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“Yeah, thank you, Jim.”
Jim whirled at the deep, sarcasm-laden voice that came from behind him, but not in time. The tire iron caught him upside the head before he could even blink. His vision exploded. He went to his knees, struggled to stay conscious, but then the second blow landed and he went over onto his side.
“Vinnie, stop it!” Angela cried. You’re gonna kill him!”
But the blows kept on coming. Then she shouted, “Vinnie, there’s a car coming. Come on, you’re wasting time.”
Vinnie swore, gripped his arms, and dragged over the driveway, then around toward the back yard. “Go get the kid,” Vinnie repeated. “Then we’ll see.”
God, no. They were going after Tyler. No, it couldn’t happen! He had to stay awake, had to get up, had to...
“Will you fucking die, already, Corona?” A boot connected with his ribs, then his head. And blackness descended.
* * *
Kara paced in the church’s tiny rectory, counting off steps across the room. Nine. Nine steps. But she’d traversed it so many times by now that she thought she’d clocked nine hundred.
“Honey, they probably had a flat tire... or something,” Maya said.
“Or maybe he’s just not coming.” Kara closed her eyes, tried to quell the doubts in her mind, but there was no silencing them. Not now.
“Of course he’s coming,” Maya told her. “Mom’s on the phone right now, trying to get hold of someone. And you know the guys were going over there so they could all come to the church together. They’d have let us know if anything was wrong.”
The full male contingent of her immediate family, Kara thought. What would they do when Jimmy told them he’d changed his mind? The idea of them going to get him hadn’t been to force him to show up. They’d wanted to make him feel a part of the family, surrounded by the rest of the men. An exercise in male bonding, she’d supposed.
Or maybe she shouldn’t have believed that lame explanation. Maybe her brothers-in-law had sensed, as she had, that Jimmy didn’t love her. That this marriage was based on something else entirely. Probably they’d known from the start—maybe men could see that kind of thing in other men. And most likely they would bring him here on the end of a shotgun barrel if necessary.
She didn’t want him like that, though.
From beyond the rectory door she heard her mother cussing at the telephone. Her mother never cussed. Especially not in church.
“It’s enough, it’s just enough already,” Kara said. “He’s a half hour late. He’s not coming.” She reached behind her for the zipper, intending to get out of the gorgeous gown so she wouldn’t have to keep pacing back and forth in front of its reflection. It was a sorry, sad reminder of her ridiculous little fantasy.
She couldn’t reach the zipper, though, and she sent a desperate look over her shoulder. “Someone get me out of this thing.”
“Kara, don’t. Just give it a little more time,” Edie said.
Kara turned fully and glared at her. “Isn’t it obvious to anyone but me? He’s not coming!” She hated the tears for burning in her eyes, forcing their way out.
“That’s it,” Mel barked. “I’m going over there. If this joker thinks he can get away with pulling this kind of crap onmysister—”
“Something’s wrong.”
Everyone fell silent as all eyes turned to Selene, who’d been keeping the twins occupied by playing Chutes and Ladders with them on the pastor’s desk.
“What is it, Selene?” Maya asked. “What are you sensing?”
Selene met her eyes, then her gaze slid to Kara’s. It was grim and dark. “I don’t know, but I know it’s not what you think. Something’s... wrong. Big and dark and wrong. I think we need to go over there.”
Kara felt the blood drain from her face. Guilt swamped her. She’d been pacing and feeling sorry for herself and becoming increasingly angry at Jimmy. What if something had happened to him? Visions of a car accident on the way to the church, of flaming wreckage, suddenly swirled into her mind and terrified her. “What about Tyler?” she whispered. Then she bunched her skirts up in her fists and headed for the rectory door, flinging it open, racing down the aisle of the church, past the pews all draped in pine garland and white roses, toward the tall red double doors that stood at the far end.
Before she got there, the doors opened. Caleb stood there, and the look on his face stopped her in her tracks. She stood four feet from him, her skirts in her hands.
“Caleb, what’s happened?” Kara asked, barely aware of her mother and sisters gathering around her, touching her, holding her.
“Jim’s been hurt. You’d better come with me, hon. We need to get to the hospital.”
“Hospital?” She pressed a hand to her chest and started forward on wobbly knees. “What happened? Is he all right?”
