by Dana R. Lynn
“’Kay, Mama!” LJ shouted, kicking his feet. The boy had tons of energy; he was always moving.
Luke wasn’t looking happy. “I don’t know. Maybe I should go and you stay here.”
“Nah. Look, if anything seems wrong, I’ll call you over.” She shut the car door before he could protest any further. Striding up the walk to the front door of Randi’s house, she passed the large picture window. The sheers were drawn, but behind them she could dimly see Randi’s Christmas tree, still lit up and twinkling. That was so like Randi. The woman loved Christmas and anything sparkly. While Jennie would always fret about the cost of leaving on extra lights, Randi left the tree lights on 24/7 when she was home.
Well, at least I know she’s here, Jennie mused. Moving past the tree, she tromped to the steps, trying to appear more confident than she actually felt. Randi had never taken this long to respond to a message from her.
The front stairs hadn’t been shoveled yet, but it was still early. She stepped carefully, grimacing as snow brushed the top of her short boots and fell in. Great. Now she would have to deal with wet feet, too.
She knocked sharply on the front door. “Randi? It’s Jennie.”
Nothing. She waited a moment, then tried again.
Where was she? She raised her hand to pound on the door a third time, then paused. What was that noise? It almost sounded like a small dog barking inside, except she knew that Randi hated dogs. They terrified her, no matter how small they were. Leaning in, Jennie heard the noise again.
It wasn’t barking, it was the sound of someone groaning in agony! Urgently, she yanked on the screen door. It wouldn’t open. Randi always locked the door when she went to bed.
Without a thought for the snow, Jennie turned and leaped down the stairs, slipping when her boots hit the drive. She caught herself before she fell and raced back to the car as fast as she could in the snow.
“I think she’s hurt,” she panted. “I can hear her inside, but the door is locked!”
Luke was already getting out of the car. “Can we call anyone?”
“No time!” She ran to the garage.
Randi had given her the code once before. What was it? Jennie got it the third time she tried, and the door lifted. Suddenly, Luke was there with LJ in his arms.
“You take him,” he said, handing the child to her. She hugged her son close and followed Luke to the door that led into the house. It was unlocked.
Moving inside, she gasped at the wreckage of her friend’s family room. In front of her was the low island separating the room from the kitchen. She could hear moaning beyond the counter. Stepping around it, she gasped.
Randi was lying on the floor, beaten and bruised.
This was no accident. Someone had gotten here before them.
* * *
Luke shoved LJ and Jennie back. “Don’t let him see this.”
She was already moving away, talking quietly to the child, distracting him by being silly. When he heard LJ giggle, his shoulders loosened slightly. The boy hadn’t seen the injured woman.
Luke moved around to where Randi lay. Her swollen eyes opened when he squatted down near her. She whimpered in fear. He held out a hand, as if he were calming an injured animal.
“Hush. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m with Jennie.”
“Jennie.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“That’s right. She’s keeping LJ away. Can you tell me who did this to you?” Another thought occurred to him. “Is he still in the haus?”
She licked her lips. “He’s gone.”
Luke nodded. “Can I help you get up?”
Randi closed her eyes. “Give me a few seconds. I’m feeling nauseous.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
He stepped away from the injured woman and moved to Jennie’s side. She looked at him with huge eyes.
“She thinks her attacker is gone,” he murmured. “I want to check the haus and make sure.”
“Be careful.”
“I will.” He left them and made his way around the haus, checking each room and the basement. There were no signs of anyone else in the place. On his way back to the kitchen area, he saw some crayons and a coloring book in the home office area. Thinking of LJ, he gathered them up and brought them with him. When he returned, he handed the crayons and the coloring book to Jennie, then went back over to Randi.
Behind them, he heard some scraping furniture. Standing, he saw that Jennie had settled LJ on a chair at the dining room table, the coloring book and crayons in front of him. The little boy was furiously coloring, his tongue sticking out between his teeth in concentration. A moment later, Jennie joined Luke, her eyes dry, although he knew her heart had to be aching as she looked on her friend.
“Can you sit up now?” Luke asked. “How bad are you hurt?”
“I think so. I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up anymore. Help me.” Her voice was stronger then before, although raspy. “I want to try and sit. I’m sore, but I don’t think anything’s broken.”
Together, Jennie and Luke helped Randi to sit up. When it appeared all her bones were intact, they helped her to stand. She moved slowly to the recliner near the door and sank into it, holding her breath on the way down.
“Oh, Randi, what happened?” Jennie asked at last.
“It was Morgan,” the woman gasped out.
Jennie’s jaw dropped.
Luke was lost. “Morgan? Who’s Morgan?”
Randi closed her eyes briefly. “Morgan’s my brother. Well, my half brother. After I left foster care, we kept in contact. He’s spent some time in and out of jail for the past ten years. When he got out five months ago, he had no place to go so I let him stay here.”
Jennie didn’t look surprised by that. “You always had a soft spot for him.”
“You never liked him.”
Luke watched, fascinated, as a tide of pink swept up over Jennie’s face.
