Too Close to Home: A Scarecrow and Mrs. King Continuing Story - Book 2

Chapter 16

Dewey Franklin's Neighborhood

"If I thought you'd be safer, I'd ask you to stay in the car," Lee teased as he pulled the Vette to the curb a couple of blocks from Dewey Franklin's apartment complex.

Lee looked over at her, a look of quiet resignation on his face. "But I'm not 100% sure you'd be safer, so I'd rather you stay with me. Besides..." He winked.

"...I know, I know..."

"You/I never stay in the car and you/I know it..." they managed to say at the exact same moment. But Lee wasn't smiling; he was just looking at her with an inscrutable expression on his face.

"Well, you haven't asked me to in a long time. Maybe I could manage it now." Lee just continued looking at her. Amanda chuckled. "Yeah, maybe not." She reached for the door handle. "Well, let's do this."

Lee grabbed her arm, causing her to turn with surprise and look at him. "Listen, Amanda." He reached up, stroked her cheek, and tucked a piece of her dark hair behind her ear.

She waited for him to speak. When he didn't, she chuckled. "What?"

He stroked her hair back again, then dropped his hand to her thigh. "I don't have a great feeling about this, so we need to play this smart."

"Okay..."

"They were watching Benjamin Hoyt's place; it's only logical to assume they could be watching this place, too. So..." Lee looked around outside the car. "We're going to need to be more careful going in."

Amanda nodded her head. "You know, if they are watching, they're probably not just watching the front. So, going in the back isn't going to help us at all. We're gonna to have to find another way in that they either haven't thought of or that they think is unlikely for someone to use."

His serious gaze met hers as he nodded his head. "Exactly." He broke eye-contact and ducked his head to look out the window on her side of the car. "We're going to need to sneak around a few houses and come up to the building on the side. Maybe find a window to climb into."

Amanda screwed up her face. "Yeah. Okay."

"It's the only way, Amanda." He looked back into her eyes. "I'm not taking a chance on them seeing us and trying to take us all out."

Amanda started nodding her head even before he finished his sentence. "Yeah, I get it. It's fine." She turned to look out the windshield toward the apartment building. "So, we're going to get inside through another apartment, and then approach his door."

Lee gave a single nod of his head. "Yeah. You ready?"

"I'm ready." Amanda smiled.

Lee exited the Vette and came around to open Amanda's door and give her a hand out. Getting out of the low-slung vehicle never had been easy, but at 5 ½ months pregnant, he knew she found it much more challenging. Lee closed the car door behind her and reached for her hand again. "Just act normal. To anyone who may be watching, we're just heading to a friend's backyard, that's all."

"I get it, Lee. Remember, I passed the Agency's infiltration test." Amanda looked up at Lee and smiled as she pulled her purse strap further up on her shoulder. Hand-in-hand, they made their way up the driveway of a home near where they had parked, went around the house on the sidewalk beside the garage, and continued toward the rear of the house.

Lee looked around and bent his head toward her. "Okay, I think we're out of sight of the street." Tugging on her hand, he pulled Amanda down the line of a privacy fence toward an alley. Then, after glancing over their surroundings a moment, led her slowly behind the house and down an alley that ran parallel to the street they'd parked on. Spotting what looked like a loose board in a neighbor's fence, he looked down at her. "Come on..." He put his hand low on her back, looked around again, and indicated she should go through the fence "...this way."