Page 59 of Hideaway Whirlwind
A deadly sort of calm rolls in like the tide, the explosion of static in my head forced out now that I know the kids are accounted for and safe. And it’s only then that I can stoop and cup Birdie’s face, saying loud enough for the others to hear, “Whoever was watching you last night wasn’t me.”It should have been me. If I hadn’t let Layla get in my head…If I had listened to Birdie and gone back when she asked me to, I would have been there and caught whoever was lurking. I could have dealt with them before Birdie ever knew they were there.
“Yes, it was!” Birdie blinks rapidly against the truth she’s confronted with.
“I was at home the entire time we were texting.” I flick my gaze to Goldie, whose whole demeanor has changed, no longer looking at me like the devil incarnate. She’s sharp-eyed and focused when she and Davis exchange a glance, having a silent conversation.
“Fu–udge,” my brother says under his breath, disappearing through the door behind the fireplace, where his gun safe is bolted to the floor of his bedroom closet.
“No, you weren’t! I saw you!” Birdie argues as I swipe my thumbs across her cheeks as the tears she wishes she couldhide start to fall. “It was you!” she tries one more time, her voice faltering because she no longer believes it, though she hopelessly wants to.
But there’s no more denying it when Storm comes racing across the back yard at a breakneck speed and lunges at one of the doors, her nails scrabbling across the glass. Slobber foams at the sides of her muzzle, a bloody piece of ripped fabric hanging from her bottom right canine.
“No, no, no, no!” Birdie screams, and I yank her into my chest, holding her as she thrashes. “It’s Priscilla. She must have gotten away. She’s here!”
“It’s not her,” I say, having to let her go much too soon and push her toward Goldie so I can let Storm inside, who is close to collapsing, before I slam the door shut again.
Violet and Faye shriek at the sight of Storm, and Jared helps Violet scramble up onto the island beside Faye, both of them terrified of large dogs.
Birdie shakes her head. “You don’t know that!”
“Priscilla is dead.” I scoop Storm up and bring her into the kitchen to gently lay her on the cool floor, petting her heaving side even as I keep my head on a swivel. I didn’t mean for Birdie to ever find out about Priscilla, and I hate that this is how I’m forced to tell her. “So whoever was out there, it definitely wasn’t her.”
“You killed her?” Birdie asks shrilly, her eyes wide and bloodshot. But then color returns to her cheeks, and she asks in a softer tone with hearts in her eyes, “For me?”
I shake my head but can’t bring myself to tell her what really happened. This is my burden to bear.
“What the eff, Teagan?” Goldie gapes at Birdie like there’s something inherently wrong or broken about her, and I hatethat, too.
Russell leans out of his doorway with his shotgun raised, having set aside whatever issue he has with me when he asks, “What are we looking for, brother?”
“Someone with a death wish,” I tell him, and he nods once.
Harold kindly brings us a plastic bowl filled with water for Storm and sets it down beside her before scooting away quickly, and I gently work the mud and blood-streaked yellow fabric with gold stitching out of Storm’s mouth, studying it.
“Do you recognize it?” I ask Birdie, who has gone silent as she stares hard at the small piece of cloth. When she doesn’t answer, I pass it to Davis. “Think it could belong to Colton?” It’s a fleeting hope that this has nothing to do with Birdie. That it could be Lily’s biological father since the lurker was on their property.
“It can’t be,” Goldie says, keeping her distance from Birdie. “He’s too much of a coward.”
“I’ll check our security cameras. Whoever it was, they’re dead,” Davis says, crumpling the fabric in his fist.
“Could it have been—” Layla clams up over a few names, leaning over the half-wall balcony with an open view of the living room, her doe eyes wide.
“They wouldn’t have gone back to Davis’s house after you left,” Russell says to Layla with a shake of his head. “But I’ll check our cameras, too. See if anyone passed by here.”
“I’ll do that,” I say, lifting my chin at Russell.
“Y’all were…out there?” he asks, tipping his head to the side of the house, and he rolls his eyes when I grunt.
“Maybe it’s time we call Sheriff,” Mckinley says, bringing her phone to her ear.
“No!” The word is shot out of Birdie’s mouth like a bullet,ringing in our ears and bouncing off the walls.
And because everyone immediately goes silent, we’re just able to hear Sheriff’s tinny voice through Mckinley’s speaker when he answers, “Hello? Hello?”
Chapter 24
Teagan
When Mckinley lowers her phone with a mumbled excuse, I grab Elliott’s face, his big body still crouched on the floor, so I’m taller for once. “I love you so fucking much,” I say with a rush, crushing his lips beneath mine, pouring all of my heart into it. “I’ll always love you.”
