and shrugged. “I was so frightened that I didn’t pay much attention. I thought they somehow managed it until ... well ... now. I’m really jittery, man. This is the freakiest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You look okay,” Hunter offered, his eyes traveling back to me. “But you look as if you’re about to throw up.”
He wasn’t far off with his observation. “I feel a little shaky,” I admitted.
“Neither of us has ever been threatened by crazy people before,” Sebastian supplied. “I think she needs a hug to feel better.” He immediately moved closer to me and slid his arm around my back. “They were going to kill us.”
“That’s what you said on the phone,” Hunter acknowledged. “You didn’t say why, though.”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“I appear to have time.” Hunter moved to Erin and checked her pulse. “They’re all alive. I see no wounds. I’ll call for the paramedics.”
“You might want to check Erin for a gun,” I said as he yanked out his phone. “She was acting like she had one.”
His eyebrows knitting, Hunter felt around the young woman’s clothing, grimacing when he came back with a small handgun. “You two wait right there. I’m calling this in, cuffing Barry, and then I’ll be right over.”
“Take your time,” I offered lamely.
Sebastian shot me a look. “You need to start acting like a normal person,” he whispered, keeping as close to me as humanly possible as he navigated me toward one of the settees. “If you don’t get it together, he’ll figure out something is going on.”
That was the most ludicrous thing I’d heard all day ... and given what we’d gone through, that was saying something. “You don’t think he’ll figure it out anyway? There’s no way to explain this.”
“Then we don’t explain it.” Sebastian’s voice was low but firm. “He doesn’t need to know it was you ... at least not right now.”
“But ... .”
“No.” His eyes were deadly serious. “You need to keep it quiet, at least until we can break things down. When we get a chance — and it probably won’t happen today — you and I will have a long talk. I wasn’t kidding about that. For now, keep your trap shut. I know that’s basically unheard of in your family, but you need to start learning about discretion.”
I shut my mouth and nodded. What he said made sense. Still, it was Hunter. I couldn’t keep this secret from him forever. But as I glanced back at the bodies strewn about the room, I realized Sebastian was right. For now, claiming we didn’t know what had happened was the only reasonable solution to our predicament.
“Okay.” Hunter slapped the cuffs on Barry and moved in our direction. “The paramedics are on their way. Tell me what happened.”
Sebastian launched into the tale, leaving nothing out but my magical intervention, and when he was finished Hunter looked stunned.
“I can’t believe it.” He scrubbed his cheek and shook his head. “I knew something weird was going on in Roy’s garage, but ... porn.” The horrified expression on his face would’ve made me laugh under different circumstances. “I can’t believe this.”
“Well, believe it.” Sebastian had recovered most of his bravado and was relishing being the center of attention. “Erin is supposedly pregnant by Roy because he lied about having a vasectomy. You might want to inform the paramedics about that little detail.”
“I will.” Hunter seemed baffled by the information we’d laid out. The disheveled room added to his unease. “It must have been an earthquake, right?”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian replied. “Whatever it was, it knocked Stormy and me down. We both covered our heads. It probably wasn’t smart because they had guns, but ... it was freaky, man.”
Hunter’s eyes sought — and found — mine. “You’re really okay?”
I nodded. “I’m okay. Just really shaky.”
“I don’t blame you.” He cracked a slight smile. “I’ll have the paramedics check you over, too. After that, I’ll get you home. It’ll be morning before these three are ready for questioning.”
Home. For once, the word wasn’t frightening. “I can live with that.”
IT WAS ALMOST TEN BEFORE HUNTER could leave the funeral home. I offered to call my grandfather to pick me up, but he insisted I wait. He wanted to take me home, and because I didn’t want to deal with myriad invasive questions I was willing to hang out and watch the emergency responders work.
“These locks are new,” I said dumbly when we got to the back door of my