Page 64 of In Hiding

She watched the red vehicle head down the hill out of the drive until it disappeared from sight and tried to ignore the strange sensation tip toeing through her veins. Since moving here four years ago, she hadn’t spent a night without William and while she wouldn’t be entirely alone, not having him around left her lonely.

Despite his age, he’d been her rock through the ordeal with her ex-husband. His little-boy innocence had always been a reminder it was her job to protect him and made sure she was honest about the danger they would always be in. He’d always been her focus but there would come a time when that would shift, and it was probably sooner rather than later.

A chill ran through her and she retreated to the laundry, made warm by the dryer. Folding the rest of the clothing, she took William’s pile of school uniforms up to his room and deposited the stack of her clothing on the foot of her bed. Back in the utility room, she loaded Jake’s clean and dry workwear into an enclosed basket and took it to the front door.

Outside, the rain had eased considerably, offering enough respite to venture up to the guest house. She donned her heavy snow boots and shrugged into a thick winter parka. Lifting the hood over her head, she picked up the basket and left the house.

Stepping down off the veranda, she landed in a snowdrift a foot deep. As she turned up the hill toward the guest house, Sarah found the going got tougher. Slippery patches of slush under the snow threatened to put her on her ass more than once. The combination of the snow and the uphill walk burned her lungs.

At the guest house, she let herself in and was immediately welcomed by warm air. With Jake in town running errands, the cottage stood silent and still. Sarah removed her boots and coat, hanging the outer layer on a peg by the front door. She carried the basket to the master bedroom and set it just inside the door.

On her way back to the front door, she noticed the fire needed more fuel and entered the living space to stoke it back to life. Kneeling in front of the fireplace, she stirred the embers with a steel poker, and placed two thick logs in the center. She watched, waiting for the hungry beast to take a liking to its food. The flames tentatively licked at the fuel before wrapping around the logs. An ember exploded and she had to dodge a piece of escaped charcoal.

It bounced onto the fire-retardant mat and smoldered. Standing, Sarah moved to the kitchen and searched through the drawers for a pair of metal tongs. She found them, but not before she noticed some paperwork in the bottom drawer. Curious, she leaned down to get a closer look. A manila folder sat on the bottom, with her name written on the tab.

About to investigate further, she remembered the charcoal on the mat and hurried over to the fireplace. Picking it up with the tongs, she tossed it back into the fire and returned to the kitchen.

Lifting out the folder, she took it to the dining table and set it down. A photo slid out and William’s ten-year-old face stared up at her, grabbing her by the throat.

“What the hell?”

Not giving a shit about Jake’s privacy, she opened the cover of the folder and found a photo of herself. Her heart stuttered as she shifted the images aside and found pages of information about all of them: William, herself, and Ryan. She read the words on the papers, the cold, clinical account of his brutal attack, and felt her heart ice over.

Whoever had written them had clearly never had a large man sit on them and stab them over and over. They’d never seen their blood all over another person’s hands. Nor had they seen the glee in the maniac’s eyes as it flowed freely from their body.

Sarah’s knees gave out from under her and she lowered herself onto a hard-backed dining chair.

Jake had known all about them. This whole time, he’d known everything.

How?

Why?

Through the devastation, anger boiled in her gut. Betrayal sat heavy on her chest as she struggled to breathe. She’d come to trust him, to believe him. She’d confessed so much, too much. And all along, he’d known.

Emotions swirled through her but above them all, the hurt cut deeper than any of the physical wounds she’d suffered at the hands of her ex-husband. She couldn’t understand why Jake would pretend to know nothing. It was obvious he didn’t want her to know his true intentions but what were they, exactly? And why? Why hide from her?

Was he here at the request of Ryan?

Oh, God.

Sarah shot to her feet and she was suddenly glad William was on his way to a destination neither of them knew. A flash of movement out the window caught her eye. Jake was back, which meant she could get some answers.

Or a whole lot of trouble.

Her instinct to freeze kicked in, gluing her to the floor. A voice screamed inside her head, telling her to move, to get out but her body disobeyed and stood like a statue. Above the sound of her labored breathing, she heard the door open.

Her skin tingled with awareness but still, her feet remained cemented in place. She could practically hear a clock ticking somewhere as she waited for him to appear, and when he finally rounded the corner, she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

“Sarah? What are—”

His eyes dropped to the table and the smile fell from his face. He raised a hand, his palm open toward her as if to keep her calm.

“Sarah, this isn’t what it looks like.”

~

Fuck.

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