"We're not going to jail," Tom replied, sounding exasperated. "If you hadn't fucked up and knocked her out, I could have talked our way out of this. I could have explained it and blamed it all on Brett. But shit, now we've got that bitch passed out upstairs and when she comes to, she's going to run off to her cop boyfriend. This is all on you. You did this."
I'm guessing I'm the bitch. So much for familial love.
"I was only listening to you. All of this was your idea. I was just doing what you told me to."
"I never told you to hit Jenna and knock her out. You should have come to me and we would have figured it out. Just like we figured it out with Lori. I handled that, didn't I?"
Jenna's ears perked up at the mention of her sister. Just what had they figured out?
"You didn't handle it so well if that ex-cop can connect you with Brett."
"He can connect Brett with hundreds of people in that club. It doesn't mean anything. It's all just circumstantial. There's no evidence linking us to Lori's disappearance. I made sure of that."
Her blood running cold, Jenna had to clap her hand over her mouth not to be sick right then and there.
They'd said it out loud. Out loud. They'd admitted it.
Tom and Michelle were responsible for Lori's disappearance. Not Cal. Not Brett. Not some unnamed stranger. Lori's own flesh and blood.
But why? Why would they do that to their own sister?
"Now I need to clean up after you because you're a fucking idiot," Tom went on. "We can't let Jenna run to her boyfriend or the police. We're going to have to make sure she can't do that."
"If something happens to her, he'll never let it go."
"Then we damn well need to make sure that it looks like an accident."
They were going to kill her and try and make it look like an accident. And Knox thought he had a shitty family. It turns out her family was far worse.
Survival was priority number one. Knox had no idea where she was so she couldn't depend on him to ride in like the cavalry and save her. She had to save herself. She didn't have the luxury of sitting around and pondering why Tom and Michelle had become killers. She could think about that later. She needed to be concentrating on how to get out of the mess she was in currently.
She was stuck on the second floor of the house and it was too high to jump from a window. She'd likely break an ankle and then really be at their mercy. Could she sneak down the stairs and run for the door? Depending on where her siblings were located - and she couldn't see them from her position in the hallway - she might make it. Or might not. There were two of them and Tom kept himself in good shape. She wasn't sure she could outrun him if it came down to a sprint for the road. Several possible scenarios played out in rapid succession in her brain but she tossed each one aside. Every one of them sucked and would surely get her killed.
She couldn't talk her way out, run her way out, and she sure as hell couldn't fight her way out either. It would be two against one.
I'm fucked. What now?
Too late. She could hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Instinct took over and she lunged down the hall blindly, not even sure where she was headed but knowing she needed to get away and fast.
Her head still hurt, her lungs were painful as she gulped in oxygen, and her legs were wobbly but she made it to the end of the hall. Her only hope was to lock herself inside the master bedroom and then again in the ensuite bathroom. There would be two doors between her and danger. She didn't know how long they'd last but hopefully by then she'd have figured something else out. She wasn't thrilled that she'd basically be cornered, but she didn't have any other ideas. Every option was shit.
Her hand connected with the doorknob just as another larger, and stronger, hand landed on her arm, yanking her back roughly. Tom had caught up with her and he was pulling her kicking and screaming back down the hall. Would anyone hear her? They were so far from the road that the chances were remote.
But she wasn't going to let him kill her and make it look like an accident. She was going to fight tooth and nail until the bitter end. If both she and Tom were covered in bruises and scratches, she had to depend on Knox to know that she hadn't gone quietly. That is was no accident. She'd been murdered in cold blood.
I might be dead but Tom? You're going to prison. Knox will make sure of that.
Raking her nails down Tom's arm, she kicked out at him, exhausting herself but managing to connect with his legs several times. He growled and cursed, slapping at her face as he dragged her down the hall and stairs, and into the living room where Michelle was waiting.
"Stop it," Tom ground out, pulling Jenna to her feet. "Just fucking stop it. You're already dead. None of this matters."
"Knox will never believe it was an accident," Jenna spat back, sucking air into her starved lungs. She was completely exhausted, covered in sweat and dirt. "You'll go to prison. Both of you."
"I don't think I will. Let's just say that the
