Page 14

“Shit.” Paula jerks away from my touch.

“You said he was working nights,” I hiss, pulse hammering behind my ribs. How is this happening to me again?

“He is! He’s not supposed to be home yet.”

Another set of footsteps thumps from below. “Paula.”

Something in Earl’s voice raises goosebumps over my body, and I frantically scan the room. “Where the fuck do I go?”

She shoves me farther toward the bed before spinning toward the hallway. “Stay in here. Don't make a sound.”

Hastily tightening the towel around herself, she throws one last panicked look over her shoulder and leaves, shutting the door quietly behind her. The heavy footsteps continue climbing the stairs, closer, closer. I stand frozen beside the bed, barely breathing as the floor creaks outside.

“Who the fuck is here?”

Paula lets out a laugh that sounds painfully forced. “No one, baby. You scared me half to death coming home early.”

“No one? Then whose red Camaro is parked on the lawn?”

Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut, heart dropping into my stomach. I can't believe this. You never learn, Benji.

Paula clears her throat. “Gale’s nephew stopped by.”

“At nine o’clock at night?”

All instinct screams at me to find literally anywhere else to be. The closet, under the bed. Fuck, anywhere other than standing here in the open like a sitting duck.

“He ran into me at Mary's and seemed upset,” Paula rushes to explain. “We were just talking.”

“Mm.” The sheriff shifts outside the door, fabric rustling faintly. A metallic click echoes off the walls, and the familiar sound of a gun being loaded has me bolting toward the window.

“Boy,” Earl growls from the hallway. “You got about five seconds to come out before I blow this damn door off its hinges.”

The woods loom beyond the house endlessly. A deer carcass sways faintly from a tree branch, ribcage gleaming pale in the moonlight. Below, it's too dark to see the distance if I jumped, but breaking an ankle sounds infinitely better than getting my head shot off.

“Five.”

I’ve swung one leg over, ready to lift the other when an enormous shadow slithers through the trees. My breath catches, attention snapping to it like a magnet.

“Four.”

Whatever the thing is pauses at the edge of the yard, watching the house. Watching me. Its eyes reflect in the dark, two glowing circles staring straight into my soul. Just like the drawing in Dennis’s journal.

“Three.” A violent thump cracks against the bedroom door, and I jump so hard that I nearly fall head-first.

“Two! I ain't playin’ around, kid.”

“Earl,” Paula hisses under her breath, but the sheriff cuts her off.

“One.”

“Okay!” I shout, tearing my gaze from the woods, away from that shape still pacing the tree line. “I'm coming out. Don't shoot.”

Lunging for the door before he actually follows through on the threat, I yank it open hard enough that Earl nearly barrels into me.

The man is stockier than I’d imagined. Not very tall, but wide, with gray streaks cutting through his rugged beard and dark, murderous eyes.

“Evenin’, Sheriff,” I say calmly, despite how hard my hands are shaking.