The Negotiation

Was she overreacting?

Had she just been in the wrong place at the wrong time at the school?

Or were the men coming for her?

She tightened her grip on the gun. Her nerves shook her hand. The muscles in her legs readied to run. It didn’t help matters when a booming knock sounded against the front door.

She paused, a few feet from it.

There were no windows to show her who it was, so she walked softly to the peephole. Holding her breath, heart in her throat, Rachel looked through it.

“Holy buckets.” She breathed out and lowered the gun to her side. She opened the door in time to catch Dane’s fist in midair. He was quick to take in her expression and the weapon.

“Before you use that on me, know that, in my defense, I called you. Three times, in fact.”

It wasn’t lost on Rachel how much seeing the man made her feel better. Just as seeing him standing in the gym, cursing at the chained doors, had this morning. Capable, sturdy, a force to be reckoned with. Handsome, too. Though that wasn’t anything new.

“I just realized my phone died,” she said, trying to get her heartbeat back on its normal path.

Dane motioned to the gun. “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re more cautious than not. It makes my—the department’s—job easier in making sure you stay safe.” His eyes strayed over her shoulder as footsteps echoed up the hallway.

“Everything okay?” Marnie called out.

Rachel turned to find the woman holding something in her hands. It surprised a laugh out of her. “Yeah, Marnie. Everything is fine, but is that my bedside lamp?”

Marnie shrugged.

“I wanted to help,” she said defensively. She raised her chin a fraction, proud.

“Well, you can help by putting that back. Please.”

Marnie rolled her eyes but went back into the bedroom.

Dane grinned.

“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t just barge in,” he said. “If a bullet didn’t do me in, the lamp just might have.”

A look she couldn’t place passed over Dane’s expression. He took a small step backward and jutted his thumb over his shoulder. His truck was parked at the mouth of the drive, since there was no true curb around the property unless you drove back to the two-lane that connected to the town. “Everyone’s still looking for the men, but until we have more information, I thought I might hang out here for a while, just as a precaution.”

Rachel couldn’t stop her surprise from surfacing.

“Deputy Ward is keeping an eye out on Lonnie, too,” he added.

She recovered. “Oh, yeah. Well, that’s good. Especially after everything Lonnie went through today. Better safe than sorry.”

Rachel omitted that she felt another surge of relief having someone so close. It was only after he started to turn away that she wondered if that feeling was because her someone just happened to be Dane.

“Okay, well, charge your cell and give me a heads-up if anyone else is coming over,” he said, already moving down the steps. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Hey, Dane.”

The words left Rachel’s mouth before her mind could catch them. Dane turned, but his expression was blank. He was shutting down.

Again.

Still, Rachel was riding the high of feeling relief and, after the day she’d had, she didn’t want it to stop.

“You could stay inside,” she said. “In the spare room or on the couch. It isn’t like you haven’t slept on either before.”

She tried to smile. She really did. She tried to remember the man who had been her husband’s best friend. The man who had been her friend. The one who had smiled and joked and never turned down an invitation from them to come over.

But time had a funny way of making memories hurt, even when they were good ones.

And maybe that showed.

Dane shook his head and averted his gaze. “I can’t.”

He went back to his truck without another word.

Then, all at once, Rachel felt her anger returning.

This time it was aimed at a man named Marcus. Not only had he taken her husband from her, he’d all but taken her friend, too.

Chapter Five (#ud176ea88-1e7c-5aeb-9e2b-746adf8af128)

Rachel took her coffee out onto the back patio the next morning. It was her second cup and not strong enough to combat her nearly sleepless night. Every time she seemed to close her eyes, there was the sandy-haired man smiling at her. Then there was Overalls grabbing her hair. Both images together and separate had gotten her out of bed and roaming the house. Or, really, going to the front windows and peeking out to see if Dane’s truck was still there.

It had been.

Every single time.

Now she was trying not to think too much and just hoping the caffeine would kick in and make her feel less sluggish. And more normal.

The sun shone through the tops of the pine trees and warmed the wooden rail she was leaning against. The side patio would always be her favorite spot in the world, she was sure. Worn, in need of a new coat of stain, and filled with past moments when she’d spent countless hours across its surface, it was Rachel’s idea of peaceful.

She looked out toward the creek in the distance. It wound around the two acres of her land in a half circle before going through the next two properties. She remembered how much she’d disliked having water near the house when she’d moved into David’s family home right after they married, perpetually afraid of flooding that never came. Now it was her favorite feature. She supposed there was some comfort in the fact that no matter how unexpected the turns her life took, she could look out at that creek and watch it keep going the same way it had been going for years.

It didn’t stop for tragedy.

It didn’t stop for sorrow.

It didn’t stop just because there were bad men with bad intentions out there.

It just kept going.

Rachel sighed into her coffee.

Clearing her head wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped.