Page 45 of Small Town Beast

But Saverin doubted it.

Seven

Chapter Seven

The dream was mostly memory. She was walking to the bus stop with Bee. Those bully girls were trying it, as usual. They had already cornered Bee in the bathroom and tried cutting off her braids. A teacher came in before the worst but the girls warned Bee they would rinse her after school.

Tanya got wind of the situation and at the appointed hour she and Bee were ready.Beeused to fight back then— imagine that. The girls held it down, but unluckily for Tanya the final boss of beatdowns was still waiting behind her own front door. She came home with her skirt ripped her shirt muddy and bloody and her brand new hair in a mess and unsurprisingly her Mama was furious.

After making her relive her fight with Mama the dream even took Tanya to the spot where she’d stood that same night, listening to see if her mother would let her back in the house. Tanya had a black eye and blood running out of her nose, but all she wanted was to sleep. So she listened.

That night it was Gospel music. The house thundered and shook like a tambourine beaten by an almighty hand.

“Jesus!” Mama sang. “Amen! Jesus! Jesus!”

And her

It was the night everything changed. The night she decided she was out. She remembered how her own strength amazed her. How she went in there and got a bag together, and told Mama not to worry about her again. She had been strong as a queen…stronger, even, than that.

As the dreamtime collapsed on itself and Colton’s black car slid past her like it had done that night, she felt a sick terror like nothing she’d ever known.

Amari was in the backseat.

“Amari!” She screamed but no words came out. Amari didn’t see her. The car didn’t stop like it had done in real life. It passed, and he didn’t see her. He was gone, into the red hungry mouth of the streets.

Tanya jumped out of her sleep. Her heart was pounding. Somebody was coming up the outer stairs to the apartment.

She hadn’t dreamed it, hadn’t imagined it. It was just the instinct of a woman that told her, and the steady creak of wooden planks under a man’s heel that might have been what woke her in the first place. The vision of Amari disappeared as true adrenaline began pumping in her veins. The nightmare had made itself reality. She was wide awake. The dawn outside was blue. About four-something in the morning.

And somebody was standing at her front door.

Tanya’s bed rested against a window facing the stairs. She kept the blinds covering that window drawn at all times for privacy but one look would show her the stalker. For now the man could not see into the room but she could hear the creaky pine boards moving. What if he saw her looking?

She could almost hear him thinking of breaking down the door. The noise it would make. How he could muffle it. What he would do to her if he came inside.

Breathing through her mouth Tanya rolled over in the bed and forced herself to put a finger in the side of the blinds. It took every drop of courage to look.

Not Saverin.

A horror filled her whole body as well as a small, strange relief. Saverin Bailey might be crazy but wasn’t a monster.

Hewas.

Tanya slowly got off the bed and crept to her bedroom door. She had her phone out, but it was Saverin she thought of calling, not the police.

She made sure the lock on her bedroom was turned, then tiptoed back to the window and took another peek.

Colton was still standing there.

Fear held Tanya hostage at the window. Even with her door locked if he wanted to come inside, he could do it very easily. Hell, all he had to do was break her window! Or pick the lock, like Saverin had.

Colton had once told her what would happen if she left him. But she knew what would happen if she stayed. So she ran off without a trace, and for a few happy years it had been just her and her son.

Amari’s disappearance and her ex suddenly reappearing…could they be related?

Colton stared at the door a minute longer, then turned and walked back down the stairs. As she watched him go Tanya understood the dark truth that her time was running out.

Eight

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