Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,124
and then went down the hallway toward Mommy’s room. You need to go check on her. He knocked over the lamp.”
The monster. In the house. I push off the mattress. Lucy has nightmares, but I don’t like hearing about shadows and I sure as hell don’t want to hear about shadows knocking over lamps. I grab my baseball bat. “Stay here.”
I flick on the light to my room so I don’t leave her quaking in the dark and toss her my cell. “If I yell, you run upstairs to Veronica, okay? Her daddy is there, and he’ll take care of you. You tell them to call the police. You tell him to stay there and protect you and Veronica. Do you understand?”
Lucy strangles her doll and nods too quickly.
The bat hangs from my fingertips as I walk into the dark living room. I flip the switch, but there’s no light. I flip it down then back up. Nothing. The hair on the back of my neck rises and my eyes narrow. Something’s wrong.
If there’s someone in this house, I’m going to beat the hell out of them and then drag them upstairs to Ulysses. With the way that guy threatened me with his eyes for just the possibility of hurting his daughter, I’m sure he’ll happily take care of any bastard that’s stupid enough to break into this house. Bet the man owns swampland where he dumps the bodies of people who look at his daughter the wrong way.
Remembering our first night here, I raise the bat to my ear and slowly maneuver through the living room. As I place my foot on the floor, stinging pain. I lurch back and spot pieces of the broken lamp. My heart thuds in my ears. I didn’t hear it break and that causes my blood to course faster. My headphones were in. Music was playing. How much haven’t I heard while living here?
“Lucy,” I say in a low tone, a steady tone, as I’m trying real hard not to show emotion. “I changed my mind. Call Veronica now. While you’re on the phone with her, circle behind me and go up the stairs to Veronica’s.”
“What about Mommy?” Her voice trembles.
“I’ll get her, but I want you safe first.”
Lucy does what I ask, my cell to her ear, Veronica’s face on the screen as it rings. Her feet pad across the room at a run, the front door flings open, so hard that it bounces against the wall, and I maneuver along with her to spot her sprinting along the foyer and then up the stairs.
I’m slow as I make my way toward the kitchen, eye the empty room, and then creep along the hallway for Mom. Music plays from behind her closed door. It’s a slow song with a mixed-up beat and a creepy deep voice. I lean forward, place my hand on the knob and it vibrates under my skin from the bass. “Mom.”
I listen for a few beats and I hear something. Her voice—a grunt like she’s in pain—then a man speaks. It’s rough, it’s demanding and something dangerous pops in my chest. I barrel though the door, bat by my ear, ready to swing. A man has her pinned on the bed, his hands holding her down. “Get off her!”
“Sawyer!” Mom gasps as the man rolls away from her. Her blond hair falls wildly over her bare shoulders. She grabs a sheet and pulls it over her body. Her naked body. A man with a hairy chest snatches a pillow and puts it over a place I shouldn’t be seeing.
My brain convulses, like a DVD stuck in the player. “What the—”
“What are you doing?” Mom bites out and her anger feeds mine.
“Me? What am I doing? Who is this?”
Mom pulls the sheet up higher as she sloppily reaches for the speaker on the bedside table. She hits it once, twice, and finally gets it right on the third try. I grow eerily cold as I let the bat drop from my ear. “Are you drunk?”
“I had a drink,” she said.
A drink? “It’s Monday night. A school night. In fact, where were you today? Did that drink take you all damn night? Is this who you were with while I took care of your daughter?”
“Get out of here, Sawyer.” Mom slurs my name.
“Where’d you get the drink?” I demand. “Because you haven’t been shopping. You drank all that was in the house on Friday.”
Mom leans up on her knees, sheet