“Rebecca,” Lena said, willing the girl to move. “We need to go upstairs.”
“What if he…” Rebecca began. “I can’t…”
“He’s in the shed,” Terri called. “Becca, please! Go!”
“He’ll be so mad,” Rebecca whimpered. “Oh, Lord, please…”
Terri’s voice trilled. “He’s coming toward the house!”
“Rebecca,” Lena tried again.
Terri ran back into the hall, pushing Rebecca as Lena tugged the girl toward the stairs.
“Mommy!” Tim grabbed onto his mother, wrapping his arms around her leg.
Terri’s voice was stern when she told her son, “Go upstairs now.” She spanked Tim on the bottom when he didn’t move quickly enough.
The back door opened and they all froze as Paul called, “Terri?”
Tim was at the top of the stairs, but Rebecca stood frozen in fear, breathing like a wounded animal.
“Terri?” Paul repeated. “Where the hell are you?” Slowly, his footsteps traveled through the kitchen. “Christ, this place is a mess.”
Using all her strength, Lena picked up Rebecca, half carrying, half dragging the girl up the stairs. By the time she reached the top, she was out of breath, her insides feeling like they had been ripped in two.
“I’m here!” Terri called to her uncle, her shoes making clicking noises across the tile foyer as she walked back to the kitchen. Lena heard muffled voices as she pushed Rebecca and Tim into the closest room. Too late she realized they were in the nursery.
In the crib, the baby gurgled. Lena waited for him to wake up and cry. What seemed like an hour passed before the child turned his head away and settled back to sleep.
“Oh, Lord,” Rebecca whispered, praying.
Lena put her hand over the girl’s mouth, carefully walking her toward the closet with Tim in tow. For the first time, Rebecca seemed to understand, and she slowly opened the door, her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for a noise that would alert Paul to their presence. Nothing came, and she slid to the floor, grabbing Tim in her arms and hiding behind a stack of winter blankets.
Softly, Lena clicked the door closed, holding her breath, waiting for Paul to come rushing in. She could barely hear him speaking over the pounding of her own heart, but suddenly his heavy footsteps echoed up the stairs.
“This place is a pigsty,” Paul said, and she could hear him knocking things over as he went through the house. Lena knew the house was spotless, just like she knew Paul was being an asshole. “Jesus Christ, Terri, you back on coke again? Look at this mess. How can you raise your children here?”
Terri mumbled a reply, and Paul screamed, “Don’t back-talk me!” He was in the tiled foyer now, his voice booming up the stairs like a roll of thunder. Carefully, Lena tiptoed to the wall opposite the nursery, flattening herself against it, listening to Paul yell at Terri. Lena waited another beat, then slid to her left, edging toward the stair landing so she could peer downstairs and see what was going on. Jeffrey had told her to wait, to hide Rebecca until he got there. She should stay back in the room, keep the kids quiet, make sure they were safe.
Lena held her breath, inching closer to the stairs, chancing a look.
Paul’s back was to her. Terri stood directly in front of him.
Lena slid back behind the corner, her heart beating so hard she could feel the artery thumping in the side of her neck.
“When’s he going to be back?” Paul demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“Where’s my medallion?”
“I don’t know.”
She had given him this same answer to all of his questions, and Paul finally snapped, “What do you know, Terri?”
She was silent, and Lena looked downstairs again to make sure she was still there.
“He’ll be back soon,” Terri said, her eyes flicking up to Lena. “You can wait for him in the garage.”
“You want me out of the house?” he asked. Lena quickly pulled back as Paul turned around. “Why’s that?”
Lena put her hand to her chest, willing her heart to slow. Men like Paul had an almost animal instinct. They could hear through walls, see everything that went on. She looked at her watch, trying to calculate how much time had passed since she had called Jeffrey. He was at least fifteen minutes away, even if he came with lights and siren blaring.
Paul said, “What’s going on, Terri? Where’s Dale?”
“Out.”
“Don’t get smart with me.” Lena heard a loud popping noise, flesh against flesh. Her heart stopped in her chest.
Terri said, “Please. Just wait in the garage.”
Paul’s tone was conversational. “Why don’t you want me in the house, Terri?”
Again, there was the popping noise. Lena did not have to look to know what was happening. She knew the sickening sound, knew it was an open-handed smack, just as she knew exactly what it felt like on your face.
There was a sound from the nursery, Rebecca or Tim shifting in the closet, and a floorboard creaked. Lena closed her eyes, frozen. Jeffrey had ordered her to wait, to protect Rebecca. He hadn’t given her any instructions on what to do if Paul found them.
Lena opened her eyes. She knew exactly what she would do. Carefully, she slid her gun out of its holster, aiming it at the space above the open landing. Paul was a big man. All Lena had in her favor was the element of surprise, and she wasn’t going to give that up for anything. She could almost taste the triumph she’d feel when Paul turned that corner, expecting to see a frightened child but finding a Glock shoved in his smug face.
“It’s just Tim,” Terri insisted, downstairs.
Paul said nothing, but Lena heard footsteps on the wooden stairs. Slow, careful footsteps.
“It’s Tim,” Terri repeated. The footsteps stopped. “He’s sick.”
“Your whole family’s sick,” Paul taunted, pounding his shoe onto the next stair; his Gucci loafer that could pay the mortgage on this small house for a month. “It’s because of you, Terri. All those drugs you did, all that fucking around. All those blow jobs, all those ass fuckings. I bet the jism’s rotting you from the inside out.”
“Stop it.”
Lena cupped the gun in her hand, holding it straight out in front of her, pointing it at the open landing as she waited for him to get to the top so she could shut him the fuck up.
“One of these days,” he began, taking another step. “One of these days, I’m going to have to tell Dale.”
“Paul-”
“How do you think he’s going to feel knowing he’s put his dick in all that?” Paul asked. “All that come just swirling around inside you.”
“I was sixteen!” she sobbed. “What was I going to do? I didn’t have a choice!”
“And now your kids are sick,” he said, obviously pleased by her distress. “Sick with what you did. Sick with all that disease and filth inside you.” His tone made Lena ’s stomach tighten with hate. She felt the urge to make some kind of noise that would get him up here faster. The gun felt hot in her hand, ready to explode as soon as he passed into her line of vision.
He continued to climb the stairs, saying, “You were nothing but a fucking whore.”
Terri did not respond.
“And you’re still turning tricks?” he said, coming closer. Just another few steps and he would be there. His words were so hateful, so familiar. He could be Ethan talking to Lena. Ethan coming up the stairs to beat the shit out of her.
“You think I don’t know what you needed that money for?” Paul demanded. He had stopped about two steps from the top, so close that Lena could smell his flowery cologne. “Three hundred fifty bucks,” he said, slapping the stair railing as if he was telling some kind of joke. “That’s a lot of money, Ter. What’d you use all that money for?”
“I said I’d pay you back.”
“Pay me back when you can,” he said, as if he was her old friend instead of tormentor. “Tell me what it was for, Genie. I was only trying to help you.”
Lena gritted her teeth, watching his shadow linger on the landing. Terri had asked Paul for the money to pay the clinic. He must have made her grovel for it, then kicked her in the teeth before she left.