Something smashes against a wall as I come up against their locked door. I pound a fist into the wood, rattling the wreath Maise insisted on hanging last week.
I get no response, just more crashing.
Hell.
I round the house, and what I find when I make it to the oversized windows of the sunroom flips my gut, sending heat through my veins. The room is trashed.
And vacant.
Dammit, Hank.
I try the sunroom door, but it too is locked. I back up a step and kick it in. My steel caps thunder down the hall as I head toward the racket further inside the house.
“Celeste! Where are you?” I peer into each doorway I pass—the guest bedroom, the TV room, the living room.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hank appears in the hallway, coming from the kitchen.
No, not again.
I hold my hands up, trying to look as unintimidating as possible. “I live next door, Hank. I just came to see if you’re okay, bud.”
He all but snarls at me. “I’m not your bud. I don’t even know you. Agnes lives next door, so who the hell are you?” His hands ball to fists by his sides.
Agnes. My grandmother.
Fuck, this meltdown of Hank’s is worse than I thought.
“I’m her grandson, Hank. Staying with her for a while.” I decide to play along to avoid enraging him further.
“Never heard of you!” He picks up a vase on the hallway side table and tosses it at my head. I duck sideways, and it shatters the second it connects with the wall, shards raining onto the hardwood floor.
All I can think of is getting to Celeste.
But she’ll have my balls for baubles if I hurt her father to get to her. Too damn selfless for her own good, that little woman.
I take a step toward the kitchen.
“Don’t come any closer, or...” Hank tilts his head, gaze tightening like he means business.
Which he fucking does.
“I just want to make sure Celeste is alright.Please.”
His face blanks.
“Please, Hank, let me past.”
“I don’t know who you’re dribbling about, boy. Me and Tisha are in the middle of something here. And it ain’t none of your business.”
The fuck?
“I know you don’t want to hurt her. I just want to check she’s okay. Come on, Hank.”
But he doesn’t back down, stepping into my space now. “Why is another man coming to check up on my wife, hey?”
Oh geez.
“I’m just a friend, nothing more.”
