hated that she’d been crying.
“Go, before you sees you in here.”
Terrified, I looked around the room. The rug had been moved to the foot of the bed and rope was tied around the posts, but everything else seemed in place. Not understanding what was really going on, I shut the door and ran to my room. A few minutes later I heard the lock of my door.
That thumping that drove me mad started right afterward. This time my father was louder, groaning and talking to my mother. “I’m sorry, Susan. I don’t want to hurt you, but I need to be inside you.”
“I’m fine,” she said, no inflection in her voice.
“You’re not. I can tell.”
“I want to see the girls.”
“Tomorrow. This is for your own good.”
“How is keeping me away from my children for my own good.”
“It’s the only way I can think of to make you understand I have needs, too.”
What am I not giving you?”
“Besides a son to carry on my name, your attention.”
“You are always at work,” she muttered.
“Yes, Susan, I’m at work and my work is stressful. I can’t afford to be so tightly wound. There are times I need you to help relieve my stress and you just refuse me. If you want me to be able to continue to provide for this family, you have to be available to me more than you are.”
She muttered something.
“Don’t be mad.”
She didn’t respond to his form of apology.
“Don’t be mad, baby.”
Still, no response.
He said it again. Over and over, until I couldn’t stand the sound of his voice.
When I thought I might scream, I ran to the window and held up my bracelet. Blowing on it, all I wished for was that the incessant thumping end.
Something had happened that day. Some kind of switch had turned off for my mother. She was never the same after that. She didn’t cry anymore at night. Sure, I heard the thumping, and my father’s words, “I need to be inside you,” but that was all I ever heard again. Her cries in the night were gone.
Clementine started to cry and jolted me from the space in my head.
Had my sister been in the car, or had the charm been there the entire three months I’d been driving it?
I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever know.
Clementine’s cries continued, and I pulled her juice cup from my bag and handed it to her. She smiled. Happy and content once again, she leaned against the seat and drank from her cup.
Locked out of the garage, I backed down the side driveway, rounded the corner, and pulled up to the curb in front of Michael’s regal-looking brick home. There were no front lights on, and that made me nervous. They were on a timer, so they should have been on.
Was I being paranoid?
I contemplated for several seconds what to do before deciding what was best. I’d hurry up the walk to unlock the house and turn the lights on before I brought Clementine in.
She’d be safe. I wouldn’t be far away and I wouldn’t be long. I looked back at Clementine. She was chewing on the cup now. “I’ll be right back, silly girl.”
With a quick turn, I removed the keys from the ignition. My hands were shaking as I took the gun from my purse. Locking the car doors, I hurried up the walk.
That’s when I saw a shadow flicker across the only room in the house that had a light on. It was Michael’s office and he often forgot to turn it off, but the movement was what frightened me.
I gripped the gun tighter.
Logan had said, “Shoot to kill,” and that’s what I planned to do.
Was it my imagination, though?
Tree branches from the wind maybe?
A red light seemed to be blinking in the study.
I stared through the window, trying to figure out what it was. I couldn’t. Was I really seeing something? Was it my imagination? When I saw the same shadow again, I knew what I seeing had to be real.
I scanned the dark street and my entire body started to tremble. Without a doubt, I had seen movement in Michael’s office. I was now certain that someone was inside.
I glanced back at the car and the thought of Clementine being alone terrified me. I started to run to get to her, but I tripped on a step on the pathway, which landed me on my back.
Pain tore through me and I wasn’t certain I hadn’t sprained