Chapter Sixty-Six
Hanna
I needed Jeremy somewhere safe. Various plans scurried through my mind only to be abandoned as unworkable. All carried too much risk. Plan B, stashing him in the locked butler’s pantry with a knife in his hands, turned out to be the least offensive to him. The solution risked igniting new nightmares for both of us about his being locked away and trapped, drugged and vulnerable. So, this had to work and fast.
The demented Tanner legacy needed to end now. Tonight. Tomorrow the town would burst into haunted life. The spectacle and celebration of Halloween would start long before the sun descended. Trick-or-treaters would flood the streets. Tourists would flock from one over-the-top festivity to the next.
Xavier’s house had achieved cult status with expert and novice ghost hunters alike. Both Tanner houses had been added to area tours. They kept to the sidewalk but even that was too close today. The next few hours needed to play out as they had in my mind. I’d lit up most of the rooms of the house but left this onedark, pointing awelcomearrow directly at its doorway for exactly that reason.
Rain pelted the leaded-glass windows. A hammering wind shook the old house, causing the lights to flicker. This was exactly the mood I didn’t want. I despised any scene with a horror movie vibe and that’s all my life consisted of lately. I’d been thrown from one tragedy to another. From one unanswered question to the next.
I sat in Xavier’s oversized leather chair in the corner of his darkened library. From this vantage point, and with the help of the hallway light, I could see shadows around the door, the outline of the bookcase on the far wall, and the stormy night brewing outside the window.
I’d turned off the sound on my phone, including the usual pings and alerts of the alarm system. Still, when a warning light popped up on my screen five minutes ago I jumped. Adrenaline ran through me at an unrestrained gallop. I’d spent my entire life avoiding scary things. Tonight, I walked right into a wall of terror. Opened the door and invited it in for a chat.
My phone blinked a second time. The warning light flashed. The motion sensor.
I didn’t need to check which one or where because I knew.
Click.
The rumble started before the bookshelf across from me began to swing. My nerves shook hard enough to rattle my teeth. Shivers danced up and down my spine like I’d been thrown naked into an icy snowbank.
A figure slipped into the room, wearing all black. The blond surfer hair stood out.
Lukas Grange. Stella’s ex. He usually hid in plain sight and wore a nice suit. Brilliant. Successful. Connected. Helpful. A man born in affluence and jettisoned into power. Determined to succeed. The possible future judge.
A demented piece of shit.
He must have sensed someone near him. The beam from his flashlight hit me in the face the second before I turned the desk light on, washing the room in soft white.
He jumped as the hand holding the flashlight dropped to his side. The other stayed nestled in his jacket pocket. The rest of him waited, alert and ready.
That made two of us.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Aubrey
“I have to apologize, Hanna. I never thought your lame plan would work.”
At the sound of my voice, Lukas spun around and faced the doorway. The official one, not the hidden entrance he used to lurk about.
He didn’t show an ounce of fear or surprise when his gaze met mine. Maybe he wasn’t nearly as smart as he insisted he was. A wise man would run and keep running. Not this guy.
“I was worried about you being here. Alone, in this house,” he said to Hanna as he nodded in my direction. “With her slithering around town.”
“What’s amazing is that he thinks he’s still in charge,” I said.
Hanna shook her head. “The cluelessness is staggering.”
He acted as if he didn’t hear the comments. His confidence didn’t diminish one bit. “I’m not sure what Aubrey told you, but—”
“The truth,” I said.
“Do you know the truth?” He shot me a look that saidyou poor deluded thing.
His ego had expanded in the last fifteen years. It was a wonder his head didn’t explode. Maybe before the night was over it would.