“It’s not—”
Randi choked out a weak laugh. “Oh, I’m not blaming you. You might have been smarter than me. You always said he was trouble waiting to happen.” Her voice cracked and a sob burst out.
Jennie hurried to embrace her friend. Luke turned his head, wanting to give them some privacy in the small space. Ach, this was awkward. He went over and sat with LJ, listening with one ear to the murmured conversation behind him.
“What’re you working on?” He reached out and ruffled the curls on the boy’s head.
“I’m drawing a picture of my doggy.”
Luke’s eyebrows rose. “Your doggy? I didn’t know you had a doggy.”
LJ didn’t look up from his important task. “Not yet. I will, though. I’m going to call him Buster.”
“Why Buster?”
He sensed Jennie’s warmth at his back. The scent of vanilla wrapped itself around him, reminding him of home and security. “Buster’s the name of your friend Joey’s dog, honey. We can’t have a dog in our apartment.”
Clearly, this was an old familiar discussion.
He glanced back. “Where’d Randi go?”
Jennie glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. “She said she had something to show me. That’s the reason she’d called me earlier. Morgan showed up just after we hung up. When he saw what she’d found, he went ballistic and attacked her. Then he’d swiped her phone so she couldn’t call for help. I think he thought she’d die. She didn’t tell him we were on the way.”
“Did you ever tell her about Steve?” He kept his question vague, not wanting LJ’s innocent ears to hear about his mamm getting attacked.
She bit her lip. “I told her about what happened when I was eleven and how I ended up in foster care. She has no idea about the other time, when I was fifteen, and I doubt she guessed. I took great care to pretend that it never happened. You’re
the only I’ve ever told. I might not have even told you, except that you were there immediately after.”
He bowed his head, a memory of her battered face and blood-soaked clothes edging its way into his mind.
“Luke?” Her hand touched his.
“I remember. Not everything. Just an image.” He grabbed her hand briefly to reassure himself that she was well before dropping it.
She drew in a harsh breath.
He returned to the subject they’d been discussing. “How could that and her brother be connected? Did she ever meet Steve?”
“Never. I asked the same question. She said she’d need me to see it to understand.”
It made no sense to him.
Randi interrupted anything else they might have said. She shuffled back into the room, obviously still in pain. Her face was pale as she dropped a shoebox on the counter. Several photographs spilled out of the box. Jennie bent to grab one that had slid off the counter and floated to the carpet.
As she stood up, she flipped the picture over. Luke noticed all the color leeched from her face, leaving her complexion ashen. Rushing to her side, he placed his arm around her as she swayed slightly. He met her gaze but doubted she was actually seeing him. She’d gone somewhere else in her mind.
“Jennie!” he said firmly.
She blinked. Color flowed back into her cheeks, though she still didn’t look like herself. When she pushed the picture into his hand, his fingers closed around it automatically.
He gave her one last look to make sure she was steady before taking a look at the picture that had such a shocking effect on her.
It was a picture of Jennie, staring out her window in her apartment. Heat started to swirl in his gut. He breathed in through his nose to keep calm. Setting the picture aside, he reached into the box to look at another picture, and another. The heat was spreading, a wildfire of rage swirling inside him. He couldn’t speak without spewing the anger out.
Morgan must have spent years gathering pictures of Jennie. Some showed Jennie holding a younger LJ, but some of the pictures were recent.
“My brother is a photography nut,” Randi said, her whole body sagging with sorrow. “I thought maybe he’d found something useful to do with his time. He even has a dark room upstairs, although I would guess nowadays he takes digital pics and has them uploaded on his laptop. I was cleaning out a closet in the basement yesterday and I found these and called Jennie immediately. I didn’t expect him home until tomorrow. When he came in this morning and saw me holding them, he went berserk.”
“I’m surprised he left these with you,” Jennie said.
Randi hesitated. “He took most of them. These were the ones that were left on the bottom of the closet.”
“These were the ones left?” Luke repeated, amazed and sickened. How many pictures had the man taken of Jennie?
“Why?” Jennie’s voice trembled. “Why would Morgan be taking pictures of me? I’ve never done anything to him.”
Luke didn’t like what he was hearing. “Do you have a picture of Morgan? I think I need to see what he looks like.”
Randi sighed. “Not a recent one. There’s a picture of him and a buddy on a fishing trip on the kitchen counter. He’s the one with mullet.”
Luke walked to the counter to look at the picture. Morgan Griggs looked ordinary enough. Dark hair, dark eyes, wide smile.
“Is he obsessed with Jennie?” Luke asked. “I’ve heard that stalking is a serious problem in the Englisch world.”
Jennie’s mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe he would be interested in me, even as a stalker.”
“He’s not. I think he’s working with Steve, your stepfather.”
The silence that followed that statement lasted for nearly a minute. Luke couldn’t imagine how such a thing could happen.
“Where would they have met?” Jennie demanded. “I never told Morgan about my stepfather.”
