My pulse picks up and I grab my phone. If it’s Zane, I can slip downstairs. If it’s Luna, I can maybe ask her to keep an ear out for Bellamy so I can go to the barn and find him and steal another kiss.
But it’s not either of them.
Zane is in the barn, Luna is in the greenhouse. I pull the screen up to refresh the app, just to be sure, as I hear slow, heavy footsteps moving around downstairs.
None of the Kincaids are here.
Ridge is way up in the corner of the map. Zane and Luna are working, and Cash’s dot says he’s five kilometres away. Dax’s says sixty kilometres away.
Nobody should be inside with us, but?—
Creak. A foot lands heavy on the steps coming upstairs.
I’m out of the bed like a shot. Padding silently to the door, I glance into the hallway.
There’s a shadow on the wall in the stairwell, the unmistakable shape of a person, and that’s enough to make me turn the lock on the door handle as I step into the hall, pulling it shut behind me as I race across to the other bedroom, which isfull of boy things. My heart beats wildly as I search this room for anything big and heavy I can lift.
A baseball bat would be amazing, but there’s nothing like that.
Therearea couple heavy leather belts hanging on the wall, though, with oversized buckles. I grab one and it feels deadly enough. Gripping it right behind the buckle, I lift it over my shoulder as I position myself behind the open door.
Come this way, I pray.Don’t touch the other door. Don’t go near my daughter.
Sure enough, the footsteps pause at the top of the stairs, then move toward the open door.
My heart beating wildly, I hold my breath.
On the other side of the door, a man whispers, “Come on, where the fuck are you?”
A sob tries to rack my body and I force myself silent, holding the terror in my chest. He steps into the room, grabbing the edge of the door.
I swing as hard as I can, bringing the belt buckle down onto the side of his head. With a surprised grunt, he stumbles into the doorframe, then crumples at my feet.
I stare down.
I’m shocked that worked, but I’m also shaking because I just felled a man—and it’s not Derek.
It’s a stranger, and I’m now trapped in this room and he might get up any second, so I need to climb over him, but I should also make sure he’s not dead, probably.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” I pant as I lean down, thinking about checking his pulse, but then I see he’s breathing and that’s good enough. I climb over his big frame as fast as I can and run back across the hall, only to realize I’ve left my phone in the locked bedroom with Bellamy.
Luckily it’s the kind of courtesy lock that wouldn’t actually keep anyone out, and I manage to get it open again and then collapse against it on the inside as I frantically call Zane.
He answers on the first ring. “Hope?”
“There’s someone in the house and I knocked them out.” The words come out in a slurred rush.
“I’m coming.” Then he’s running.
It takes him no time at all to get to the house, and it still feels like a lifetime. He stays on the line with me, me hyperventilating in his ear, his breathing hard and controlled as he sprints across the yard. When he’s inside, he takes the stairs two at a time. I listen to him come to an abrupt halt across the hall, then…
Nothing.
And then…
Laughter.
“Hope,” he says softly. “You can come out, it’s okay.”
