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“It doesn’t matter why Silas changed his mind,” Clint said as he released his hold. “He came to us so maybe we can take care of things before they go too far. We’ll deal with the why later.”
“Oh, I think we all know the why,” Lovell responded.
Eve and Travis tried to lead the discussion, offering ways to stop Jenna, trying to figure out who else they could trust, beyond those in this room. More often than not they ended up with three or four people talking at once.
The easiest solution would be to get Jenna into one of the Mystic Springs jail cells, which would mute her powers. The problem was, she hadn’t shown her face around town. Only Silas and the Milhouses had met with her, as far as anyone knew. In order to lock her up, they had to get their hands on her.
They were in the process of making a plan which would use Silas as bait, which was no less than he deserved, when Luke’s head popped up. He looked directly at Silas, looked hard and long before saying, “Gabi needs you. Now.”
* * *
She couldn’t see Blake anymore, but he was out there. He hadn’t shown his face just to scare her and run away.
Gabi wished for a phone. Why hadn’t she bought one of those disposables at the grocery store and stuck it in a drawer, just in case? She’d call…
Who would she call? She didn’t even know Silas’s phone number, so what good would a cell do her now? She’d called Cindy at home from the shop a few times, to check on Mia, and she was pretty sure she could remember the number. If only her heart would stop beating so hard. Duh, if she had a phone she’d call 911. A county operator would forward her call to the Mystic Springs police station. Travis could get here in a matter of minutes.
Which was a worthless waste of a thought, since she didn’t have a phone.
She slunk over to the side window. The house next to hers was vacant, but she could see Cindy and Mike’s driveway from here. Some of it, anyway. Normally Mike’s pickup was parked at the back, close to the street, but it wasn’t there now. Was he working late? Was Cindy with him? Where could they be? It was Friday night. Maybe it was a date night for the couple. Dinner at that restaurant in Eufaula, the one Cindy raved about. A movie, maybe.
Again, it didn’t matter. Even if she was brave enough to make a run for it, she wouldn’t lead Blake straight to Cindy’s door.
All she could do was hope her doors and windows would hold until Silas got back. If Blake did manage to break in he wouldn’t find her empty handed. She’d never truly defended herself from him, but she would. She had more than herself to protect, now.
Judge stayed at her heel as she walked into the kitchen to fetch the biggest knife she owned from the butcher block.
The back door rattled. Once. Twice. It sounded as if someone kicked that door, but it held tight. She’d invested in the best deadbolts she could find when she’d moved into this house. It had been odd, she remembered. Luke Benedict had had exactly what she needed sitting on the front counter of his hardware store, when she’d gone in not sure exactly what she wanted. He’d even offered to install them for her, and he’d done a good job. No one was breaking past those locks.
Gabi flipped off the light in the kitchen as she left the room so that maybe if Blake looked inside the back window, the way he had through the front, he wouldn’t see her. He knew she was here, but she didn’t want him to know where in the house she’d settled to wait for Silas to return.
As she walked through the house she turned off one light and then another, until all was dark. There was a dim nightlight in Mia’s room, and a small green light on the thermostat in the living room. That was it.
Gabi sunk down in a back corner of the living room, where she could watch the front door. Maybe she should stand, but her knees were shaking, weak. She needed to gather her strength and if it sounded as if Blake might make his way in then she’d stand. If she could will Silas to return, if she could hope hard enough…
Judge placed himself not beside Gabi but in front of her, taking a pose that screamed of protection. As she reached out and rubbed a shaking hand along his side, she felt emboldened. Strengthened. The bloodhound looked as if he were ready to protect her, but she was just as ready to protect him. And to think, a few days ago she’d been insistent that she didn’t want a dog. At this moment it seemed Judge was her only friend. Her only hope.
The doorknob she was watching so closely moved. It rattled, gently at first and then harder. The entire door shook when it was kicked.
“You can’t keep me out all night, Gabi,” Blake called out in a voice barely loud enough for her to hear. “If a door doesn’t give a window will. None of your neighbors have been alarmed so far, so I think I’m good. No one will stop me this time. I can take all night to find a way in, if I want to. And I think I do.”
Gabi held her breath. She wanted to close her eyes and cover her ears, wanted to deny what she was seeing and hearing, but she didn’t dare. She rolled up on her knees, knife held steady before her. Blake kicked the door again. Judge barked, low and threatening. After that for a second, maybe two, all was silent.
“I never took you for an animal person.”
She tried to think of a sharp retort. I never took you for a psycho! Lame. So she said, in a soft voice Blake probably couldn’t hear, “Don’t you dare touch my dog.”
He whispered back, “I don’t want to touch your damned dog. You know what I want, don’t you?”
He wanted her dead. He wanted his daughter.
“You can’t have us,” Gabi whispered, and then she yelled, “You can’t have us!”
The door rattled. It shook again, and this time she heard something splinter.
Abruptly it stopped.
Gabi shot up and ran, heading for her daughter’s bedroom. Was that why the noise at the front door had stopped? Was Blake going to try the windows next? It would be easier to break a window and crawl in than to break down a door, and Mia’s bedroom window was low enough to the ground for that to be possible. She ran into the room, but didn’t turn on the light. If she did, Blake would know where she was.
