Page 68 of The Stone Secret

“No, you’renot—and I’m not doing this with you right now.”

“This is just as much my business as it is yours,” I hiss as Rhett stands and steps around the tree trunk.

“Rhett!”

But he is gone, jogging silently across the yard to the house.

I am furious. How dare he cast me aside like this? We wouldn’t even be here if not formyJeep. Who is he to tell me to “stay”?

I surge to a stance, peer around the trunk.

A minute passes, two.

“Screw this.”

Staying in a crouch, I jog across the yard, leap into the shadows and press my back against the slatted side of the house. I exhale, listen.

Nothing.

Slowly, I creep along the shadows until I reach the back door.

Still, silence.

Heart pounding, I push open the door and step over the threshold.

Only hours earlier I stood in this exact spot, while Rhett pinned Crystal to the corner of the kitchen.

The house appears to be silent and I wonder if whoever snuck in has already snuck out and somehow we’d missed it.

Maybe it was nothing more than a quick drug deal?

My pulse thrums as I step through the kitchen, using the moonlight to illuminate my way.

I pause under the arched entry to the hall.

Just then, a faintthudsounds from upstairs. Another, then another.

My knees are shaking as I reach the staircase. One step, two, my eyes bulge from their sockets trying to see through the darkness.

Once I reach the second floor landing I stop, listen, and hear it again. Shuffles, thuds from a room at the end of the hall.

I take a step but am halted by a hand clasping my arm. Before I can scream, another hand covers my mouth.

“I told you to stay outside,” Rhett hisses in my ear.

I’m too startled to speak.

“Jesus,Sylvia. I told you to stay outside.”

He releases me. I spin around. Though his face is concealed by shadows there is no mistaking the anger in his eyes.

“Itoldyou—”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper-hiss.

He shakes his head. “Just stay behind me.”

I nod, feeling like a child after being scolded for sneaking into her mother’s bedroom.

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