easily withstand a Cat 4. We have food and water and everything we’ll need. Remember all the stuff you tuned out when we planned the house about the reinforced roof and hurricane ties?” He smiled. “Remember how you waved your hand and told me to handle it and do whatever I thought was best?”
Tyler nodded.
“We’re as safe here as we would be in any shelter. The shutters are up, we’ll get everything picked up outside and moved in, and we’ll be buttoned up in here.” He pulled Tyler to him for a hug. “They’re predicting the outer bands will make landfall tomorrow night, with the eye hitting sometime Friday afternoon. So let’s get this done so we can have time to relax after dinner.”
* * * *
Alex LaRogue stood in line at the bus stop to board a county transit bus. The marquee on the front of the bus read H’CAINE SHELTER . No fare needed, he shuffled down to a seat as far back as he could get. The night before, he’d found a homeless camp to sleep at. Even better, after getting another man drunk from the cheap bottle of whiskey he’d shoplifted, he’d stolen the man’s ID right out of his wallet, along with the fifteen dollars he’d had on him. They looked enough alike.
Unless they fingerprinted him, Alex knew he could now reasonably pass as Eric Johnson, who was eight years older than him. That didn’t matter. Their eyes and hair color were close, as were their height and build. And since Alex hadn’t shaved in a while, his beard and mustache, peppered with gray, helped complete the deception.
As long as he didn’t attract any attention to himself, no one would likely question him about it.
He found welcomed chaos at the hurricane shelter set up at a high school where the Red Cross had opened an emergency shelter. He stepped off the bus and was directed to a registration line snaking around the cafeteria.
From the harried faces of the obviously overwhelmed volunteers, no one would take a second look at his stolen ID.
A volunteer walked down the line with a bullhorn in her hand. “We are looking for any volunteers willing to be bused to a regional shelter in Orlando. Our shelter space here is extremely limited. You will be provided with free transportation back to Tampa after the storm has passed. Do we have any volunteers who want…”
His gaze narrowed. Isn’t this just my lucky day? He patted his shirt, where he kept the address book he’d stolen from Nevaeh’s house tucked into his undershirt. Come hell or high water, he wouldn’t lose it.
It was his key to finding that bitch and getting even with her once and for all. It would have been nice killing those fag boys of hers when he stole the address book, but he wasn’t an idiot. It’d been sheer luck he’d been able to sneak into the house while the men were around back putting up hurricane shutters. And they had at least two other men helping them. He would have been outnumbered. But the gas receipts on the kitchen counter, and overheard snippets of their conversation, pointed to Nevaeh and her brats being in Savannah.
Now he just had to go through the contacts in the address book, one by one, to find her. It looked like several of that Kinsey guy’s family was in Savannah, and that’s where he’d start.
No one makes a fool out of Alex LaRogue. That cunt’s gonna wish she’d never met them two fag boys. She’s damn sure gonna wish she’d never pissed me off when her day of reckoning comes.
He stepped forward. “I’ll go.”
“Great.” The volunteer directed him, as well as several others who stepped out of the registration line, over to a far shorter line queuing in front of several tour buses.
Alex couldn’t help but smile. It would be easy to hitchhike a ride northbound to Savannah from Orlando.
Chapter Three
As they did nearly every Wednesday night, Tom’s twin niece and nephew, Danny and Elle, and their dad, Clay, came over for dinner at Peggy’s. It had quickly become a new tradition