After tossing my things neatly in the closet, I grabbed my paper, pencil, and tablet before jogging back downstairs. Nana already sat on the steps, sipping a glass of tea, her toes sparkling in the sun. She’d selected a cool, silver polish. I settled next to her and started my research.
With the heat and the hard step, I struggled to stay focused. After only an hour, I set the tablet aside and ran in to get an iced tea, taking up Nana on her offer to help myself. When I came back, Emmitt sat in my spot and looked up at me hopefully. Nana held the tablet, staring at it intently.
“Can I have a drink?” he asked, looking at my glass. Since I’d already had a few sips and had gotten it more out of boredom than actual thirst, I handed it over with a smile. His gaze flicked to mine as he drank half the glass in a few long pulls. His request to take me to dinner echoed in my ears, and I flushed. Uncomfortable, I looked away and caught sight of the video Nana watched on the tablet.
Any blood rushing to my face immediately fled as I watched a huge, shaggy dog attack a man just outside of an office building. The grainy quality of the image and the distance between the camera and the attack made it hard to see clearly, but I couldn’t mistake Richard’s identity.
The person holding the camera swore, and the image on the screen dipped to show blacktop as the attack became savage. People screamed in the background. Some yelled for help. The person taking the video refocused on Richard’s prone form as the attack ended. He had been savaged, covered in red gore.
People ran toward him. The dog turned to look around, its eyes catching light and glinting for the camera before it leapt over a fence, clearing more than ten feet before sprinting away.
A strange popping sound filled my ears, then all noise ceased. The sun began to set suddenly and the sky grew dark. Nothing made sense. In the dim light, Emmitt’s eyes appeared before me, filled with worry.
Thankfully, the lights went out. I was glad I didn’t have to see any more.
Several someone’s called my name. I opened my eyes, disoriented. I heard Jim speaking.
“She’s okay. She just fainted. Emmitt caught her. She’s not hurt.”
Fainted? The image of Richard came back to me in a rush, and I closed my eyes. Oh, Richard. Blake said he’d died, but he hadn’t said how. I’d assumed something like poison or a setup mugging. Why would they do something so obvious?
“I don’t know,” Nana said. I hadn’t realized I’d spoke my question aloud.
A hand smoothed back my hair. I opened my eyes again and saw Emmitt. His deep blue eyes caressed my face. His arms cradled me as I half-sat in his lap.
“Nice catch,” I whispered. Some of the worry melted from his face, and his lips tilted up at the corners slightly.
“For you, always.”
I sat up, and he kept an arm around me. Blood rushed to my head, making me dizzy. I smiled at the boys. Their expressions were just as worried as Emmitt’s.
“I’m okay. Just got too warm. I think I need to go through the sprinkler,” I suggested.
Liam watched me a moment longer than Aden. He knew I lied. Smart boy. Jim encouraged them to go back to playing with him.
“I’m assuming that was Richard based on your reaction and question,” Nana said. I nodded. “This has gone too far. We need to find those responsible. They are killing, and that endangers us all. What we saw...that is not who we are,” she said sadly.
She rose and walked into the house. A moment later, I heard her speaking. Emmitt stayed close, comforting me. My eyes traveled the trees, scanning. Nothing had really changed, nothing to think that Blake and his men were any closer to finding me, but it didn’t matter. Fear ruled me, again.
Chapter 13
At first, I couldn’t bring myself to let the boys out of my sight. Nana, Jim, and Emmitt all took turns talking to me, saying what I already understood. Nothing had changed except that we now knew how Richard had died. Though I knew they were right, it didn’t ease my fears. Liam and Aden, clueless about what I’d witnessed, didn’t understand my sudden smothering presence and started to rebel.
Reluctantly, I gave Liam and Aden a bit of much needed distance, but my concession didn’t change my nights. The slightest noise would bring me out of a doze, and panic would set in much like our first night there. So the week passed slowly, and within a few days, my head ached from poor sleep and constant worry.
Each day the concern in Emmitt’s watchful gaze grew. Thursday night after dinner, he pulled me aside.
“I’ll sleep on the couch after the boys go to bed.”
He didn’t ask, and I didn’t try to tell him no. I hoped having him there would help me sleep through the night.
When an ominous rumbling of thunder woke me Friday morning, I had mixed feelings. Liam and Aden would need to stay inside, but I’d forced too much inside time already this week. Today, they would mutiny for sure.