Page 49 of Coup De Grâce
“Maybe they don’t knowabout your brother,” I said, trying to reassure Johnny as we raced to his house in Iowa.
“You saw the fucking file,” Johnny bit out. “They’ve been watching us for years. There’s no fucking way they don’t know about them.”
Dirt flew behind us as we drove down the dirt road toward his brother’s house. I hadn’t known about his brother living out here, or the fact that he was married with kids. It struck me as odd that Johnny had a ranch out here, yet he lived in Kansas. Why on earth would he give all this up?
“I should have fucking warned them,” Johnny gritted out as we approached the house.
I scooted forward between the seats, staring out the windshield. “The house looks fine.”
“The horses are out,” Jack said, pointing toward the barn. “Is that normal?”
“For this time of day? Yeah.”
We all held our breath as the car jerked to a stop. Johnny was the first out, running flat out for the steps of the house, calling his brother’s name. I had never really been scared before Rafewent to that island, but now it felt like everything was hanging by a thread.
“Thomas!” Johnny called out as he shoved the door open and ran inside.
My heart pounded in my chest as I walked up the steps. Fear washed over me, my chest tightening painfully at the thought of anything happening to his family. The moment I walked through the door, I knew we were too late.
With little kids, a bit of a mess was to be expected, but this…Chairs were knocked over, lamps were in pieces on the ground, the kitchen was smeared with blood, dishes were broken on the floor…
I pressed my hand to my stomach, terrified of what we would find if we walked further into the house. Would they all be dead? Were they taken somewhere?
“We need to search the house,” Jack whispered. “Don’t let him find his family like that.”
I nodded, though right now, I didn’t feel like I had the stomach for it. But I let my feet guide me up the stairs to the bedrooms. I didn’t know why this was so fucking hard. This was my life. I was used to the danger and possibility of death.
But nothing was the same for me since Rafe died.
With every step I took, my legs shook. When I reached the first door, my fingers slid across the smooth wood, pushing just hard enough to let the door creak open.
Relief flooded me when all I found was a child’s room with the bed unmade. Other than a few toys scattered on the floor, nothing else was disturbed, but that didn’t mean the other bedrooms were the same.
Moving down the hall, I approached the next bedroom, the same as the last. I didn’t take my time, worried I wouldn’t have the nerve to actually go through with it. But again, I pushed open the door and found the room wholly undisturbed.
The bathroom door across the hall was open, and after a quick peek in the mirror, I saw nothing that resembled the movieCarrie,and proceeded to push the door open to verify it was empty.
That left just one room at the end of the hall.
I wasn’t sure why I felt a tightening in my gut or why my palms started sweating, but something told me I would not like what I found in the master bedroom. I had been working in this field for way too long to trust that everything would be okay.
I stood outside, straining my ears to hear downstairs. Maybe they had found everyone and I would find nothing inside this room. But the longer I stood there, the more it became clear that they hadn’t found a thing yet.
Steeling my spine, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. My stomach dropped in seconds.
The bed was a mess, torn apart like a fight had been in here. Blood soaked the sheets, but there was no body. I couldn’t tell if the injuries had been life-threatening, but it didn’t appear that whatever happened here, someone had died. There wasn’t enough blood.
Shouts sounded from downstairs, tearing me from the horror scene in front of me. I raced out of the room and down the stairs, desperate to get away from the scene in that room.
“Maybe they got away,” Jason said calmly.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Johnny snapped. “Did you see the kitchen?”
“They could have made it out?—”
“There’s fucking blood everywhere!” Johnny shouted.
As I hit the bottom step, all eyes turned to me for confirmation. I shook my head. “No bodies, but there is blood in the master bedroom. Not enough for someone to have died there, though.”
