She let out an exasperated sound. “I don’t want you to think he’d lost his mind. It does sound kinda crazy. But he said that cat was bad...”
“Bad?” Sawyer was a bit confused. “He jumps up on the table, and he’s sleeping on the cot in the jail cell right now, but...”
“Not bad like that, Jesus Christ.”
“Then bad like what?”
“Bad energy. He said it... I dunno. He said its name suited it, put it that way. That cat is not what it seems. Nothing in that town is.”
Its name suited it?
“Its name?”
“Yeah. Salem. Or something. I dunno. He didn’t like to talk about it.”
The cat’s name was Salem? The Salem from the list where Ricky also said to be careful of what he did and said in front of it?
Salem was the freaking cat?
Ginny was right. Sawyer was starting to think Ricky had lost his mind.
But then Salem put his head up, his yellow eyes met Sawyer’s, and he stared at Sawyer as if he knew they were talking about him.
Nope.
No, not doing that.
He was not going there or putting these crazy notions in his mind. Sawyer couldn’t believe he’d even entertained the thought....
“I’ve said too much already,” Ginny said. “Don’t call me again. And leave Ricky alone. He’s been through enough, and the police department didn’t do a damn thing to help him. I’m blocking your number now, and if you try to contact me or Ricky again, I’ll report you for harassment.”
The line went dead.
Sawyer stood there for a moment, unsure what to make of any part of that conversation.
Salem was still staring at him, which was beginning to feel weird.
“The fuck are you looking at?” Sawyer asked him.
And he’d be damned if Salem didn’t smile at him before he put his head back down and closed his eyes.
Chapter
Six
CIARAN
“You can’t stay away forever,”Fray said. “We’ve been gone two days already.”
Many years ago, they’d found an old miner’s hut up the river, forgotten by humans and time and reclaimed by the forest for the better part of the last century.
It made the perfect place to get away.
The hut itself had needed repairs, and it had been a fun project for them all to work on. But there was a woodstove and a couple of single bedframes they’d put new mattresses on a few years ago. They didn’t need anything else.
It was right on the water’s edge, and they’d fixed the small jetty as well so they could climb in and out of the water all they wanted.
They used it mostly for hiding away when the need for solitude and to be in their freeform was too overwhelming. Certain lunar cycles, mating cycles. That kind of thing. A place where they were free to be themselves.
