Our Broken Girl

Chapter Three

   All three of us are slumped at the dining room table. Our eyes heavy, the skin underneath dyed blue with our exhaustion. No one had really slept well and it was showing on all of us. We each had big containers of coffee sitting in front of us that we were slowly sipping on. No one had spoken since we all trudged our way in here around nine in the morning. I rest my forehead on the wood table and try to work up the strength to move my hands to pick up my mug of coffee. Someone yawns and it sets off a chain reaction of yawns through the rest of us.

   "So, what's the plan?" I hear Samantha ask and I raise my head to look at her.

   Not in the mood for delicate answers I reply to her, "You will stay here and Richard and I will go stake out the last place we believe she could be." Samantha's eyes light up with what looks like an impending argument. "No use in trying to fight about it. You will stay where you'll be safe while we go and try to find her." Samantha glares at me but I just drop my gaze to my mug and pick it up. I take a long gulp letting the liquid burn a trail down my throat.

I lean back against the back of the chair and close my eyes. We were wasting daylight just sitting here. "We need to get going Richard. We are wasting time." I force my legs to lift my weight from the chair I was currently sitting in. Once I'm standing I stretch out with my arms above my head and let out a little groan noise. Richard follows suit, walking to the cupboard and grabs two tumblers out. He pours the rest of his coffee in to one then tops it off with fresh, handing the other to me. I do the same and then grab the keys off the counter and toss them to Richard.

"Seriously Sam, if we bring back your best friend and your not here I will find you and beat your ass myself." Richard says which causes her to pout.

With a nod to Sam, Richard turns and heads to the front door. On the way by he pulls open a drawer in a table by the front door. I don't see what he pulls out and before I can ask he is out the door. I follow after him making a mental note to ask about it later. Once we are settled into the car Richard takes out his phone and pulls up the address of the house. Once the navigation has started we both look at each other and huff out a heavy breath.

He steers us out of the parking lot and out on to the open road. The navigation says that'll take us thirty minutes to get to the house so we settle into our seats with our coffee cups in one hand. We don't talk until we get a few minutes from the house. "So I'm going to drive pass the house once so we can get a good look then we can find a good vantage point and stay there." I nod my head in agreement with him and sit up in my seat keeping my eyes wide. I look around all the surroundings taking note of different land marks. There's a few gas stations and what appeared to be an old garage type of building on one side of the road but on the other was just woods.

We turn down a little dirt road beside one of the gas station and drive down a little ways before the little voice tells us, "You've arrived." We both hold our breath as the car rolls by the house. It's a red brick, one story house. The yard was unkempt and overgrown and there were no vechiles parked anywhere. We roll by slowly, our eyes scanning the property for any clues. Unfortunately, the house seemed to be on complete lock down. Richard rolls on down the one way dirt road before turning around and slowly creeping back towards the house. Unfortunately, the positioning of the house was not to be in our favor. There was no good spot to park where we could stay in the car and still be able to watch the house. Richard pulls the car on the side of the road so other cars could pass by us with ease.

"We're gonna have to get out and creep up there on foot." Richard says with a heavy sigh. He looks at me and I can see the nervous energy displayed in his eyes. "I don't feel good about this being the last option. There definitely didn't seem to be any kind of movement on that property."