Page 65 of So Silent

He stepped away and put his hands on the top of his head, trying to quell his panic. He considered calling West, but what if Faith was already dying? What if she was bleeding out?

Damn it, he wished to God he was stronger. He was in shape, but he never thought he’d have to do something like this. How could he get inside?

Find a way, damn it. That’s the woman you love in there.

He squared himself to the door, and with a shout, he lifted his leg and kicked hard. The door splintered inward far more easily than he expected, and he stumbled and nearly fell.

Then he saw her. She was lying on the floor in the kitchen. “Faith!” he screamed, rushing to her. “Faith! I’m…”

It wasn’t Faith. The blonde woman lying on the floor was around Faith’s age. She had a small cut on her forehead, probably from hitting the ground, but she wasn’t dead. Her chest rose and fell steadily, and when David pressed two fingers to her neck, her pulse was strong.

But she wasn't Faith. What the hell was going on? Where was—

“Hey! Get away from my wife, you asshole!”

David jumped to his feet and spun around. He stared at a man around his height but a good thirty pounds heavier, a great deal of that weight muscle.

The muscle concerned David far less than the gun pointed at his chest.

“Who the fuck are you?” the man shouted. “Another goddamned copycat?”

David lifted his hands, and the man looked down at the unconscious woman. “Ellie? Oh God, no.”

He lifted his eyes to David and shouted, “You fuck! I’m going to kill you!”

David’s eyes widened. He watched in horror as the man’s fingers tightened around the trigger.

***

Michael nearly rolled the massive SUV as he brought it to a stop in front of his house. His driver’s side tires jumped the curb, and he heard pops as the tires ripped off the bead.

Whatever. He could replace those. He couldn’t replace Ellie.

A strange car was parked in his driveway, and his front door had been kicked open. Any doubts he had about West’s threat vanished when he saw that.

He rushed into the house, gun drawn. He saw the man from the front door, kneeling in the kitchen.

That wasn’t West, though. Who the hell was that?

Whoever he was, he was kneeling over Ellie’s supine body.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Get away from my wife, you asshole!”

The man jumped to his feet and turned to Michael, wide-eyed.

So it wasn’t West after all. Just some piece of shit pretending to be West to fuck with him.

“Who the fuck are you? Another goddamned copycat?”

The man didn’t answer. He lifted his hands, pale as a sheet, but said nothing.

Michael looked down at Ellie. Her eyes were closed. She wasn’t moving. “Ellie?”

Then he saw the blood on her head. “Oh God, no.”

His heart fell to the floor, then bounced up to his throat. The world swam around him, then centered on the man standing above his dead wife. The murderer who had taken away the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Red filtered over his vision. His eardrums pulsed with rage. “You fuck!” he shouted. “I’m going to kill you!”

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