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“I saw the clouds as we were driving in. Let’s get those papers and get out of here. Maybe the rain will stay behind us.”
Another boom of thunder, and this time the windows creaked under the pressure from a powerful gust of wind. Goosebumps rose on my skin. Those windows weren’t looking so safe anymore.
I caught Luke staring at me, creases forming around his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Fine. Just want to get going, that’s all.”
“Okay. The papers are in the study upstairs.” He turned back down the hallway and took the stairs two at a time to the second floor. Luke entered the first door to his right. “Here we go,” he said and walked toward a high-tech filing cabinet with codes instead of locks.
Looking around the room, I noticed an absence of furniture in this room. There was just a table, two chairs, and a filing cabinet. It surprised me there wasn’t much more to it.
“This must be it.” Luke pulled out a laptop from the top drawer and placed it under his arm. “Okay let’s go.”
“Wait,” I said. “How do you know it’s the right one?”
“Because it was exactly where Colton said it would be.”
“But what if the files are missing and he transferred them to a hard drive or something?”
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. But we should make sure everything is in that laptop before we leave this place.”
“Fine.” Luke dropped the laptop on the table and turned it on. As the computer booted up, I couldn’t help staring at Luke’s hands. His nails were short and clean, but the tips of his fingers had stains on them.
“Do you paint?” I asked, absently.
“Pardon?” he asked, looking up at me, both palms on the table.
I nodded at his fingers. “The stains.”
He raised his fingers to inspect them. “Oh, that. No. I chopped some boiled beets last night and I guess some color got into the cracks of my skin.”
I was about to respond when another boom of thunder shot through the sky and shook the house. I jumped and let out a small gasp this time. Standing on the second floor, it felt as though the thunder had echoed through me. The lights in the room flickered and then a terrible sound registered. A snap, followed by a creaking in the distance. Then, the loudest crash I’d ever heard. Both Luke and I ran to the front window of the study.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. An enormous tree had fallen. The trunk, which was probably as wide as my car, lay across the gravel, blocking the driveway.
“Shit,” whispered Luke.
“Oh, my god! That could have hit the car.”
“You’re worried about the car?”
“Yes. What are you worried about?”
“Sweeney, that tree is blocking our exit. We’re stuck here.”
8
Grace
This couldn’t be happening. I could not be stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with this man. I had to get back home. I had to get back to my mother.
“No, we are not stuck here. Do you hear me?” I said, pointing my finger at him.
He stared at the finger and tilted his head. “That massive tree trunk would say otherwise.”
“Well, we’ll just go over there and move it.”
