Shiver

I’m pretty sure they”—she hesitated because it was hard to even get the wordsout—“cut off the tip of one of her fingers.” She fixed him with an accusing gaze. “Because they were looking for you.”
    He wasn’t smiling any longer. His eyes held hers. “I’m sorry they did that to her. I’m sorry you had to see it. I’m sorry any of you got involved.”
    Sam’s throat felt tight. “She had nothing to do with any of this. She was just baby-sitting Tyler.”
    “I know. These guys—they have no respect for human life. They’ll kill anyone who gets in their way.”
    “They would have done something horrible to Tyler if they’d found him.” It wasn’t a question; she knew it for an absolute fact. Even thinking about what could have happened made Sam feel cold all over. “They would have killed him. And me. They will, if they find us.”
    His expression acknowledged the truth of that. “Which is why you and Tyler are staying with me.”
    Sam made a scoffing sound. “Like being at ground zero is going to keep us safe? You’re the one they’re really looking for.”
    “Ground zero or not, you’re safer with me than you would be anywhere else.”
    “So you say. I’m not so sure.”
    “You got some alternative you want to share with me, I’m all ears.”
    He had her there. There was no alternative that she could come up with. Kendra, Marla, a host of people might be willing to take her and Tyler in and even help them hide, but after seeing what had been done to Mrs. Menifee, Sam wouldn’t inflictsuch a danger on her worst enemy, much less people she cared about. She thought about just taking Tyler and running and hiding on her own, but immediately dismissed it. First, not being a professional fugitive, she didn’t have a great deal of confidence in her ability to disappear without a trace, and second, she had no money to run away on. Being broke, as she had discovered a long time ago, tended to severely limit your options.
    The sense of being trapped was suffocating.
    He was watching her. “You got nothing, am I right?”
    Reluctantly Sam shook her head. Still, there was no way she and Tyler could just drop off the radar so easily. He had preschool, and play dates, and she—she had classes. And work. And bills. As the inescapable realities of life started crawling out of the hole where terror had buried them, her eyes widened.
    “I have a class on Monday. I guess I can miss it, but . . . I can’t miss more than three or I don’t pass the course. Plus my electricity bill is due on Monday. I mean, really due. I got a shut-off notice. If I don’t pay by then, they’ll turn the electricity off. And I have to pay Tyler’s preschool Monday, too, or he’ll lose his place. And . . .” As Sam thought about all the things she had coming up, she felt her chest tighten. If she didn’t go to class, she would flunk. If she didn’t go to work, they didn’t have any money. And if she wasn’t home, she couldn’t work. “I have a check waiting for me at A+ right now. I need to pick it up. Oh, my God, I’ll lose my contract with them. If I’m not there to repossess the cars they need to have repossessed, they’ll just give the work to someone else.” Probably Bobby Thompson at Thompson’s Towing, or Al Fisher at Downtown Towing, or—therewere so many. At the idea that she could lose her livelihood, Sam felt growing panic. She had worked too hard to find a way to scratch out a living for herself and Tyler just to let it go like this. “I left the wrecker on the street across from the duplex. You can only park there on weekends. If I’m not there to move it by early Monday morning, they’ll tow it. Then I’ll have to pay who knows how much to get it out. I can’t afford it. I have to go home.”
    He was looking at her steadily. “You know you can’t, right?”
    “I have to. We’ll lose everything.” Sam’s stomach was in the process of turning inside out.
    He frowned. “Make a list of what has to be paid. I’m sure some kind of arrangements can be made.”
    “Some kind of arrangements can be made? What about my class? And who’s going to go out every night and haul cars in for me? Who’s going to keep my business going?” Sam’s fists clenched, and she turned away abruptly. “And then there’s Mrs. Menifee. She was never anything but kind to Tyler and me, and she’s dead. She’s dead, and Tyler and I almost died, and now our lives are going to be ruined. And