She Can Hide (She Can Series) (19 page)

Wait.

What was that?

She stepped closer. Panic skidded through her belly.

“Krista?” Joe’s boots thudded on the steps. “What are you doing?”

“I-I was looking for some more.” She jerked her eyes off what she instinctively knew she shouldn’t have seen.

“You have to wait until I give it to you.” His voice sharpened. He tilted his head.

Krista’s heart went trapped-rabbit.

Joe’s gaze traveled behind her. “You shouldn’t have come down here, Krista.”

Nausea rose in her throat. Her stomach heaved, and last night’s alcohol bubbled sour into her mouth. Joe came closer. He raised a hand and backhanded her across the face. Pain exploded through her cheek. Her legs folded, and she crumpled to the cement.

“Greedy bitch.” Joe stood over her. “I have to punish you for disobeying.”

“I promise I won’t say anything.”

“Oh, you won’t say anything.” Joe wrapped his hand in her hair and dragged her to her feet.

“Ow,” Krista cried.

Joe turned, anger gleaming from his dilated eyes. He’d been using without her. “You’ll do what you’re told, you fucking bitch.”

Fear slid through her bowels. He pulled a gun from the back of his pants and shoved the muzzle into her mouth. The metal tasted oily and sharp. “I will blow the back of your head onto the cinder blocks if you make one more sound. Do you understand?”

Krista’s head nodded like there weren’t any bones in her neck.

Joe took the muzzle from her mouth and ran it down her breasts to her crotch. “I wish I had time to punish you properly.”

Terror vibrated in her chest. Krista bit her tongue to hold back a moan.

“I have some cleaning up to do.” He stroked her cheek with the gun. The sight scraped her skin. “I wish I had time so we could have some fun. Or at least I could. But I have a delivery to make. Then you and I are going somewhere.”

No! She couldn’t leave. When would Derek be home? She thought it was afternoon, but time had been floaty that morning. School got out at three.

“Oh, you don’t like that idea?” Joe’s mouth split in a nasty grin.

“N-no.” She shook her head. The vibrating fear had amplified to trembles that shook her skeleton from her heels to her head.

“Well, I can’t leave you here. You know too much now.” Joe’s brows lowered as he considered something. “Would you rather wait until the kid gets home? Then he can come with us.”

A chill sprinted through Krista’s blood. The best thing she could do for Derek was get Joe out of the house. She shook her head again. “No. I’ll go with you.”

“That’s what I thought.” Joe produced a pair of handcuffs from one of the boxes. “I brought these especially for you. I’d intended to use them more for recreation. Hopefully we’ll have time for that later.” Light from the bare bulb on the ceiling joist glinted off silver. Joe snapped one cuff on her wrist. He dragged her to the wall and snapped the other ring around a pipe.

Joe opened an empty box and started loading it. “I won’t be much longer. I promise. Then it’s just you and me, baby.”

“Anything?” Ethan walked into the chief’s office and perched on the edge of a chair.

The chief took off a pair of frameless reading glasses and rubbed his eyes. “No. She didn’t recognize anyone. I tried to get some more information out of her, but she isn’t the easiest victim to interview.”

Ethan pictured Abby’s frustrated middle-of-the-night tears, and the calm that had followed the release of three years of pent-up emotion. “She doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“I guess not.” Mike leaned forward. He placed his elbows on his desk and pointed at the file with his reading glasses. “The case files on her kidnapping are awfully thin. Not much more information here than in the system. The hard evidence is in here, but most of that was compromised.”

“You think the Harris cops are holding out on us.”

“I doubt it. Sure, the scandal of a dirty cop wouldn’t help a department already skewered by the press. The prosecutor came in and cleaned house. I doubt he wants his new department soiled by an old crime.” The chief leaned back in his chair. He knew all about dirt and scandal. Westbury had its own political scandal of murder and deceit a few months back, and the fallout had almost cost the chief his life. Since then, the townspeople had elevated him to hero status. His support hefted a lot of weight. “But I think it’s more likely that Abrams didn’t put all of his notes in the file.”

