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I started to type out that I was sorry when a clattering sound, like something falling to the floor downstairs, echoed through the house. I froze, accidentally hitting send before finishing the text. I heard footsteps and relaxed, thinking maybe it was just Henry coming inside the house, but…
He was some sort of spy, right? He wouldn’t have been clumsy or careless enough to knock something over and make noise, and neither would his men.
I absently set my phone on the dresser before walking slowly out of the room and into the darkened hallway. The lights were still on downstairs, and there was no new noise coming from the foyer, living room, or kitchen.
But then I heard footsteps again, somewhere deep in the lower level of the house.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I crept down the stairs, my chest tightening with sudden panic as I set foot onto the landing and looked into the living room.
Day was asleep. I could see the top of his head. He was fine. He was safe—
I whipped around as something flew through the air behind me and bounced against the wall right next to the front door. A tennis ball bounced back down the hallway on the other side of the stairs, the seldom used hallway that led to the unfinished den and office space full of boxes of Grant’s old tech stuff.
“Henry?” I whispered. “J-Jenny?”
I didn’t hear the dog. She wasn’t the biggest fan of fetch. I looked over my shoulder at the fort and noticed with a start that Jenny wasn’t sleeping in her usual spot beside Day.
“Henry?” I said a little louder, my heart beginning to race. This wasn’t fucking funny.
I felt him behind me, smelled him, could sense that my life was about to take an abrupt turn. He placed his hand over my mouth before I could scream, pressing me painfully against his chest as his other arm roped over my belly.
“You’re coming with me,” Kirk hissed into my ear.
Tears welled in the corners of my eyes as I nodded. What else could I possibly do?
“You think I was just going to let you get away, Moira?” he rasped against my neck. “You think I haven’t been dreaming about what this moment was going to be like?”
“Please—” I begged into his hand as he backed me down the darkened hallway and into the den.
He kept a hand on my mouth as he reached for something in the dark.
“Can that little brat swim, by chance?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, terror ripping through me as he pressed something sharp against my back.
“Not that it’ll matter. It’ll be hard to stay above water with weights tied to your feet, huh?”
I almost puked.
I heard a quiet whine and looked down through the dark to find Jenny lying on her side, her mouth taped shut and legs tied together. Tears fell down my cheeks as I tried to get my bearings and hatch a plan, but my body was numb, stunned with terror and grief and regret.
“Moira?” came a sharp voice from deep in the house, followed by cursing as Henry’s voice rang out again. I heard a gun cock just as Kirk pressed the tip of a knife against my back, holding me still.
“Don’t make a fucking sound,” he growled, but I didn’t hear him. I was silently sobbing with relief as I heard Henry waking up Day. Day was safe, Day was safe.
Day was safe.
Kirk could take me, kill me, get his revenge on me for running from him.
And Day would be safe with Grant, forever.
Gunshots rang through the air followed by the sound of drywall crumbling to the ground. I jumped, and so did Kirk, his grasp on me momentarily slacking to the point I could jump and roll out his grip and scream.
So, I did. I screamed loud enough to send a tremor through the house as I grabbed for Jenny, but Kirk grabbed me around the waist, trying to pull me back to him.
I reared back with all of my strength, the back of my head cracking against his nose.
And then I was on the floor, crawling to safety as Henry leapt through the archway to the den and tackled Kirk to the ground.
