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  She moved up to hug me, and Bee leaned forward in her chair, squeezing the hand she was still holding.

  Sitting on the floor in my room, holding what remained of my beautiful gift, I wanted to give up. I was ready to throw my hands up and let whatever will be—be. But there, in the dark, surrounded by our friends, our family, I started to feel strong again.

  Brian used to tease me that I was his little spark plug. I didn’t take crap from anyone, but I didn’t give people crap either. I wouldn’t let this get me down. I couldn’t. I have five other people counting on me to keep it together, and I wasn’t going to disrespect my husband by letting this beat me.

  I squeezed Bee’s hand, and I gave Amy a fierce hug, “Okay. Okay. I can do this. Tomorrow I’ll call a plumber—got to get a new toilet installed. And the shower doors will need to be replaced.”

  Bee sat back and took a drink. “Okay. The back door—we need to do something there.”

  “Got it,” Amy noted. “Ben and I stopped and got some plywood. It’s a temporary thing, but tomorrow when it’s light outside, we can get someone over and see what needs to be done.”

  Bee called to the guys. When they came out, she asked them to run and put up the plywood. It would offer some protection until I could get the door repaired.

  “I guess the pictures are okay—for the most part at least. The glass is just smashed. So I’ll need to get that all picked up.”

  “What do you mean ‘for the most part?’” Bee pushed. “What is it?”

  The guys heard her and stopped. Anthony hadn’t been in my kitchen, so he hadn’t seen the ruined pictures of the kids and I.

  I looked around at the concerned faces and told them, “Most of the pictures were just knocked over, thrown off the wall. The glass is broken, but the pictures seem okay. Except...” I was having trouble finishing my train of thought.

  “Except what, sweetie?” Amy took my hand.

  “The pictures of Sam and I—they’re… ruined. All of them. Torn apart. And the canvases in the kitchen that Brian had made for me—all of them are ruined too.” Fresh tears came and coursed down my face.

  Bee and Amy exchanged glances, and Sam looked aghast. He had only seen the picture that I had taken outside.

  “What do you mean our pictures are ruined?” Sam sounded as if he was near tears.

  I stood up and crossed to him, our son. I put my hands on his face. “I don’t know what happened, honey. Some of the pictures of us were...” I wasn’t sure what to say, how to phrase it, so I continued, “We’ll get new ones. We can have new ones printed.”

  Amy nodded. “Sure. I can take care of that.”

  The day before, Sam had reminded me so much of his father. But on this day, he looked like a little boy—a scared and confused little boy. He needed his mom. He needed me.

  Sam gently stepped back and nodded toward me, as if to tell me he was okay.

  “Sam?” Anthony came over to us. “Do me a favor, k? Stay here with the gals. Keep an eye on them. Ben and I will run up and do what we can with the back door?”

  Sam nodded. “Okay. It’s cool. I’m cool.”

  But he wasn’t. None of us were.

  Chapter 26

  He wanted to reach out to them. The boy looked… scared. And when she hugged him, he clung to her.

  He could feel the frustration. They needed him. They called to him. Who were they? It was right there. So close.

  It was a good day. He was starting to feel strong again, powerful. His head hurt less.

  But he smelled The Woman. She was out there. He sensed her.

  The desire to hurt her filled his body. It drove him. It fueled his body.

  He sniffed the air. There!

  The Woman was near.

  Chapter 27

  “What was that?” Amy asked as a low rumble filled the night.

  “Probably just a dog,” Bee said standing up. “Why don’t we head inside though? I’m sure the guys are almost done, or they will be soon.”

  I had heard it too—a deep, low rumble. It wasn’t a dog. I knew that. I could feel it. I looked at my friend. Rarely does Bee get flustered, but she was standing by the pool with her arms wrapped around her waist. And though it was warm outside, she was rubbing her arms as if trying to ward off a chill.

  Amy and Bee headed inside, but I stood outside for a minute longer. For some reason, I wasn’t afraid. Rather, it comforted me.

  I walked over to the far side of the pool, the part of the lawn closest to the wooded area behind the fence. It was incredibly dark.

  “I can feel you,” I said to the night.

  There was no answering rumble, no sound at all. In fact, the night was almost deathly quiet.

  “I can feel you,” I repeated. “One day soon, you’ll show yourself. You’ll come to me.”

  I didn’t know who or what I was talking to, but whatever was out there wasn’t going to hurt me. Whatever was out there watching wasn’t what was coming at us.

  Chapter 28

  She was so close. He held his breath. By slowing down his heart rate, he stopped the change. He could reach out and touch her, caress her, kiss her, but something stopped him.

  He needed to finish healing.

  So he kept still. He made no sound, and he watched and listened.

  Her face looked determined. The fear was no longer etched on her beautiful face. There was a strength there, a determination.

  And a new feeling settled inside him.

  Love.

  Chapter 29

  Since it was obvious that the night wasn’t going to provide any answers, I turned and walked inside. Ben and Anthony were back, and they were sitting at the kitchen table, along with Bee, Amy, and Sam. I sat down at the only empty chair, next to my son.

