Mia swallowed, her stomach lurching. The claw marks down his sides were deep and fierce, jagged and wild. She scouted the remainder of the room for the Barnby brothers, but they were long gone. Blinking, she slowly backed out of the room, careful not to disturb any of the blood on the doorframe.
Seth. She bit back a sob. He’d be devastated. How was she going to tell him?
A ruckus sounded downstairs. “Mia?” Pete bellowed.
“Up here. We need the paramedics up here. Now,” she yelled back, returning to Alice’s room. The woman was breathing better, but the cuts still looked deep on her face. “You’ll be okay.”
She coughed, her entire body shuddering. “Benjamin?” she whispered.
Mia stilled, her mouth working but no words emerging.
Tears filled Alice’s eyes.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs, and then Pete led in the paramedics.
Mia stepped out of the way. “Benjamin is dead in the farthest bedroom,” she whispered.
He nodded and turned, heading down the long hallway.
The paramedics, one tall blond woman and another shorter dark-haired guy, worked on Alice and carefully loaded her onto a stretcher to carry downstairs. She remained quiet in her injuries, her eyelids closed, and her wounds deep.
Mia watched them go.
“Dad?” Came a loud bellow from downstairs.
Mia jumped toward the stairs, but Seth was already taking them four at a time. His eyes glittered as his gaze raked her. “Where’s my father?”
She grasped his elbow and tried to stop him, but he shrugged her off and hustled toward Ben’s room. Once inside, he stopped cold, his hard body outlined by the storm-darkened day outside the window. He breathed out, staring down at his murdered father. The moment stretched on, a heavy silence blanketing the house. Then his head snapped back, he turned, and he pinned her with his gaze.
She couldn’t move. Not an inch.
The hard angles of his face set into feral lines. He turned and stalked toward her, holding her captive with his gaze alone. “Who?” His voice was guttural and animalistic.
The saliva in her mouth dried up. She could only stare at him, her body frozen in place. This was the part of himself he’d warned her about. Thisanimal.
His nostrils flared. “Youwilltell me.”
Erik bounded up the stairs and leapt around the banister, his hair ruffled and panic in his eyes. “Dad?”
Seth slowly shook his head.
The sound Erik made was one of pain. Deep, gut-wrenching, soul-killing pain.
The look in Seth’s eyes matched that sound. Then a different look entered them. One of death.
Erik grabbed his arm. “Alice said the Barnbys attacked them. I talked to her before they put her in the ambulance.” He blinked. “But she didn’t say that Dad…that he…”
Seth was already running down the stairs.
“Seth!” Mia yelled, moving to chase after him. She reached the landing, Erik burst past her, and she barreled outside into the wild rain.
Within seconds, both Volk brothers disappeared into the storm.
Chapter33
The rain battered the Volk’s roof, beating ferociously in an attempt to get in. To get at her. Mia curled up on the sofa in the living room by the entryway, a fire rumbling in the fireplace, a blanket over her legs. An untouched cup of tea had gone cold on the table next to her.
She glanced at her watch again. It was after midnight. After signing off on the removal of Benjamin’s body, she’d made her reports at the precinct, checked on Alice, called her mom to say she’d be out all night, searched unsuccessfully for Seth, and finally just decided to wait for him back at his father’s place, considering his cabin had been blown up. He had to come back here, right?
