signs of someone else. Breathing, rustling, anything.
But the only sound I heard was the beating of my own heart, loud enough to wake the dead guys at my feet.
I tip-toed around the blood, careful not to leave my footprints in it. Getting a murder charge would not be the best way to end this hellish twenty-four hours. I didn’t touch a thing, just moved quietly and slowly through the living room, looking for any sign of what had happened, forcing myself not to look at the bodies.
What little I’d seen would haunt me for years. My eyes didn’t need to flash their way to know exactly what they looked like. That image was burned forever in my brain.
Once I was sure the room was otherwise empty, I moved into the kitchen. It looked eerily neat and normal after the nightmare of the living room. Clean dishes were piled in a drain tray on one side of the sink, and an empty coffee mug sat on the other. Nothing else was out of place. The table and chairs were shiny, clean and devoid of any junk, like one of the guys had just cleaned it that day. I looked around and whispered Laura’s name again, but quickly moved on. She wasn’t here.
I felt a pang of guilt at the relief sweeping over me. Someone had taken care of Seaport’s problem. These shamans would never summon spirits into anyone’s house again. No one else would get hurt. No one else would die. But, even though they’d hurt people, did they deserve to die this way, obviously suffering in the last moments of their life? Even though they’d done terrible things, I had a hard time believing they deserved it.
Maybe I was just weak.
After checking the empty bedrooms and office, I moved back down the hallway at a loss. Had they just been bluffing about having Laura? I should have made them give her the phone and let her say something, give me proof. I’d blindly stumbled into this thing, thinking they’d meant what they’d said.
I tried to ignore the thought trying to break through my shocked haze, but I couldn’t.
What if the person who had killed the shamans had taken Laura?
I collapsed onto the floor and clenched my hands in my lap. This had happened within the past hour. If I’d been quicker, if I’d gotten here sooner, then maybe I could have done something. Laura wouldn’t be gone. Taken by a murderer. No matter how terrible the two shamans had been, they hadn’t sliced anyone’s neck. That took a different kind of person, and it scared the hell out of me to think of Laura in the company of someone like that. Cold, brutal.
I was at my breaking point, and I didn’t know how much more I could take before I needed to crawl into a hole and hide there for days. Block out the world.
I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and stood. Breaking wouldn’t help anyone. I needed to be strong just a little longer.
“Holly!” Nathan rushed up to me and pulled me into his arms, breathing heavy into my hair. “Thank god you’re okay. When I saw the blood…”
“It was the shamans,” I said, relaxing into his arms as they tightened around me. “Someone killed them.”
He pulled away, and his green eyes searched my face. “Where’s Laura?”
“I don’t know.” My voice cracked, and I glanced around. “Help me look?”
I turned back down the hallway and paused when we passed the door to the garage. My eyes widened, and a blind hope bubbled inside me. I covered my hand with the bottom of my t-shirt and twisted the knob. A musty, rotting scent hit my nose as I blinked at the blinding light. I hesitated before settling my eyes on a wiggling figure tied to a chair.
Laura!
My heart swelled with overwhelming relief as I ran down the steps. She had duct tape over her mouth, but I could tell she was smiling. And not covered in even a speck of blood. I’d never been so happy to see someone in my life. When I reached her, my arms flew around both her and the chair she was trapped in, and I smelled the familiar peachy scent of her shampoo.
My best friend was alive.
“Mmm mmm hm,” she said into the tape.
I laughed and realized tears were falling from my eyes. I didn’t care. Laura was okay. She wasn’t hurt, kidnapped…or worse.
Nathan squatted in front of her and worked to