She rolled on the sofa, reaching for the girl who slept on the floor. The pillows were still there, she could see them in the moonlight, but—
“Greta!” She leapt up, awake now. Her daughter was gone, replaced by Simon’s shadowed face.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, her voice panging between anger and fear. He was supposed to be with his horses in Cleveland, hours away.
“Might ask you the same thing.” Words slurred as he tipped back his hip flask for another swig.
She tried to scan the room in the darkness, hoping her daughter had hidden like Izzy instructed. “Where is she?”
“I’ll take you to her.”
She wrapped her arms over her blouse, trying to stop the shaking. “What have you done?”
“She’s in a safe place, all snuggly and warm.”
“I’ll kill you if you hurt her.”
“Izzy, my love,” he mocked. “It’s much too late for threats.”
Had he already hurt Greta? His own daughter.
“Besides,” he said, “you would have killed her anyway. Left her out on the porch, I heard, all alone.”
She loved her children, more than anything, but he was right. His accusation choked her thoughts like a weed, clouding her mind. She never should have left Greta on the porch in Elms or brought her here either.
Think.She had to think or she couldn’t help her kids. “Is Louie with you?”
“No, but he’s looking for you and he’s not happy at all that you skipped town.”
She’d known it wouldn’t take that snake-of-a-man long to realize she and the children were gone, but they’d only left this morning. “What does he want from me?”
A bitter laugh. “Not everything is about you, Izzy.”
“Then leave me alone.”
She pulled the lamp’s chain on the side table, light illuminating the room and the cut above Simon’s eye, a bruise on his cheek that matched Greta’s.
“Who hit you?”
He swore. “Turn off that light.”
Which she did, after searching the floor to make sure Greta wasn’t hiding in the shadows.
Simon glanced out the window. “The others will come soon enough.”
Were his Cleveland friends planning to help him pilfer money from Olivia?
She wrapped her arms across her chest, trying to stop her shiver. “Why are you here?”
“I need to have a talk with my wife,” he said.
“We were never married, Simon.”
He snorted. “I’m looking for Olivia.”
She walked toward him at the window, trying to press away the worry. “Where did you take Greta?”
“I’ll show you when I’m done.”
