Page 69 of Shelter
Chapter 15
ELISE
Cole slammed the door in my face, and I heard the lockclunk.I glared at him through the pane, and for the split second that our eyes connected, I’d expected to see his shine with triumph, but, instead, they held relief.
And then he was gone.
“Cole!” I didn’t shout, though I wanted to. I took off around the side of the house. The garage door was closed. No surprise there. Cole would have snuck out some quieter way to put Ava’s bags in his car.
I tore around to the front of the house, my breath frosting the night air as I sped up the steps to the front door, but that too was locked. And even though the glass door gave me a majestic view of the Whitehursts’ front hall and their stunning staircase, the stairs were empty. Cole had surely mounted them in the time it took me to run around the house.
The muffled sound of shouting carried through the closed windows, and I stepped back onto the lawn to look up at Ava’s room. I could see movement, a hurried silhouette, and, panicked, I pictured Cole fighting his father.
That thought had me darting for the side door, but that one too was locked up for the night, and I cursed Cole under my breath because everything had changed. Now. Now, I was afraid for him. And if he was going to have to fight for his freedom, to protect his family, I wanted to be by his side.
Mama’s keys.
She kept them on the dresser in her room. I’d have to be quiet, I knew, but I could get them. I ducked through the wooden gate on the right side of the Whitehursts’ house, and the sounds of yelling grew. My heart climbed in my throat at the fear in that sound.
I had my hand on the guesthouse door when I heard apop.
I froze. My stomach plunged as I looked back at the house, all too aware of the sudden silence. And then adrenaline spiked my blood because I knew I needed to wake Mama. Cole had shot his father, and we would need to testify to the police. It was self-defense. I would tell them about the abuse I’d seen that very night with my own eyes. They’d have to believe me. And if they didn’t, they’d have to believe Mama. They’d just have t—
Cole’s screams sliced through the night.“God dammit! What the hell did you do?”And the house shook before I heard anotherpop.
Two gunshots. Why two gunshots?
“Mama!” I burst through the guesthouse door and ran toward her room. “Mama! Come quick!” I threw open her bedroom door in time to see my mother scramble out of the blankets and reach for her glasses.
“Lord, Elise, what’s wrong—”
“Mama—” Fear had climbed up my throat, leaving no room for the truth. I didn’t even know what that truth was, but I sensed in my gut that it couldn’t be good. Two gunshots. Shaking, I grabbed the keys off Mama’s dresser and took off again.
“Elise!”
But she must have heard the panic in my voice because she was on my heels, and a glance over my shoulder revealed Mama in white nightgown flying behind me.
“Dear Lord… dear Lord.” Mama’s voice shook as I fumbled with the keys. Because now that we were right outside the door, we could hear Ava and Cole.
The lock turned. We ran in.
And I will never forget that sound. Not as long as I live.
Hearing a woman scream is startling. Distressing. But hearing a man scream in horror and heartache — as if the world just ended — is somehow a million times worse. Nothing in my life had prepared me for that bottomless agony. The sound of Cole screaming split my heart open.
“Father in heaven,” Mama wailed. And then she seemed to collect herself as her spine straightened, and her eyes shot to mine. “You stay right here.”
No. Way.
Mama either didn’t hear me tear after her or she knew it was pointless to stop me because she didn’t say a word as I ran.
The smell of blood and fireworks hit my stomach when I reached the top of the stairs, but I kept running until I skidded to a halt outside that bedroom door. Or what was left of the splintered wreck of wood.
I only saw what I saw for a second. Not even a whole second. I shut my eyes at once, but it was too late. The spray of pink on the curtains. The spongy globs on the floor that seemed to float in pools of blood. The garnet black hole where an eye should have been.
In that instant, my brain succeeded in trapping all of this, staining itself forever with the image.
I don’t even remember sinking to my knees next to Ava. I couldn’t say when it happened. Maybe it was that moment or ages later when she crawled up my body, howling in terror and anguish, and clinging to me like I was the only thing keeping her from pitching backward into a yawning abyss.
