“So now what?” I asked. We’d be warm and could cook on the fire, but I didn’t relish the thought of trying to bathe or shower without a waterheater.
Ellion sat beside me and answered my question. “I might be able to fix it. We’re going to warm up and get some tools and parts and go back out there. Chandler?” He looked over at his friend. “Can you come out and stand guard while wework?”
Chandler wasn’t much of a handyman. “Of course, you know I will,” hereplied.
I managed to pour their chocolate without burning myself, and they spent a few minutes enjoying the rich drink and warming up before bustling around the house gathering what they thought they’d need to fix thepower.
“Let me come help. I can stand guard, too.” I didn’t want to be stuck in the house,useless.
“There’s no need.” Ellion’s voice was placating. “There’s only one way in and out of the shed, so we really only need one person on guard. And it’s snowing pretty damn hard. It’s highly unlikely that he’s still out there, though I have every confidence that he cut those wires. The cut was too clean to be an animal or wear and tear.” Ellion’s facereddened.
They were all really upset about Hunter. I’d hate to be him when they finally caught up with him. I hoped they wouldn’t kill him. He was responsible for Amanda and Andee’s deaths. He needed to go to jail for a very longtime.
Not content to sit idly while they were working in the freezing cold, I walked them to the garage door then shut it behind them. I ran back to Chandler’s room to watch them walk along the rope out to the shed. They climbed through a weird half door near the roof. The snow was so high, they wouldn’t have been able to get through a normal door. I assumed the odd door was built for thatpurpose.
Once they were safe inside, my flashlight and I went to rustle up some dinner. Even if they got the generator working again, it’d probably take a while. We’d never eaten lunch, and I was starving. I knew they had to befamished.
The dinner Chandler had planned on cooking was thawed in the fridge. Chicken breast cutlets marinated in some sort of sweet-smelling rub. I explored until I found a cast iron skillet. I took it, some butter, and the chicken to the living room fire, along with the cutlery I’d need to cook it. I set myself up a little cooking station there before returning to the kitchen for potatoes. I smothered them in olive oil and salt, then wrapped them in aluminum foil. I grabbed the long tongs and buried the potatoes in the embers of the fire tobake.
Once the potatoes were situated, I started the chicken. I smiled and flipped it, glad I could at least provide them with something yummy to eat when they got back. My mom taught all her kids to cook, though some of us liked it more than others. Arch, my brother, was hopeless in the kitchen, no matter how hard he tried. Lucky for him he probably wouldn’t be asked to cook ever again. Ellie wouldn’t do that to any of them. I smiled at the sizzling chicken, thinking about my brothers’ newly foundhappiness.
Dinner was almostready when a noise behind me almost made me drop the tongs. I jumped up and whirled around, terror coursing through my veins. There was nobody in the room. I considered going back to my room to get my gun, where I’d left it after all the commotion withHunter.
“Stop overreacting, Linda. There’s no way he’s here. They would’ve seen him on camera by now,” I tried to reassure myself and pretend the cameras were still working on a battery even with the generator down, but my anxiety was having none of it. “It was probablyShakespeare.”
The chicken still had several minutes before I needed to turn it, so I ran to the library to see if the sweet cat was there. The library door was wide open, a good sign since that meant he wasn’t stuck inside. My anxiety laughed at me. My flashlight beam found Shakespeare sleeping on therecliner.
What the hell made thatnoise?
“It was the house settling or snow falling off the roof outside the window.” My voice, loud in the quiet house, only spooked me more. I stopped talking out loud and continued my pep talk in my head while I returned to thechicken.
I knelt to check on dinner but immediately sprang up again, pressing myself against the front wall beside the fireplace. The chicken was gone, vanished. “Holy shit,” Iwhispered.
Hunter was in thehouse.
The beam from my light swerved all over the room as I tried to search every corner at once. A large, open room might at first appear to be preferable when looking for an intruder—fewer corners to hide in, but in the dark it was impossible to cover the entire room. I tried to review every self-defense class and every karate class I’d ever taken. The problem? He was armed. A roundhouse kick to his head wouldn’t do me much good if I wasshot.
Once I was fairly sure he wasn’t still in the room with me, I inched around until I was pressed against the wall beside the hallway to my room. I itched to be armed. My flashlight was a dead giveaway of my location, but without knowing where he was, I wouldn’t turn it off. He already knew where I was, and he had night vision. If I lucked out and made it to my room, I’d beokay.
I swung wide, holding the flashlight as if I also had a gun in the same hand. It was dark enough, and even if I really did have a gun, the light would hide it behind thebeam.
The hallway was empty. I kept myself against the wall as I inched my way down, shining my flashlight to and fro and shutting doors as I reached them. No need to search the rooms, mine was the importantone.
Two prolonged minutes later, I reached my temporary bedroom. Positioning myself across from my doorway, I used the flashlight to see as much of the room as I could before drawing closer to it. I knew it was a futile effort since Hunter could be hiding behind the door so I wouldn’t be able to see him, but I didn’t know what else to do. If he was hiding in that room, there was no way he didn’t know I wascoming.
I hurled myself into the room, jumping as far as I could, with the idea that the sudden movement might draw him out if he was lying in wait. I ended up nearly falling over the bed, twirling around trying to cover all angles with the meager light. The room was still and silent except for my flailing about. For someone so well-trained in defense and fighting, I wasn’t putting my best foot forward. I promised myself I’d take some courses on stealth and sneaking when I got back to civilization. Maybe some ballet classes would teach me grace andbalance.
I shut the door and sat on the bed, slipping my hand under the pillow to find my pistol, but it wasn’t there. I made a little squeak and threw the pillow across the room. Nothing. I moved the other pillow then methodically stripped the bed. It wasn’tthere.
“Looking forthis?”
Hunter’s voice was burned into my memory from our delightful time out in the barn. Hearing it in my room made my blood flow like a river in the Appalachian Mountains in January. Damn cold. I jerked the light to the corner of the room directly behind me, and he stood with my gun dangling from hisfinger.
“Where the hell were you?” I asked. “I checked theroom!”
He laughed, and the sound was twisted and dark. “Under the bed. I slipped out when you sat. Knocking out the power was an excellentidea.”
“Fat lot of good it’ll do you. They’ll be back any minute, the house will have power, and you have nowhere to run now.” I spoke with as much bravado as I could muster. He had all the firing power, and all I had was a mean elbowstrike.
