“I’ll be all right, little man.”
“Can I sleep with you, Dad?”
“You sure can. Max, too. Come on.”
Jacy got Declan and I settled into my bed she’d shared with me until a short while ago. Max, perhaps feeling insecure, hopped up to curl his big body at my feet. I didn’t bother to expel him. He needed comfort, too. Declan cuddled against my healthy right side, and almost instantly fell asleep. Shock, I thought.
“Rest,” Jacy murmured, her fingers stroking my hair from my brow. “I’ll watch over you.”
“Thanks,” I muttered thickly. “Check the doors. Windows. He got in somehow.”
“He won’t get in again. Not this night.”
“Max will help you.”
I saw her quick glance at my dog, his body resting against my ankles, then her soft smile.
“Rest now. He left his Taser.”
“And the knife. But don’t touch it, we’ll need it for prints.”
Jacy’s brow rose, but she said nothing. Instead, she bent to kiss me full on the lips, then briefly rub her nose against mine. “Sleep. You won’t be going to work for a while.”
“I reckon not.”
The medicine began to hit me by the time she ambled to the door, her delicious butt cheeks swaying gently under her tiny shirt. She flicked the light off, and paused to look back, her body silhouetted against the light in the hall.
“This is my fault,” she said. “I need to leave. Or others will come. And you may not make it out alive next time.”
She then shut off the hall light, leaving me in darkness. I despaired even as the pain killers made my head swim, my vision blurry.No, I can’t lose her. Not now. I need her just as she needs me. I can protect her – I can. I must.
I sank into a mixture of sleep and unconsciousness, my pain swirling down into the darkness with me. I dimly heard Declan mutter in his sleep before we both were mired into deep, dreamless slumber. Or at least, I hoped his sleep was devoid of dreams.
As for me, demons chased me through my darkness, nipping at my heels even as I ran in terror.
God, please help us. Please.
Chapter Eleven
Jacy
I should clean up all this blood before it dries.
I didn’t. Instead, I sat in the armchair, facing the door, the Taser in my fist. Listening to the house creak, the whoosh of the refrigerator kicking on, the distant snores from upstairs as Avery slept. Scared to death, I nonetheless prepared myself for Carter, or one of his goons, to break the door down.
I nearly screamed when Wendy and Peter jumped into my lap.
Breathing hard, I caressed their small heads, realizing they were frightened, too. Loud noises, the scents of blood and fear, Declan’s absence, all forced them to turn to a human they trusted. Tiny paws with sharp claws kneaded my thighs as their lilting purrs soothed my soul.
“It’ll be okay, kids,” I whispered, at last setting the Taser on the table. “It’ll be okay. Somehow.”
Pink dawn soon etched the sky outside the windows. The kittens, fast asleep, missed their instinctive need to prowl and feign hunt at dawn, dining on their kibble in the kitchen as their reward. I sat, watching the day brighten outside, and wondered how to leave Avery.
“I must,” I muttered, gazing down at the snoozing cats in my lap. “If I don’t, the next time might get us all killed. Even you two.”
The sun rose higher.
I didn’t move, the kittens didn’t wake. Max ambled down the stairs and wandered over to me, his black nose inspecting the kittens. Wendy woke and busily washed Max’s nose and whiskers while her brother slept on. I caressed his ears, wishing I could take the night’s pain from him. I’d never been zapped by a Taser and imagined what it felt like. For a dog, it was possibly quite traumatizing.