“No sense incriminating himself.”

“Exactly.” The chief dropped his glasses on the blotter and rubbed his neck. “Stick close to her, Ethan.”

“I’d already planned on it.”

The chief nodded. “I thought so.”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“I don’t want anything to happen to her, and there’s no indication she’s anything but a victim.” Chief O’Connell scraped a beefy hand across his ruddy face. The sound of beard stubble rasped. “You have my full support.” The chief gave him a wry frown. “It’s not like I can throw stones.”

The chief and his fiancée, who was the center of a big murder case, were getting married in a few weeks.

“Thanks.” Ethan stood. Even though it didn’t affect his decision to protect Abby, it was good to know the chief had his back. Not that Ethan expected anything else.

“Is she cooperating?” the chief asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t know for how long.” Ethan voiced his fear. “What if this drags out? What if she wants to go back to living like a normal person?”

“I don’t know.” The chief closed the file. “Let’s take it one day at a time for now. Tonight, you keep her safe. We’ll address tomorrow in the morning.”

Ethan collected Abby and Zeus from the conference room. The lack of sleep from the night before and a day spent looking at photos on the computer showed in her eyes. “You want takeout or something from my mother’s vast stores of leftovers?”

“Either is fine.” Abby stood and let him steer her out of the building. “I need some fresh clothes and dog food. I’d also like to pick up the rental car.”

“You could just return it.” He climbed into his truck.

“I’d rather keep it for now,” Abby said. “Hopefully, this will all be over soon.”

“Maybe,” Ethan agreed. Optimism was a good sign. Unless she wanted the car because she was planning to go somewhere without him. Wait. Why read into her response? Last night they’d crossed a line. Their relationship was no longer professional or casual. She’d let him see her most terrifying secrets. She’d let him in. She’d trusted him. Surely she wouldn’t break that trust now. Not after what had passed between them.

He drove to Abby’s house. Night had descended on the small neighborhood. Abby’s house was dark.

Ethan made a U-turn and parked at the curb.

Her face was pale, her eyes wide with alarm. Was she afraid to go in?

“What’s wrong?” He touched her arm. She jumped.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Eyes glazed, she shook her head. “The lights aren’t on.”

Ethan followed her gaze to the dark house. “Should they be?”

“Yes. They’re set on timers.”

“That’s right. You told me that last night.” The hair on Ethan’s neck quivered. He glanced at the surrounding houses. “It looks like the whole neighborhood is down. Probably a blown transformer.”

Why hadn’t he noticed? Moonlight reflecting off the snow-covered ground brightened the evening and camouflaged the lack of electricity.

“I’ll check it out. You stay in the car and lock the doors.”

“No.” She grabbed the door handle and opened the door. “I can’t wait here by myself in the dark.”

Oh.
He squeezed her hand. “OK, we’ll stay together.”

There was as much determination as fear in Abby’s face. Her gloved hands shook, and in the gray moonlight, her face was as pale as the icy sidewalk. She was working hard to control her terror, but her body looked like the wind whipping off the street could knock her over.

She got out of the car. Zeus whined. “You stay here.” She closed the door, leaving the dog in the truck.

“You really think anyone would mess with him?” Ethan asked.

“Probably not.”

“He’d know if anything was wrong before we would.” Zeus was also big enough to eat an intruder in a few juicy bites.

Abby shook her head. “I can’t predict how he’ll react. He’s agitated.” She swallowed. “Plus, you said dogs can be poisoned or shot.”

“Yes, I did.” And he was a dumbass for pointing that out to her. She didn’t need any more worries. “All right, but stay behind me and do exactly what I say.”

She nodded, but Ethan didn’t have much confidence in her agreement. He’d asked her to stay behind at Roy Abrams’s house too, and look what that request had gotten him. She’d followed him to chase down a killer.

He tucked her behind him and walked toward the front door, heartbeats pounding in his ears. Abby’s breaths were too rapid and shallow.

