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I mindlessly answered on speakerphone when a woman’s voice drawled my name.
The air in the room chilled as my eyes darted to Zack’s. He started recording our call on his phone, and I nodded.
“Who is this?” I asked, recognizing Carmella’s voice immediately.
“Your friend and longtime companion.” She laughed the familiar cackle that slammed me back to the warehouse she’d kept me in.
My body trembled as I stared at my phone, willing her to disappear.
“What do you want?” I tried to keep my voice steady. I would never let this woman know the fear and pain she’d caused me.
“Just a friendly call to let you know that I’ve forgiven you.”
“Forgiven me?” I choked out.
“Yes. I’ve forgiven, but I will never forget.” She stayed silent for a few seconds. “I’ve heard Washington is a lovely place to visit this time of year.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Of course you would. But we won’t go into that. I have dinner to go to in the city. I just wanted to touch base with you since I’m out now, and I have no intentions of going back. Good night.”
I didn’t say a word and waited for her to hang up as my pulse pounded heavily and the nightmare of my life swirled around me.
Handing my half-eaten ice cream to Zack, I stood and wandered to the window overlooking the back yard. It was as if I half expected her to come running up to the glass to scare me.
Zack stood behind me and drew in a deep breath. “She’s brazen.”
I shrugged and nodded. “Always has been. Do you think she’s here?”
“I don’t know. It’s seven here and ten o’clock back in New York. Kind of late for dinner.”
“New Yorkers eat late all the time.”
He rested his hand on my shoulder. “Yeah. But it’s not too late to let the prosecutor know.”
I shook my head, trying to massage the ache away from my temples. “This just doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t. She’s smarter than this.” He removed his hand from my shoulder. “But we need to stay vigilant. I’ll send the prosecutor the recording so that he has it and understands what we’re dealing with.”
I turned to look at Zack. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”
“You never have to thank me, Sadie. You mean so much to me. You always will.”
Chapter Six
Zack
I couldn’t fall asleep as my mind rehashed everything from tonight. As I lay in bed, the house's silence was almost deafening. I’d quietly checked on Sadie more times than I could count, which was ridiculous since her guestroom was secured entirely along with the entire home. Between the state-of-the-art security system and automatically locking interior doors, there was little I had to worry about.
When my mind had almost let me rest, an eerie sensation shot me out of bed. I glanced around the darkened room as my heart rate jumped and my consciousness became less foggy.
Whatever bothered me wasn’t from inside this house, and it wasn’t a friendly black bear this time. I knew it deep in my soul. Ever since I was young, my brother and I had been taught to home in on our instincts. Our parents never told us why we needed to trust our gut until we were much older, close to adulthood. The reason shocked us, but it made us both grateful for our fine-tuned instincts.
And now was no different.
In the shadows, I moved to the window and glanced outside.
Nothing caught my eye.
