But as her vehicle swayed with the gale force winds, and Juliet bumped along a road that had all but washed away, she began to doubt her direction. After a few moments, a slow but undeniable certainty filled her, and Juliet knew exactly what road she was on.
“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Juliet swore aloud and pounded her hand against the steering wheel. In her desperate haste to get out of the storm, Juliet had taken a wrong turn.
A very, very wrong turn.
“What the hell?” P.J. watched the security monitor as he saw the light of a single headlamp come bouncing down the road towards his house. He adjusted the screen on the camera to no avail. The rain was coming down so hard that even with the special lenses that he had had installed, P.J. couldn’t make out more than the lone headlight in the long shadows.
But he knew one thing, no one came out in a storm like this, especially on a bike. Nino’s crew is up to something Jules’s words flashed through P.J.’s mind. His eyes swiveled again to the slow approach of the lone headlight. They’d have to be crazy to come after him on a night like this. But then again, the storm had come up quickly. Nino and P.J. had a history and P.J. had been waiting a long time for Nino to make a move. Up to this point the head of the Colombian crime organization had left P.J. alone, but now things had apparently heated up. P.J. wouldn’t be at all surprised if Nino had decided to come after him for those guns. The guy on the bike that was now headed towards P.J.’s house was most probably a scout.
After a small contemplation, P.J. decided on the 9 millimeter. He loaded it, put the safety on and stuck it in the back of his waist band. Then P.J. threw on a black leather jacket and pulled a Scully hat over his head. After pushing a buck knife into his left boot, he headed out into the storm.
The wind howled like the opening of a horror movie and pushed against P.J.’s chest. Rain came down in torrents, and trees creaked out a warning as their branches bent under the weight of the storm. With freezing fingers, P.J. pulled his weapon out from the back of his waistband and moved it to the deep front pocket of his leather jacket for easy access. He had planned to use the cover of the trees to circle back around whoever had the balls to trespass on his property. But now, because of the force of the direction of the wind, he was going to have to meet the fucker head on.
Juliet’s car was stuck. And it was her own fault. When Juliet had realized that she had mistaken the road that led to P.J.’s house for the road that led to hers, she had tried to turn the vehicle around. She had successfully backed up to a horizontal position across the road, but it was when she had tried to complete the turn that the trouble started. Juliet’s wheels had spun and spun and spun. The more she had tried, the deeper she had dug the car in. Now her vehicle sat straight across the road, and bumper deep in the thick muck and mire that the storm continued to create.
Juliet jumped straight up in her seat and her chest hit the steering wheel. She let out a loud screech and shielded her face as a heavy branch fell and landed on her windshield. The entire glass panel was instantly turned into a large, glistening spider web. Thankfully, it did not crack through, but one more branch, one more deep gust of wind, and Juliet knew she’d be covered in sharp shards.
She sat and deliberated as the weather raged all around. As much as she would like to, Juliet knew that she couldn’t stay, she knew that she couldn’t wait the storm out in her car. She was afraid of that windshield breaking and afraid that the car might shift deeper into the thick mud. Juliet could barely open the door now, another couple of inches and she would be trapped inside.
She peered down the road and saw the lights of P.J.’s cabin shining out like a beacon on the hilltop. In Juliet’s current mindset, it seemed to be miles and miles away. But the rational part of her knew that it was only about a half a mile or so down the road. That’s all Juliet had to do was be fast about it. She would just have to stay focused and keep her eyes on the prize. The dim, glowing lights told her that P.J. was home, but even if he wasn’t, Juliet would find her way in. She’d break a window if she had to. As the thought ran through her mind, Juliet felt a small bit of something that felt like courage. It sparked and ignited a fire inside of her. As Juliet braced to go out into the storm, she gave herself an attagirl.
Juliet pushed open the door to the car and squeezed herself through the opening. When she did, her footing faltered and she sank immediately into knee deep, freezing, cold mud. At first Juliet was too shocked to move. It took a full minute of being bound and pummeled by raging winds before Juliet could even begin to fathom what had happened to her.
It all seemed so surreal. Juliet felt as though she had stepped into
