Page 91 of Still Afraid

“Leave her alone.”

Richard turned to Aaron.

Ignoring the pain pulsing through her leg, she shifted her hands to her pocket again and pulled out her knife.

Richard was tormenting Aaron with words and waving his knife in Aaron’s face.

Chloe tried to ignore the vulgar speech spewing from Richard’s mouth and focused on her knife. She had just enough give between her hands to open the knife.

Richard turned back to her.

She snapped the knife shut and held it in her palm, praying Richard didn’t see it.

He pressed his knife against her leg, close to the first wound he’d made.

The wind howled outside.

Richard looked toward the ceiling. In doing so, the knife inched away from her.

What should she risk? Kick him? What would he do?

The wind raged, and the building groaned. The corner of the roof peeled back, revealing the angry clouds that darkened the evening sky.

A moment after Josh hung up the phone with Buck, telling him what they’d found, everyone’s phones went off with a weather alert. The last thing Chloe needed to deal with right now was severe weather, but the rain had already been pounding the house for a little while.

Josh opened the alert. Tornado warning. No!

Troy looked his phone and was no doubt opening the radar. Josh did the same.

Rotation within miles of Josh’s home.

“I don’t have a theater in the basement, but I have a bathroom in the center of the house.”

Jesse slapped Josh’s shoulder. “It’ll have to do.”

Josh called Poirot, and the dog and all five humans crammed into the small bathroom. Poirot hopped into the bathtub at Josh’s command, while Josh, Lance, and Jesse crowded on the edge.

Bonnie followed them into the little room. “I guess I’ll sit on the throne.”

Josh appreciated how they all could throw in bits of humor even though he didn’t feel it. He knew they didn’t either.

What if Chloe was in the path of a tornado again? What were the chances? It would be inconceivable to imagine that a random weather occurrence would find the same person three times. The odds were in her favor that she’d be safe from the storm, but he doubted she’d feel that way. He was as concerned about her emotional well-being as her physical.

God, give Chloe the resilience she needs. I know she has it in her, but she needs You to bring it out. Keep the panic attacks away. Please bring her out of this. Protect her. And Lord? … Help Aaron.

The meteorologist Troy was watching said multiple reports were coming in of sightings of a tornado on the ground in Knoxville. It was no longer only radar-indicated rotation. The debris cloud was building, and the tornado was headed directly toward a shopping center.

A fresh surge of courage coursed through Chloe. One she could only attribute to the Lord being with her. With Richard’s attention on the missing roof, Chloe flicked open her knife and worked it against the zip-cuff at the connection point between her wrists. She just needed her hands separated.

The building creaked and groaned around them. The roof peeled back farther.

The glass storefront shattered in a crash, but any further noise was consumed by the sound of a freight train.

Although it wasn’t a train.

She knew that sound all too well.

With a final burst of force, Chloe sliced through the zip-cuffs. She slipped the rope off over her head.