Page 29 of Defended By the SEAL
“Just now. I was looking at it when you touched my shoulder.”
“Must have been a trick of the light, or the storm. Thunder snow, perhaps. According to your grandmother, no one’s been inside that lighthouse for years.”
“I know what lightning looks like, Tom. This wasn’t it.”
“Perhaps you need to get some rest.” He again gestured for the door, motioning for her to exit.
Stepping in front of him, she tried to ignore the prickly edge of danger she felt at her back as he followed her out and locked the door, the crisp metallic rasp of the mechanism echoing in the hall with a decisive finality.
14
Tom headed to the office to “take care of a few things,” while Charlotte made a beeline for the living room. She peered behind her to make sure he hadn’t followed before entering the room and announcing, “I’m going to check out the lighthouse.”
Cowboy sat beside Grams, who appeared to be sleeping. “Are you crazy?” he asked. “It’s horrible out there right now.” He’d spoken softly, his words barely audible over the howling wind that rattled the windowpanes.
“There’s somebody out there. I saw a light.”
Cowboy’s gaze turned sharp, his eyes narrowing with focused concern. “From the lighthouse? I thought you said no one’s been in there for years?”
“That’s what I thought, but I saw a light—clear as day. It wasn’t the normal beam, though. It was flickering like the one I told you about when I was a kid.”
He stood and crossed to her. “I’m worried about Grams. I think something’s wrong. Really wrong.”
Charlotte was at her grandmother’s side in an instant,feeling the other woman’s face with the back of her hand. “She’s doing better.”
“I don’t mean her fever. She woke up just now while you were upstairs, saying things that didn’t make any sense about people being cold and hungry. She kept asking for Tom, then when he came in, she freaked out like she didn’t remember who he was.”
What would cause her mental state to deteriorate like that? “He brought her a cup of tea about an hour ago. Do you think he could have given her something that confused her?”
“I don’t know. That guy is sketchy as fuck, and I don’t like it. We should stay together, especially if there is something more sinister going on with your soon-to-be step-grandpa.”
“Ew, don’t call him that.”
“Sorry.”
“I can’t shake the feeling that we need to see what’s in that lighthouse, Leo.”
He shook his head. “It’s a bad idea. Either it’s nothing, in which case you shouldn’t go at all, or it’s something, in which case we should stay put until backup arrives. Either way, the answer is the same.”
Gram’s weak voice said, “Go.” Charlotte turned her head to find her grandmother’s eyes open, but bloodshot and fixed on her. “You have to go to them.”
Charlotte ran her fingers through Grams’s hair. “I will, Grams.”
“It’s so cold out there. The baby must be freezing.”
“She’s delirious,” Cowboy said quietly.
The corners of Charlotte’s mouth pulled down hard. She wanted to tell Cowboy he was crazy, that Grams was sharp as a tack, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Her grandmotherwas an elderly woman who’d been through a stressful ordeal. She’d nearly died.
“You stay here with her,” Cowboy said. “I’ll go check out the lighthouse and see what I can find.”
Charlotte felt her heart pound as she considered staying here with Grams and Tom, alone. The idea made her feel vulnerable in a way she didn’t want to admit. But there was more going on here than met the eye, and somehow that lighthouse played into it. She took a steadying breath and nodded. “Be careful.”
“You, too.” He leaned in, his gaze meeting hers. “Lock the door behind me and keep an eye on Tom. Don’t let him near her, if you can help it. No more of his special tea. Hell, you stay away from him, too.”
She squeezed his hand, unable to say more as he bundled himself into his coat and they moved toward the door. The freezing wind rushed inside the moment he opened it, stealing the heat from her skin. She watched as he disappeared into the blinding snow, his figure vanishing almost instantly into the storm.
Swallowing hard, she bolted the door and turned back to the dim, fire-lit room where her grandmother lay, seemingly asleep but thrashing her head back and forth on the pillow. Charlotte kneeled beside her, taking the older woman’s icy hand between her own and feeling an uneasy chill sweep over her. Sweat glistened on Grams’s forehead, her breathing fast and ragged.
