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“Shh!” Addy turned and shook her head at Charlotte, praying the little girl understood. Charlotte made a face and looked as if she might cry.
“Nine one one… what’s your emergency?” the woman on the other end of the line drawled.
“Get to 309 Orchard Street. Hurry!” Addy threw the phone onto the dresser, leaving the line on, praying the woman traced it or sent a car or something. She could hear her aunt moaning and then heard another crash. Addy felt her heart speed and adrenaline flow out to her limbs, making her arms and legs suddenly heavy. Her vision sharpened as she walked to the door and peered down the hall toward the top of the stairs.
She could lock both her and Charlotte inside her room. Momentary guilt flashed over her aunt, but she had to protect Charlotte. Maybe she could hide her in the closet…
“Addy.” His voice rose like a balloon in singsong madness. “Come out and play.”
Swallowing, Addy looked back at Charlotte.
“If you aren’t down here in five seconds, I’ll start using the old lady as a sharpening stone. Get my drift?”
Addy didn’t have time to think. She acted. Grabbing Charlotte while simultaneously slapping a hand over the wriggling child’s mouth and lifting her off the bed.
“Charlotte, there’s a bad man downstairs,” she whispered in the girl’s ear. “I want you to hide in my closet and be very, very quiet, okay? Don’t come out for anything.”
Charlotte struggled.
“Stop and do what Addy says, Charlotte,” she said, opening the door and literally dumping the girl within. Placing a finger over her mouth, she made the universal sign for being quiet.
Charlotte’s blue eyes filled with fear as she fell against Addy’s shoe boxes, but she didn’t make a noise. Addy grabbed the backpack and tossed it inside, praying the little girl understood enough to stay put. Addy knew fear sheeted off her and hoped the kid could read it.
She didn’t have much more time to think about anything else. Robbie was downstairs with her aunt… and obviously a knife. Switching off the TV, she searched the room for a weapon. Her pepper spray was in the kitchen. She’d shown Chris her wooden bat last Sunday when they’d washed her car because he’d wanted to see the Louisville Slugger her baseball coach brother had brought her from his trip to the factory. Why hadn’t she placed it back under her bed?
Addy would have to face Robbie with only her wits as a defense.
“Addy!” This time no singsong. Anger. “Get your ass down here or I stick the old lady.”
Addy walked down the stairs, fear her companion but somehow oddly calm about what she needed to do. Stay between him and Charlotte. Protect Flora as best she could.
She’d made it halfway down, when she saw him. Her knees nearly buckled.
“Ah, there’s my brown-eyed girl. Daddy’s home, punkin.’”
Bile rose in Addy’s throat and she closed her eyes for a brief moment, her breath coming fast. She gulped in air and opened her eyes. “Robbie.”
“Yeah, Robbie. Who’d ya think?” He looked different. Older. Heavier. Different. But just as sick.
Swallowing, she forced nonchalance. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to come say hello, didn’t I?” His smile reminded her of the Jack Nicholson character inThe Shining.The cheese was off the cracker.
Stay calm.
“Yeah, I heard you got out, but I figured you’d be ready to get on with your life.”
“Did ya? Well, I am. And guess what? It starts with you, so get your ass down here,” he said, fury glowing in his lurid eyes. He held a large hunting knife and he gestured with it. “Come to me. Now.”
Addy didn’t want to go, but she could see Aunt Flora’s legs out of the corner of her eye. She stepped down slowly, noting her aunt lay motionless and the small marble table just inside the living room had been knocked to the floor. He’d likely shoved her aunt. Flora wasn’t moving. A vise squeezed Addy’s heart, and she prayed her aunt was merely unconscious.
Robbie wore camouflage pants, a black T-shirt, and work boots. A scruffy goatee and bald head made him nothing like the man she’d once had a crush on. No boyishness or cunning charm. Prison had razor-sharpened his edges and eaten away at his mental stability.
“So you thought I’d get out and just forget about you?” He tsked, moving toward her, shaking his head like a father when facing a recalcitrant teen. Behind him the red light of the alarm system blinked, silently mocking her.
She’d never been safe. What a fool she’d been.
Motionless, she stood at the base of the stairs as Robbie walked, almost leisurely her way. “Of course I thought you would forget about me. You have a life to live, after all.”
