Family Comes First

Chapter 19: Unexpected Visitors

 Breakfast was uncomfortable because of the tension between Jimmy and Tommy, so I did not mind being alone all day. I was dreading the moment that they would come back into the house. During dinner, Jimmy and Tommy glared at each other. We ate in silence as neither of them dared to say a word. Jimmy's jaw was clenched and his fingers were tight around the fork. Tommy's nose was swollen and covered in bruises.

When dinner was done, Tommy stormed up the stairs to his room. The door slammed shut and Jimmy let out a deep breath. I washed the dishes as Jimmy leaned against the counter and watched me. Charles went into the living room to read his book. The house was quiet until Jimmy's voice broke the silence.

"Did you have a boyfriend?" he asked.

My body froze and I stopped scrubbing the plate that was in my hand. Jimmy was furious last night because Tommy touched me. The thought of anyone else touching me may cause him to snap. I smiled and went back to scrubbing the plate.

"No," I said.

"Good," he said. "It doesn't matter if you did anyways. You are where you belong now, right?"

"Right," I said.

I pulled the stopper out of the drain and wiped my hands on the dish towel. I dried the dishes and put them away. Once I was finished, Jimmy grabbed my waist and pulled me into his chest.

This morning he made me put on one of his sweaters in order to try and hide Tommy's bite mark. He avoided looking at it all night.

"I have a new rule for you," he said. "I don't want you alone with Tommy. Understand?"

Tension that I did not realize that I was holding onto left my body. I relaxed into Jimmy's arms and smiled. What happened in the basement would never happen again.

"I understand," I said.

"Good girl," he said.

I got up on my toes and kissed Jimmy. His arms tightened around my waist as the kiss deepened. I ran my fingers up into his hair and his hands ran down my back.

We were so distracted by what we were doing that we did not hear the stones crunch as people walked up the driveway. The sound of the doorbell ringing made my heart jump in my chest. Jimmy broke our kiss and furrowed his brows. He let go of me and brushed his hair back with his fingers as he looked out the window. He went over to the door and I stayed close behind him.

He opened the door, and there were three people standing on the porch. It was two girls and a man. They seemed to be around the same age as Jimmy and I. Jimmy's body was blocking me and I was peering around him. They looked shocked when Jimmy opened the door. He was pretty tall and the scar on his face could be intimidating.

"How can I help you?" Jimmy asked.

"Our car broke down a couple of miles away," the man told us. He had a mop of blond hair that he shook to keep out of his eyes. "There doesn't seem to be any cell service around here, so we were wondering if we could use your phone?"

"That's a shame," Jimmy said. He had an awkward chuckle behind his voice, "I hate to say this, but we don't have a phone."

"What?" the one girl asked. She had red curly hair that was tied back into a ponytail. Her face was plastered with freckles. Her teeth were chattering and she had her arms crossed over her chest. "You don't have a phone anywhere in your house?"

"No," Jimmy said. "Times are tough and we had to cut back."

"Come on," the redhead said. "Everyone has a phone in their house. We'll pay you if you want."

"Brittany," the man nudged her with his elbow. "If they don't have a phone, they don't have a phone."

"Scott," the other girl whined. She had her long blonde hair braided back and a pair of large black framed glasses on her face. She and Scott had the same pale eyes and button nose. I guessed that they were siblings. "There's not another house for miles. It's getting dark and cold out."

"We may get cell service somewhere," Scott said.

"You won't," Jimmy said. "I don't know of anyone who gets service around here. If you haven't noticed we are kind of in the middle of nowhere."

They all let out a deep breath, which was visible in the cold night air. The sun had gone down more than an hour ago. They all stood on the porch shivering.

"Let's go back and sleep in the car," Scott told the girls. Brittany rolled her eyes and groaned. "We'll set out in the morning. It'll be warmer and we'll have daylight."

"Do you want to come inside?" Jimmy asked.

My fingers curled tighter into Jimmy's arm. He was about to let three strangers into the house. He had told me that everyone outside is dangerous.

"We don't have a phone, but we have a spare room," he said. "It's warmer than your car and would be a lot more comfortable. We have food too. You can go into town in the morning."

"You have cars." Brittany pointed to the truck. "Could you give us a ride into town?"

"It would be pointless," Jimmy said. "It's Sunday night. All of the stores are closed."

"The people that live there must have phones."

"Listen," Jimmy said. Anger was creeping into his voice. "I'm being nice enough to let you stay in our house for the night. I'm not going to drive you into town this late so that you can go knocking on strangers' doors. You can take my offer or walk back to your car."

They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Jimmy took a couple of steps back so that he could open the door wider. I shuffled back with him. The blonde girl was the first to take a step into the house.

"Wait, Erica," Brittany said.

Erica stopped, but she already had one foot in the house. She looked over her shoulder at the others standing outside.

"What?" she asked. "I don't want to spend the night in the car. Anyways, isn't this what this trip is supposed to be about? A little bit of adventure? Stories to tell later? Come on, imagine the jokes you and Scott can make about this at your wedding."

Erica stepped into the house and Scott followed her. Brittany stood on the porch as she shivered.

"Come on, Brit," Scott said. "Are you seriously going to wait out in the cold?"

She threw her arms up in the air and scowled as she marched into the house. Jimmy closed the door behind them. None of them noticed him locking it. Even in a house full of people, Jimmy did not trust me to not run away.

A wave of nausea hit me as Jimmy showed them into the kitchen. My mind raced back to my first night here. I thought back to that girl they dragged into the house screaming and the man with the slit throat.

They were going to kill these people