Page 54 of The Last Dance You Saved
“What happened?” I demanded.
“I-I couldn’t breathe. I dreamed… I was drowning. I couldn’t get enough air. I couldn’t… As if I was Spence in the river where the tractor had fallen, pinning him in.”
The tightness in my shoulders eased.A bad dream, I thought.A damn nightmare. That’s all.She’d said someone was there, but it had only been a dream. I’d overreacted and scared everyone because of the dark memories that had haunted me tonight.
But then her next words sent a chill over my spine.
“When I w-woke up, someone was smothering me with the pillow.” She glanced toward a stray pillow at the foot of the bed, far away from the pile that surrounded her. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I struggled. I kicked… And then the pressure lifted, and when I tossed the pillow away, I saw a shadow heading out of my room.”
Her gaze darted to the door I’d just entered and then back to me, wariness creeping over her.
“What the fuck? You think it was me?” I growled, taking a step back as if she’d hit me. I laughed darkly. “I was with Sadie, dealing with the aftermath of a rattlesnake placed in my bed, when we heard you scream.”
Her alarm grew as she wiped at her face. “Wh-what? A rattler? In your bed?”
I couldn’t deal with her questions. Not now. Not when whoever this was might still be in the house. “He left?” I asked. “Out your door? You’re sure?”
She nodded.
“Lock the door behind me. I’m going to search the house.”
As I turned to leave, it was to find Adam standing in the doorway. I hadn’t heard him arrive, and it disturbed me that it could just as easily have been Lauren’s attacker who’d snuck up behind us. He was dressed in perfectly unrumpled slacks and a button-down.
“What’s going on? What’s all the commotion about?” he asked.
“What the hell are you doing here at night?”
He straightened his glasses. “Not that I owe you an explanation, Rafe, but I’ve been staying in the main house since Spencer died. I didn’t like the idea of my sister and my niece being here alone.”
My eyes narrowed. “And it took you this long to respond to her scream? I was outside, and I got here faster.”
“She screamed?” He glanced at Lauren with a frown. “Are you okay?”
“Where were you?” I growled.
He scoffed. “You really think I’d hurt my sister?” When he realized I did, anger kicked in. “Screw you and the horse you rode in on. I just got back from my girlfriend’s house and was heading toward my room when I heard you making a ruckus and barking orders.”
Every hair on the back of my neck was standing up. Lies. He was telling me lies.
But he loved Lauren. Growing up, they’d had a bond that hadn’t been picked apart the way mine with Spencer had by our father. Adam had always looked out for his sister, enough to try and end me when he’d found out I’d gotten her pregnant.
I watched as he brushed past me now, striding over to Lauren who sat with her arms wrapped around her knees. He took her hand, asking quietly what had happened. She repeated her stuttered story to him while I watched the two of them. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and his brows furrowed in what seemed like genuine concern. Was it real?
I went to the attached bath, looked in the closet, and even ducked my head under the bed. When I saw no trace of anyone, I said, “We need to clear the house and then call the police and tell them someone was here.”
“Come lock the door, Lauren,” Adam said, helping her up. She wobbled, shaking like a leaf in a nightgown so thin it showed more than it hid. I averted my gaze as they came toward me. I stepped into the hall as Adam mumbled something to her. She shut the door behind us, and we both waited for the lock to turn.
“I’ll start at the top and work my way down,” Adam said.
The house wasn’t as large as it looked. Not quite the English castle it had been modeled after, but it still had a slew of unused rooms. It took us longer than I liked to clear every cubbyhole, closet, and pantry where a person could hide. Many of the spots were ones Spence and I had found playing hide-and-seek as kids, not just with my brother, but with Adam and Lauren too. Adam had been impossible to find back then, gloating in his win simply because my brother and I should have known the house better than he ever could.
By the time I met Adam again on the second-floor landing, the past had a tight grip on me again, each room a pained reminder of the people now gone from my life. My parents. The grandparents I had no memories of but who’d shaped my father. The childhood I’d both loved and loathed.
“You find anything?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
I dragged my phone from my back pocket, ready to call the police, wondering if the non-emergency number was still the same as it had been a decade and a half ago.
