“How about Hanna?” I suggest. “She’s usually up late. And we don’t have to worry about waking up the kids by calling.”
“True.” Nora pulls out her phone and taps the screen a few times. “Anyway, I’m sure she won’t mind.”
But seconds later, she lowers the phone with a frown. “It went straight to voicemail.”
“Maybe she turned it off accidentally. Or the battery died while she was working in the darkroom, and she never realized.”
Nora doesn’t look convinced. “Maybe.” She taps the screen again, then raises the phone to her ear. “I’ll try Rylan. Since he and Charlie are both home, it won’t be?—”
“What?”
“It went straight to voicemail again.”
After a worried glance in my direction, Nora tries her phone again. Her expression grows grimmer as the seconds go by. “No one is answering,” she finally says. “I tried everyone. And each time, it just went right to voicemail.”
The splinter of unease wedges deeper. “I’m going tocheck the gate,” I say. “Just to see. You stay in the car. And if anything happens?—”
“Stay in thecar?” Nora shoots me anare you kiddinglook. “If you’re checking the gate, you’d better believe I’m going to have your six.”
Right. I don’t know what I was thinking. As if my wife would ever sit passively in the car while I investigate potential danger. “Fine,” I reply. “But at least let me go first.”
Yes, I’m aware that Nora is just as capable—shit, probably more capable—than me. She was trained for this kind of thing, while, as a Night Stalker, I was more focused on flying. But fuck, she’s my wife. I should be protecting her.
Nora’s already out of the car by the time I reach the passenger side. The wind tugs at her hair, pulling it free of her braid. Her chin is held high, and her shoulders are squared. Her jacket is half unzipped, no doubt to provide easy access to the Sig I know she has tucked inside.
“After you,” she says while gesturing at the gate. Her lips twitch. She knows as well as I do that she could easily go first. But she also knows how I feel, and she’s okay with it.
As we approach the gate, a sense of foreboding settles over me. It’s like the time when I got the call telling me Adam and Vince had been killed. As soon as the phone rang, I just knew it was bad news. And my instinct was right.
But that was different,I reassure myself. Adam and Vince were on an op. They were piloting a Black Hawkthrough enemy territory. Death was always a possibility. Here, we’re supposed to be safe.
Safe like Nora thought she was before that asshole abducted her?a doubtful voice whispers in my head.Safe like Finn and Hanna thought they were, before the garage was bombed? Safe like Charlie thought she was right before she was snatched up by her stalker right in downtown Sleepy Hollow?
“I’m getting a bad feeling,” Nora whispers. “I can’t explain it. I just am.”
Though I want to tell her not to worry, I’m not going to lie to her. “I know. But maybe it’s nothing. Maybe?—”
As my hand touches the gate, it begins to swing open.
My heart stalls.
It’s not supposed to do that.
Ever.
If the power goes off, there’s supposed to be an automatic shutdown. All the doors and gates and windows are supposed to lock from the outside, and only people on the inside can open them. Leo explained it to me when I first moved in with Nora, and I’m certain it hasn’t changed since then.
Nora flashes me a worried look. “It’s not supposed to open. Not from the outside. Not like this.”
“I know.” My pulse speeds. With a light push, the gate opens further, leaving us enough room to squeeze through.
Just as I’m about to move, Nora says, “The car. We should turn it off. Just in case—” She darts off before Ican stop her, and seconds later, the engine falls silent. The headlights switch off. Then she’s back beside me, her gun now at low ready.
“Something’s wrong,” she adds in a whisper. “The lights all out, the phones not working, and now the gate…”
“I know.” I cast a quick glance at the darkened building. “Maybe we should call the police.”
Nora jabs me in the ribs. “The police? And what are we going to tell them? The power is out? The gate is unlocked? Hardly reason to send out a squad car.”
