TJ watched all the cool and bullshit drain from Ladarius’s face as the boy froze up before TJ walked out in the open, barefoot with her hands up, and said, “Just some kids looking for some shelter,” she said. “We thought this place was abandoned.”

“Abandoned?” the blonde girl said. “How many freaky deaky empty houses leave a Sub-Zero fridge and eighteen television sets? And Jesus Christ. Just how many of there are you?”

“Four,” TJ said. “Me and my little brother. Ladarius here and my friend Holly.”

“Y’all just go around and break into houses for kicks?” the girl asked, still holding a big-ass silver gun in her hands. Her hands shook some, but her hair and makeup were perfect, huge blue eyes accentuated with lots of mascara. She had one of those fake leopard coats with the fur-trimmed hood loose around her neck, the coat open and showing off a frilly white shirt and fancy jeans shredded on her thighs.

“We were cold and we were hungry,” TJ said. “And we’re about out of gas.”

“Nothing to eat here but jars of olives and stale crackers,” she said. “Where’d y’all get those steaks?”

“Piggly Wiggly,” Ladarius said, lying quick. “Two-for-one special. Sit down and I’ll grill you up one. How you like it? You look like a medium-rare kinda girl.”

“Both of you need to quit talking and sit down until the cops come,” the girl said. “I told my father something was wrong with the security system, but he wouldn’t listen. He said everything worked just perfect. Perfect, hell. Works great until some trashy-ass redneck kids break into our house.”

TJ nodded, knowing damn well what it felt like to be on the good side of the gun, and walked over beside Ladarius. They both took a seat at the big kitchen island. On the stove top, the iron skillet kept on smoking until the girl walked around and turned off the gas.

“Jesus H. Christ,” she said again. “Don’t you hicks have any sense? I mean really. You want to burn down the whole GD house. Go ahead and call down the rest of you. Let me have a look at the whole sorry bunch.”

TJ yelled for Holly and John Wesley, who were back in the great room watching that big-ass television. They’d moved on from Harry Potter and now were watching those Spy Kids movies from a long time back. She figured they’d been too busy eating steak and eggs to pay attention to this girl busting all up in the place.

When Holly walked into the kitchen, she immediately dropped her plate onto the floor, sending the meat and gristle and bone flying. “Oh, my god. Oh, my god.”