Page 72 of Now Until Forever
She had no idea who was calling, but if the police were on their way here for her, they could presumably get a more precise location from a connected call. Usually, that wouldn’t work with her phone, but if Laptop Guy had reset the security permissions, the GPS locator would’ve been turned on and the device could be traced.
Did that mean the sirenswerefor her?
Sarah smirked, then glanced at Laptop Guy. “Get those files transferred.”
The sirens outside, somewhere nearby, stopped.
Eliana didn’t let her hope dissipate. She needed it.
She glanced at Muscle Guy. “Are you just the muscle, here to make sure Sarah does what she’s supposed to? Or do you report back to the Mother that she didn’t completely follow orders?”
His expression hardened. “Shut your mouth.”
“Or you’ll shoot me? It’s gonna look suspicious that Faith doesn’t have any gunshot residue on her clothes or her face, so you might want to rethink that plan.”
Behind her back, Eliana worked her wrists back and forth, the movement small enough that she hoped none of them noticed her trying to get out of the ties they’d put around her wrists. “Your plan is breaking down. And when it fails, what then? The Mother will treat the three of you as loose ends.”
Muscle Guy looked at Sarah, then back at her. “I guess we don’t fail then.”
“There’s no way to stage a crime scene and not leave at least some suspicion that it’s not the truth. The only way it looks like a murder-suicide is if that’s what it is.”
Faith shifted in her seat. “Give me the gun. I’ll do it.”
Eliana whipped around too fast and nearly showed them her hands. “They can’t make this work. Don’t play into it. You’ll make it easy for them to win.”
“They’re going to kill us either way.” The lines around Faith’s eyes seemed more pronounced, revealing stress and emphasizing her age.
“That’s why we can’t make it easy for them,” Eliana said. “There has to be justice.”
She needed the other woman to keep some semblance of hope. Maybe not that they would survive this situation, but definitely that Sarah and her friends wouldn’t get away with it.
Eliana turned to Sarah. “Carlos isn’t going to believe it. He was there when I spoke with Faith. He’ll never believe we’ve been talking to each other, or that either of us is suicidal. This won’t work. The Mother doesn’t know me well enough to convince anyone that I took a life or let someone kill me.”
Eliana had to keep the momentum going, so she said, “Why don’t you tell her what I said? See what she has to say. I’m thinking she’s not as infallible as you believe.”
Muscle Guy shifted his weight. “Maybe we should call her. This is taking longer than you said.”
Sarah swung around and pistol-whipped him with the butt of her gun.
The guy dropped in a heap on the floor with a dull thud.
“What did you do that for?!” Laptop Guy stepped back.
Sarah pointed the gun at him.
He lifted his hands. “You can’t shoot me or knock me out. I’m the one who has to transfer the files.” He tipped his head at the laptop.
Sarah went and looked at the display. “Seems to me that as soon as the transfer is done, I’m clear. No matter where you are at the time. Or what condition you’re in.”
“That wasn’t part of the plan.” He spoke through gritted teeth.
“You don’t make the plan.” She motioned to herself with the gun. “I do.”
Eliana wanted to rush over and slam into Sarah’s back to knock her over. Send the gun flying. But her hands wouldn’t come free of these ties, no matter how hard she worked her wrists back and forth.
Then Sarah turned to her, and she knew she’d lost her shot at catching the other woman by surprise.
How could that even have worked? Eliana had no idea what she was doing. She’d never been in a situation like this before, and even if her family tried hard to prepare her, it still didn’t beat experience. She couldn’t remember anything Zeyla had ever told her enough to actually use the information.