“Breathe,” he whispered, putting a hand on her arm. Her body trembled.

She drew in a long, shaky breath, and then gave him a short nod. Ethan released her elbow and tuned his ears to the night sounds as they climbed the concrete steps to the front porch. The house was silent.

Ethan held out a hand. “Keys.”

Abby fished in her pocket and dumped her keychain into his open palm. As Ethan took it, he closed his fingers around hers and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Their gazes met. Emotion flashed in her eyes. She blinked it away and nodded toward the door.

Right. Get your head out of your ass and back in the game.

Ethan unlocked the door and eased it open. Nothing but quiet greeted them.

“I’m going to check the house,” he said.

“All right.” Abby’s teeth were chattering.

Leading with the flashlight, Ethan led the way into the living room. The room was warm, so the electricity hadn’t been out for long. He checked the house room-by-room, looking under every piece of furniture and checking every closet. Lastly, he passed through the kitchen and utility room into a garage too narrow to park anything in but the most compact of cars. Ethan gave the room a quick sweep of his flashlight beam. The space was fairly neat, except for an array of plastic bottles. Either Abby liked to shoot for the recycling container and had terrible aim or the big bucket had been knocked over. But there wasn’t anyone skulking behind Abby’s bike or trash can.

He returned to the living room. Abby had pulled a couple of camp lanterns from her closet, and the room was awash in their soft glow. She was on her cell phone.

“Everything looks fine.”

She ended her call. “The outage is isolated to this neighborhood. The power company is already working on it. A tree took out a transformer.”

“I’ll get Zeus and your bag. Why don’t you start gathering what you want to take with you?”

But Abby followed him out onto the porch. Ethan realized with a tightening of his chest that she couldn’t stay in the mostly dark house by herself. He opened the truck door and flipped the front seat forward. The dog barreled out. Ethan made a grab for his leash, but the massive canine moved faster than he expected.

“Here, boy,” Abby called.

Zeus dodged his mistress like a cutting horse. He stopped on the lawn. Nose scenting the air, he swiveled his head left and stared down the narrow strip of yard that separated Abby’s house from the hovel next door. The dog’s feet dug into the snow as he sprinted in the new direction. Snow flew from under his paws.

Ethan and Abby jogged after him.

They turned the corner. The dog was sniffing the ground. He stood up on his hind legs and pawed at the small garage window.

Abby grabbed for the dog’s collar and tugged him away from the house. Zeus obeyed, but he stood at Abby’s side on full alert, legs stiff, huge muscles tensed, hackles lifted.

Ethan swept the beam of his flashlight on the window.

“What do you see?” Abby asked.

“Scratches on the sill. Not sure if they’re from the dog’s claws or something else.” He turned back toward her. “I’ll need a ladder to get a better look.”

But the dog’s reaction was pretty clear. Someone had tried to break into Abby’s house.

Ethan glanced around the neighborhood. Shadows gathered beneath trees, shrubs, and sheds. He’d already checked the house for intruders. “Let’s get back inside.”

The dog sniffed. His head and tail were on alert. Tension radiated from his body.

“Let’s walk through the house so you can see if anything is missing or disturbed.”

“OK.” Abby nodded.

But Zeus ripped the leash from her hands and bolted for the back of the house. Abby and Ethan ran after him. The dog scrambled across the kitchen floor and hurled his front paws at the door that led into the garage.

Ethan grabbed the dog’s leash and hauled him back to Abby’s side. “Stay here,” he said to both of them.

He went through the door and swept his beam across the concrete floor again. He didn’t think it was possible that he’d missed a person in the garage, but he didn’t like the dog’s reaction one bit.

Skirting the recycling waste, his gaze went to the window to his left, the one that Zeus had zeroed in on outside. Even from ten feet away, he could see marks on the sill. He glanced down to maneuver through the littered floor and froze. The bottles at his feet contained a small amount of pale green liquid. The plastic was swollen and misshapen, not from being physically crushed, but from interior pressure.