Page 76 of The Whisper Place
The shouting stopped before we figured out which direction Jonah had gone. Valerie and I followed the creek for a minute before hearing Jonah’s shouts behind us and had to double back. We jogged along the creek bank, panting and winded by this point, and I worried Valerie would stumble and fall directly on the knife she wouldn’t let me carry.
“Where is he?” she gasped. “Why did he stop shouting?”
I pulled up Life360 on my phone and swore as it refused to load.
“Let’s stop for a minute.”
We slowed down and stood back-to-back, listening to the woods for any sign of Jonah.
“Maybe Theo snuck up on him.” Even in the whispered tones we’d been using, her voice broke.
“No one sneaks up on Jonah.”
I knew it, but my gut still rolled. He’d been shouting for Kate every thirty seconds, and now quiet minutes had ticked by with only the swish of leaves and creak of branches and mounting dread. Icouldn’t lose my partner out here. I barely remembered who I’d been before I met Jonah. He’d made me the man I was, kept me in line, put up with all my bullshit. And after years and years of watching him pull away from the world, he’d finally found exactly what he needed in Eve. There was no goddamn way I’d let some sociopath take Jonah. Not now.
I put the phone away and pulled my gun out of the holster.
“Stay behind me.”
Valerie did as I asked, falling into single file as I moved into the woods. We crept forward, listening every few feet until I heard a shout of pain echoing off the trees.
“Jonah!”
I ran headlong toward the sound, crashing through brush and bushes, not caring how much noise I made until I heard another cry behind me. I swung around, expecting to see Valerie had fallen, that she’d stumbled into a tree or cut herself with that cleaver. What I didn’t expect was to find her caught in a chokehold by a man I’d only seen in photographs. The man Kate had supposedly killed.
He had her by the throat with one arm. The other was hidden at her back, along with most of the rest of him. I didn’t have a clear shot and didn’t dare take it even if I did. Valerie’s hands were empty; either she’d dropped the knife or he’d taken it from her. She looked frozen in complete shock and terror. As I pointed my weapon slowly in the air, he nodded in approval.
“Throw it.”
I tossed the gun into the woods a few feet to my right. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t comment.
“Walk forward.”
I did until he told me to stop. Behind me, another cry of pain pierced the woods. Ted’s eyes flashed toward the sound but if he had any concerns about the life of his only child, he didn’t show it.
“How are you—” Valerie started before her body jerked like she’d been jabbed with something from behind.
“We’ll get to that. Don’t worry, love. We have all the time in the world to catch up.”
She was shaking, trembling so violently she might have been having a seizure. Moving by millimeters, my hands still in the air, I inched back toward the gun.
“What did you do with Kate?”
He made atsk-ing sound, a sing-songy noise meant for children even as he tightened the arm around her neck. “You’ll find out when I’m ready to tell you. For now,” the veins on his arm bulged grotesquely blue as Valerie made a choking sound, “I’ll be the one to ask the questions.”
A crack came from deep in the woods, followed by a muffled grunt. It was too soft to tell if it was Jonah or not. My chest pounded and I felt sick from not knowing. Ted barely noticed, his black eyes fixed on Valerie’s shaking form. I took another undetectable step back.
“So, Valerie, darling,” he leaned down to speak directly in her ear. She whimpered, holding back sobs, and closed her eyes. His black gaze flicked up to me even as he spoke to her. “Who do we have here?”
Jonah
For a split second, it was like a movie. I saw the knife flash. I watched his skinny fingers flex and thrust, plunging the blade into my stomach. His gloat of triumph burst over me even before the pain, like a surfer riding the crest of a huge, unfolding wave. When it hit me, it was searing, blinding. I think I cried out. I staggered back, and clutched my side.
Theo picked up the shovel, I’d dropped, a murderous gleam lighting his hollowed-out face.
“Kate,” the name sounded like a curse, “is learning what happens to people who fuck with my father.”
I stumbled into a fallen tree and braced myself on the log.
