Love at First Sight - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,69
caused her to recognize him as the same man she’d seen only briefly before. His ears. They were good-size and stood out from his head in a way that she hadn’t realized made him very recognizable. Even in silhouette.
“Where is he?” Annette asked as she took the photograph back.
She looked up at her. “Where is who?”
“My brother.”
Karen slipped closer to the fireplace. “I have no idea.” She bumped into the stone with her heel.
“He isn’t here?” Annette glanced around nervously and Karen took that moment of distraction to reach behind her and feel for the poker.
“Why would he be here?” Karen asked and darted a look toward the bedroom.
It worked. Annette followed her gaze in that direction, giving Karen the opening she needed. She gripped the poker firmly and swung. It was only a glancing blow, but enough to knock Annette out. Her eyes rolled back and she slumped, the gun and cell phone clattering to the floor next to her.
Karen held the poker, waiting to see if the woman moved. When Annette didn’t, Karen exchanged the poker for the gun and cell phone.
Holding the gun on her, hands trembling, Karen punched in 911. Thunder boomed overhead. Rain pounded at the window. It took her a moment to realize that the number wasn’t ringing. She tried again without any luck. The tower must have gone down in the storm.
She looked down at Annette, not knowing what to do. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine Annette killing Liz. Or clobbering Howie with a rock. But then, before a few minutes ago, she couldn’t have imagined the woman holding a gun on her, either.
Annette still hadn’t moved, but Karen couldn’t trust that the woman wouldn’t come to soon. Tossing the cell phone aside, Karen pulled down the cord from the drapes and tied Annette’s hands and feet, keeping the gun nearby just in case.
When she’d finished, Karen noticed the gun. She stared in disbelief. It wasn’t loaded. Why had Annette come all the way up here to threaten her with an empty gun?
Something hit the window. She looked up startled. Raindrops began to beat against the glass. Wind rattled the panes as the sky darkened and thunder rumbled off in the distance.
For a moment, Karen stood frozen, afraid to move, too confused to know what to do if she did move.
She’d have to get Howie help. She had to get them both out of here. Now. Annette would have driven. Her car must be just down the road. Karen fished through the contents of Annette’s purse. No car keys. Then checked Annette’s pockets. She must have left the keys in the car.
She checked to make sure Annette’s feet and hands were still bound tightly enough, then started for the door, wondering what had made the woman think her brother would be here?
Karen opened the front door hesitantly, not sure who or what she’d find outside waiting for her. The sky had turned a bruised and angry blue-black. Rain dropped in a torrent. She could see her breath but little else through the cloudburst. It was now or never.
As she stepped off the porch, she ran toward the road as if the bogeyman were after her. For all she knew, he was.
OUT OF BREATH and drenched from the rain, Jack slowed as he neared his cousin Howard’s black sports car parked beside the road. Howard hadn’t driven all the way up the mountain. Not that Jack could blame him. The road only got worse closer to the lodge and Howard drove one of those expensive two-seaters. Jack realized that Howard had probably been lucky to get this far.
Jack had passed him that morning farther down the road, assuring himself that Howard was the perfect person to leave with Karen. His cousin had a black belt in karate, although you’d never know it based on his chosen profession—floral design.
As Jack drew closer to Howard’s car, he saw something that escalated his already rocking fear. All four of the tires had been flattened.
Jack started past the car at a run again. Ahead he could see that there was another vehicle parked up the road. He didn’t recognize it and realized Baxter would have ditched the cop car for something less conspicuous.
Jack had only gone a few yards when he heard a sound off to his right. He turned, but not quickly enough. Something hard and cold struck his temple. He saw a flash, like fireworks, then nothing. His last memory was of hitting