Page 68 of Christmas Wish
Chapter Eighteen
Savannah peeked outthe curtain, her eyes adjusting to the darkness as they strained to see if someone was out there past the trees watching her. Nothing.
“Are you looking for Ryder?” Timmy asked.
She glanced behind her and saw Timmy fitting a piece into a puzzle. “Yes, but he’s not back yet.”
“How come?”
“He said he may be late. How’s your puzzle coming along?” The curtain fell from her hand, and she walked over to where Timmy sat on the floor, his elbows propped on his knees.
“It’s going good.” He picked up another piece and tried to fit it in a space that was a tad bit too small.
As Savannah watched him, her nerves jumped at every sound in the cabin; she never noticed before how much noise a house could make. She’d seen the man from the tree-lighting night when she and Timmy went into town to see the Christmas displays in the windows on Main Street. She didn’t have the heart to ask Ryder to doyet anotherholiday outing with them, especially since she knew he wasn’t a fan of the yuletide season.
It’d been about thirty minutes before she’d had a feeling that someone was watching her. Sure enough, she’d glanced behind her shoulder and that man was there again, his deep-set eyes boring into her. Savannah had prodded Timmy along, making sure to stay with the large crowd that walked from window to window, and when they’d finished, she literally dragged poor Timmy to the SUV and threw him in.
Not wanting to go home quite yet, Savannah had driven to Ruthie’s for a snack, and fear curdled in her stomach when she sawhistwo sharp eyes staring at her out of the darkness. He had continued to follow them, at least she thought it had been him. Too petrified to turn onto roads that weren’t familiar, Savannah drove back to the house using the only route she knew, and then the car that she’d thought was his drove right past the road.
But if it was him, now he knows the road. All he has to do is come back and take it and it’ll lead right to us.A fit of barking erupted from Brutus, and Savannah cried out and jumped up from the floor.
Timmy laughed. Brutus kept barking. Savannah’s heart pumped against her throat.
“Brutus! Calm down,” she said.
“I think he wants to go outside,” Timmy said, pointing at the dog, who stood by the front door with his ears erect and his body stiff.
Shit! Wait … Ryder has guns coming out of his ass. He told me where the bullets are.She folded her arms against her chest. “Timmy, don’t move. I’ll be right back. Don’t let Brutus out or anything, okay?”
“Uh-huh.” Timmy rolled around on the floor.
“Please promise me you won’t move.”
“I promise, Mommy.”
Savannah dashed to the master bedroom and retrieved four bullets, then she ran into the workshop and took a rifle down off the wall. Her father had taught all his children how to shoot, and she quietly thanked him for that as she loaded the gun. Hurrying back into the family room, Savannah slowly walked toward the front door, which Brutus was now scratching frantically.
“He needs to go to the bathroom, Mommy.”
Terror raced through her veins as she crept on weakened legs toward the door.
“Stay where you are,” she said to Timmy. She put her clammy hand on the knob and held the rifle tight in her other one. Again, she looked outside through the peephole, and once again, nothing but darkness.
Slowly, she turned the knob as Brutus went wild beside her. When it was opened just enough, Brutus darted out, his sharp barks fading as he disappeared into the night. She slammed the door and locked the deadbolt, then sagged against it while gulping in breaths of air.
“Where did Brutus go, Mommy?”
“I don’t know.”Maybe he heard a deer or something.She glanced down at her phone: 12:00 a.m.Where are you, Ryder?She’d texted him a few times and never received a reply, but she knew he was out on “club business”—whatever that meant—and that’s all he would say about his clandestine outing.
“When’s Brutus coming back?” Timmy lay on his back on the floor, yawning.
“When he’s ready.” She put the gun down near the door then shuffled over to Timmy. “Come on, honey, lie down on the couch. It’s too cold on the floor.” If she wasn’t scared out of her mind, she’d have taken him to his room and tucked him in bed, but she didn’t want Timmy to be away from her.
Then the doorknob jiggled. Timmy closed his eyes, and Savannah swallowed down breaths to keep from crying out. Tiptoeing across the floor, her gaze stayed fixed on the door, and as she reached for the rifle, the door flew open. A blast of icy air froze her to the spot, and she let out a blood curdling scream.
“Mommy!” Timmy leapt up from the couch and she watched him, as if in slow motion, scamper toward her.
She tried to tell him not to come near—to run away, but she couldn’t speak. All Savannah could do was watch her son come closer and closer to the unimaginable.