Randi glanced away. “That’s my fault. When Morgan and I were younger, he was making fun of you. You’d made him mad by rebuffing him. I made the mistake of telling him that you’d had a rough life and an abusive stepfather. You’d told me that he had attacked you when you a kid, and your brother had saved you. I knew that you’d testified against him before. It wasn’t hard to figure out the rest.”
Luke made no protest when Jennie latched onto his arm. Randi’s comment didn’t bode well.
“What do you mean?” Jennie asked sharply.
Now Randi looked annoyed. “Oh, come on, Jennie. I knew that you were testifying against him. So did Morgan. You never said why, and the newspapers didn’t release your name, but we all knew what crimes they listed against him. When Morgan went to jail the first time, he ended up in the same prison that Steve Curtis was in. I’m not sure how the two of them became friends. Morgan didn’t confide in me. My guess is that when Morgan was released, Steve must have convinced him to keep tabs on you. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Luke didn’t like the lost expression on Jennie’s face. “How many people have been watching us?” she cried out suddenly, her eyes haunted.
“What do you mean?” Randi frowned.
Luke winced at the bruises slowly darkening on her face. He had no tolerance for any man who would strike a woman or child.
Jennie scrubbed the heels of her hands over her eyes. “There was someone taking pictures of LJ at his preschool and now this. Steve has obviously been planning for some time. I don’t know how to fight an enemy if I don’t know who it is.” When she raised her head, her eyes were red. “Randi, you have to get out of here. It’s not safe for you. Come with us.”
Jennie reached out and grabbed her friend’s hand, her face imploring her to agree. Luke could see the moment Randi made her decision.
“I’ll come. Let me pack a few things.”
“What’s that noise?” Jennie frowned. “And do you smell something?”
“It’s coming from the garage,” Luke said, walking toward the door they’d entered. “Leave the room, just in case.” He waited until Jennie had taken the other two into the hallway. He opened the door, surprising a man pouring gasoline over the firewood stacked along the inside wall. He recognized the man from the picture on Randi’s counter. It was Morgan. When Morgan saw Luke, he rushed toward him. Instinctively, Luke backed up. Then Morgan threw the gasoline can inside the house. Liquid poured from the container, spilling all over the carpet and the drapes. Luke moved to slam the door. Too late. The other man pulled a highway flare from his back pocket, gave it a hard twist and threw the burning flare into the room.
Luke bolted from the room and joined the women and LJ in the hall.
“Quick! We can’t get out this way! Head to the front door.”
By this time, the flames were flickering up the drapes on the family room window and spreading across the carpet.
They had minutes. Luke was once again inside his darkest fear.
But this time, if he failed, the child he had just met and the wife he was only starting to remember would pay the ultimate price.
SEVEN
Smoke was filling the house. Luke heard Jennie and LJ coughing.
“Head to the living room. We’ll leave by the front door,” Luke yelled. He swept LJ up in his arms, pushing the child’s nose against his shirt.
They were almost to the front door when the back of the house exploded. Randi bounced off the wall next to him. She fell hard. He had no idea if she was even alive.
Where was Jennie? Luke turned, and brushed against her. She was alive and keeping pace with him.
Panic was clouding his mind. He shook his head to clear it away. He needed to think. He was not a teenager stuck inside a burning building, helpless. He was a grown man with a responsibility to his family. He was the only hope Jennie and LJ had.
Nee. Gott was their hope. Luke was
the instrument Gott could use. If he let Him.
Please, Gott. Use me to save their lives. Help me keep my mind steady on Your purpose.
“Jennie, LJ, drop to the floor. It’s safer. The air is cleaner.” He set LJ down and was gratified to see both of them get down immediately.
Jennie was overtaken with a fit of coughing. When she got her cough under control, Luke could hear her wheeze when she breathed. A new fear entered his mind. If she had an asthma attack now, it could be bad.
Something in the other room crashed to the ground. LJ screamed. A blast of heat hit them as the flames seared up the wood of the front door and the wall behind them.
“I’m scared, Daddy!” LJ started to sob. It broke Luke’s heart to hear it, but he needed to get the situation under control.
“LJ, I need you to be a big boy. Jennie, LJ, crawl toward the front window.”
They started to crawl on hands and knees. Luke struggled to drag Randi behind him. He couldn’t hold in his own coughs as he breathed in some of the smoke.
“Faster!” he shouted. Dear Lord, let us make it.
The Christmas tree was blocking the large picture window, their only hope for escape. Luke dropped Randi and ran to the window, throwing the tree aside. Ornaments and glass balls fell to the floor and shattered. The lights went out as the cord was torn from the electrical socket. Luke swiveled his head from side to side as he searched for something to break the window. His gaze landed on an umbrella stand near the wall. A large cane was sticking out of it.
Surging forward, he yanked the cane out of the stand. His eyes were watering from the smoke. He blinked to clear them and smashed the cane through the window. The glass shattered, raining down on the floor. The broken shards looked like hundreds of diamonds, and they crunched under his heavy boots.
Sweeping the cane back and forth, he broke off as much glass from the window frame as he could, then pulled up a heavy braided area rug and threw it over the remaining jagged edges.
“LJ, come here, son.”
LJ ran to his father, his face drenched in tears.
