It was only then I knew something wasn’t right.
“Out of bed,” Hutch ordered.
“What?”I still wasn’t with the program.
“Now,” he whispered, again in that tone, except it was more urgent, thus, I got with the program quickly and got out of bed.
It was way too cold to sleep in the nude, even if we’d had all kinds of fun after trick-or-treating (and Hutch even ate a Snickers bar, but our fun wasn’t about Snickers bars) so I had on his pajama pants and a cami, he had on some PJ pants too, but his chest was bare, therefore he was pulling on a Henley.
He slipped out of the room.
I heard him issue orders to the dogs as I wandered after him, feeling my skin tingle and my stomach sinking.
“Quiet, Tonks.Sit.Stay.Stay.Good girl.Hannibal.Quiet.Guard.”
I was in the hall when he showed there.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his office.
He went to a big, tall, locked cabinet, and my breath left me.
It was his gun cabinet.
I heard the beeps as he punched in the code, then threw it open.
He pulled out a magazine and handed it to me.
“And this,” he said, giving me Moxie’s laser pointer.
Then he hung something around his neck…
And yanked out a rifle.
Oh God.
“Hutch, is?—?”
“Shh,” he shushed me.“Follow.”
Beginning to tremble, I shushed and followed.
He went to a spot in the hall, jumped, caught a string hanging down from the ceiling, and pulled down the steps to the attic, shuffling me back as the stairs unfolded in front of us.
“Up,” he ordered.
I scrambled up.
The area up there had a ceiling so low, you couldn’t stand, so I shuffled to the side to get out of his way, doing this stooped, as he came up and then pulled up the steps.
He squatted and produced his phone from thin air.
He hit buttons and put it to his ear.
“Yeah.Hutchison.Four four eight one CR Ten.I got intruders.Send units,” he said into his cell.
Intruders?
I knew it had to be something like that, but having him say it out loud…
