett hearing me. I smoothed down the front of my shirt and opened the door running straight into Garrett’s chest.
“Who were you talking to?” Garrett’s face was twisted into a mean grin.
“No one. I—”
“Cut the bullshit, Rylie.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me to the doorway to the basement. “Get down there.”
I held my ground. “No. I need to leave.”
“You leave when I say you can.”
“Is this your other personality? I need to speak with Garrett, please.”
Garrett let out a loud laugh. “Get. In. The. Basement.”
He looked like he was ready to push me down the stairs, so I turned and walked down myself, hearing the door lock into place behind me. I only hoped the police would get there in time.
The basement was a makeshift bedroom set up in the finished living space. An unmade bed was pushed against one wall and trash littered the floor. It was too bad the housekeeper, or whoever she was, didn’t clean down here too.
I sat on a leather recliner as Helen folded clothes off the floor. Babbitt nudged my elbow with his snout, and I scratched him behind the ears. “What’s going on buddy?” I whispered.
“I thought you were dating Garrett,” Helen finally said.
“I am dating Garrett,” I replied surprised by her sudden comment.
“So then why was Derrick kissing you on your cheek?” she asked without looking at me.
“Is Derrick the name of his other personality?”
“Whose other personality?” She turned to look at me, a frown on her face.
“Garrett’s. I know about his—er—disorder.”
It took her a second to reply, but instead of recognition, she burst out laughing. I was absolutely tired of people laughing at me.
“What?” I asked. But she couldn’t catch her breath. She was hysterical, probably because we had nearly died.
“Helen, why are you laughing?”
She finally stopped long enough to say, “They’re twins. Identical.”
My heart felt like it stopped. Twins? There were two of them?
“They’ve always done
