Page 17 of Lone Star

A thread of blue moonlight spilled from the cracked-open guestroom door and across the floor, but she didn’t need it, deftly stepping over an abandoned toy truck; missing the Lego that Colin would doubtless step on later and curse to within an inch of its tiny plastic life.

She’d just put a hand against Jack’s door when she heard another sound, one she couldn’t at first place. A quietchink-chink-chink. Like metal on metal, but muffled. As if from a distance…or through a wall.

She pushed the door open, and in the glow of his nightlight, saw Jack standing at the window, pulling the blinds open with his hands, staring out at the front yard.

“What are you doing, bud?” she asked, coming up behind him. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

“Mama, there’s a man there.”

Her pulse leapt, and she reached for the cord of the blinds. “Here, let me see.” When he pulled his hands clear, she raised them up to the top, and peered through glass that quickly fogged when her breath hit it.

The metal-on-metal sound had ceased, and she saw two men in dark clothes jogging away down the street, avoiding the street lights. She couldn’t tell anything, only that they were man-shaped, and that they had been in their front yard.

Jack tapped a fingertip on the glass. “Mama, look. The man. He looks like a star.”

“What?” she asked, half-distracted. And then her gaze dropped to where Jack was pointing, to the winter-dormant grass of their yard.

A third man lay on his back. She could see the moon-silvered skin of his face; the pale light gleamed on open, wet eyes. He was spread-eagle, like someone caught in the act of making a snow angel.

Only there was no snow.

And he wasn’t moving.

And the metallic sounds she’d heard? Probably had to do with the metal stakes that gleamed at his wrists and ankles.

~*~

Michelle woke to find Candy on his feet, tugging on a pair of jeans, cellphone clamped awkwardly between his face and his shoulder.

“Yeah,” he was saying, expression grim. “Yeah. Be there soon.” He paused in the jean-tugging to grab the phone, disconnect the call, and set it on the dresser. When she sat up, his attention shifted to her, as he buttoned his jeans. “Shit, baby, did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet.”

She rubbed the grit from her eyes and tried to rally her wits. A glance at the bedside clock proved it was three-thirty. “What’s going on?”

“Two more bodies,” he said, grimly, and suddenly she was awake.

She glanced at him again. “Where?”

He buckled his belt and reached for a clean flannel off the top of the dresser, one among a stack she’d meant to fold and put away earlier. “Jen and Colin’s place.”

“What?”

“Jen woke up hearing some kinda noise.” His mouth pressed into a tight, angry line, brows knitted. “She found Jack outta bed, staring out the window, looking at the goddamn things. They were all staked out like Pacer’s boys were. She thought it was just one at first, but when Colin went out to look, there were two.”

“Holyshit.” She thought of her own TJ, standing at his bedroom window in his pajamas, seeing something like that, and she wanted somebody – whoever it was doing this –dead.

“I’m headed over there,” Candy said. “Jen’s freaked and Colin’s ready to beat heads.”

Michelle flipped the covers back. “Hold on and I’ll come with you.” She swung her feet over the side of the bed and told her stomach to behave, for once. “Maybe Darla won’t mind sitting back here with TJ.” She was already wincing at the idea of asking a favor at this time of morning.

“I already sent Jinx and the twins to pick Jenny up and bring her and Jack here. Blue and I are gonna meet Colin over there.”

“Oh. Well.” She stood. “I’ll go put tea on.”

He caught her gently by the shoulder when she moved toward the door, and when she tipped her head back to meet his gaze, she found him studying her worriedly – and found herself breathing too quickly.

She took a measured breath, and exhaled with slow purpose. “I’m fine,” she said, before he could ask. “It’s Jenny you should be worried about.”

“I am worried.” He released her shoulder to reach up and smooth her hair back from her face. “About both my girls.”

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