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family argument going on.”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Toph dryly. “So Zack doesn’t live here?”
    “Good gosh, no!”
    A crooked grin spread across Toph’s face. He had the slightly scary intent look she’d seen on him that morning. His eyes got darker and even heavier lidded. “Glad to hear it.”
    In Janey’s bedroom, Bill Blair shouted something angry about a key. Toph and Janey turned their faces toward the room, not bothering to pretend they weren’t riveted by the muffled yelling.
    She put a cup of coffee in front of Toph. After her years of restaurant work, she instinctively paid attention to how people took their coffee, and added a splash of half and half to his.
    “Thanks. How’d you know I’d—”
    He stopped midsentence when something in Janey’s room crashed, followed by the tinkle of broken glass. Janey hoped it was Penny’s tacky heart-shaped mirror over the bureau and not the framed picture of Rachel as a toddler.
    At the sound of the smash, Janey and Toph instinctively stood up. The bedroom door slammed open.
    Zack and Mr. Blair were framed in the doorway. Mr. Blair had thrown both his hands in the air as if he were making a dramatic gesture of disgust and had just given up arguing with his nephew. Or… Or, oh my good gosh…
    As if someone had a gun pushed into his back.
    No doubt about it, Janey decided, as she slowly raised her hands too. The morning was getting completely out of hand.

Chapter Five
    Zack aimed the revolver at Bill Blair. “Make it tighter,” he snapped at Janey.
    “Yikes, I’m sorry if this hurts,” she muttered to Zack’s uncle as she pulled on the rope. He was tied to the chair Zack had forced Toph to carry from the house.
    They stood, or in Mr. Blair’s case, sat, in the spot behind the garage, near the garbage cans. No one from the house, driveway or road would be able to see Bill.
    Zack leaned over to jerk at the knots Janey tied.
    The furious eyes over Bill’s duct-taped mouth glared at Zack.
    “I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that, Uncle Billy,” Zack complained. “If you’d minded your own goddamn business I wouldna had to do this.”
    Zack straightened up and turned to Toph. “That your BMW up the road?”
    Toph nodded.
    Zack grinned. “That’s the first good news I’ve had all day. We’re taking your car. You drive, and I’ll just sit in the back with Janey. Come on. Let’s go.”
    “Rachel,” said Janey, suddenly frantic. “She’ll be so scared. I have to leave a note. And let me get a blanket for Mr. Blair. It’ll be chilly out here.”
    “Forget it. We’re outta here.” Zack gestured with the gun.
    Janey and Toph walked to the car, Zack close behind them, whining under his breath.
    Toph showed no expression and she wondered what thoughts seethed behind the bland mask. Her own fear and dislike of Zack were probably written all over her face.
    The back of the car was surprisingly spacious, but Zack sat with his legs wide open, hogging the space, doing the king-of-his-domain act again.
    Now that she could see through him clearly, Janey wondered what on earth had made her breath go ragged when she’d been near Zack.
    He slanted sideways in the seat and pointed the muzzle of the gun at Janey. Right. Now there was a very good reason for her breath to go ragged.
    “Drive, dammit,” he said to Toph. “Or I’ll mess up your fine leather interior with her guts.”
    “Zack, don’t be a jerk,” Janey said, hating her quaking voice.
    “Shut up. I mean it, shut up. I haven’t slept in a couple of days, and then Uncle Billy comes nosing into my business. I’ve about had it. And you, jerk-off. Didn’t I tell you to drive?”
    The edge to his voice made Janey’s skin crawl. Toph, in the driver’s seat, met her eyes in the rearview mirror. For a long, steadying moment his dark eyes looked into Janey’s, his message clear. Everything will be fine , the soothing eyes told her. Almost at once her heartbeat