  “Did the plywood work?” I asked them.

  “It’ll work for now. For the night at least. We’ll get someone out there tomorrow,” Anthony said.

  “Can’t I just run to Lowe’s and get a new door?” I asked.

  Anthony shook his head. “There’s damage to the frame. It’s gonna need to be fixed. We could probably figure it out, but I think calling someone’s the way to go.”

  “I’ll call Joe tomorrow. I’m sure some of the guys can take care of it.” I made a mental note to call Joe, Brian’s foreman, in the morning.

  Ben nodded. “Good idea. We can go with you to Lowe’s and help you get the doors tomorrow.”

  Sam and Anthony agreed.

  I looked at our friends, all chipping in to help me. “Can I ask you guys a huge favor?”

  Everyone nodded and murmured their of course’s and yes’s.

  “Do you think you guys can get the doors and a new toilet? I’m going to get all that glass up, find whatever pictures are still okay, and see if maybe some of my jewelry made it too. I just feel like I need to do this. I need to get it done. Maybe you can price some flooring for me too. I’m worried that the hardwood in my bedroom is damaged from all that water, and I want to make sure that we get it all in one shot. I don’t want problems creeping back up later.”

  “Yeah. Of course, of course. Whatever you need,” Ben answered, and Anthony and Sam agreed.

  “We’ll be here first thing in the morning,” Amy told me. “Bee and I can help you salvage whatever we can.”

  Bee was nodding.

  I wanted to tell them they didn’t have to do that. I wanted to say that I would be fine. But I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was sigh in relief and thank them again.

  It was quiet, until Sam spoke up. “I’m kind of beat. I’m gonna turn in.”

  He stood up and kissed Bee, Amy, and I on the cheek, gave the guys a little wave, and left the room.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Amy whispered loudly once we heard the door to the den close.

  Ben echoed her sentiment, “This is crazy. What are the police doing? I mean, did we ever hear back from animal control?”

  I shook my head. “They said they would only cal
l if it was something unusual. When we didn’t hear from them, I assumed the tracks and the… umm… body was nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “But your van, honey,” Amy reminded me. “And now this? What’s going on?”

  I threw my hands up. “I don’t know. I wish I did.” And then I thought of something. “Wait, am I going to even be able to get back in my house tomorrow?”

  Anthony looked at me and shook his head. “Good point. The officers didn’t really say, but I doubt it. Whoever is doing this caused a lot of damage, and we want the cops to take their time to get whatever evidence they need. It might be a day or two before we can even get inside.”

  I let out a huge sigh and put my head on my arms. I shook my head. “I can’t believe this. I’ve never done anything to anyone! I’m a stay at home mom for fuck’s sake! Have been for years. Why would anyone want to do this to us? To the kids?”

  No one had an answer.

  Chapter 30

  She laughed and ran away from him. They were on a beach. A bikini top flew at his face, and he caught it.

  “Shh...” He told her, holding his fingers to his lips. “There are other people here.”

  “Oh, come on! Look at all the houses. They’re dark. People turned in for the night. It’s just you and me, big boy!” She started to shimmy out of her bikini bottoms.

  He watched her. Lust filled him and made him hard. Suddenly, his shorts were too tight. He dropped her top and moved his hands to his waistband. She licked her lips and came to him.

  “I got those.” She curled into him and brought his shorts down past his hips. She let them fall to the sand. She raised on her toes and kissed him with a passion that ripped all thought from him.

  He slid his arms around her slim waist and cupped her bottom, crushing her against his length.

  She ground her hips against him and whispered in his ear, “The towel’s right over there.”

  He picked her up, and she wrapped her long legs around his waist. Never taking his lips from hers, he walked over to the towel and laid her down gently. He pulled back to look in her eyes, the moonlight just giving off enough light so he could lose himself in their smoky heat.

  “I love you.” He smoothed the hair from her brow, which was damp from the heat. “I love you with all my heart.”

  She looked up at him and gave him a sweet smile. “I know.”

  She pulled him down so that she could kiss away all thought. She moved her hips up, and he sank into her. She arched her back and a moan escaped her parted lips. As he moved out of her, she brought her hips up to meet him, and they were in perfect sync.

  “Lay down,” she told him, and he wordlessly obeyed her.

  Once he was on his back, she climbed on top of him, and he sank into her warmth. She rode him, and he was lost. He could feel her orgasm building, as she rode him harder. She rolled her head back and let out a low, almost feral groan.

  “God!” She kissed him. “I love you.”

  He flipped her over and pounded into her, and though she was spent, she kept up and matched his rhythm.

  When he was done, when neither of them had anything left, he lay next to her and brought her to his chest.

  “I love you, ...”

  He woke up sweating and cursed. It had been right there! Her name, what she was to him. He felt it. He felt the love, the desire for her coursing through every vein in his body. And this was new. He had never had a dream like that before. Parts of it were so vivid—the emotion, the feelings. But her face had been lost in the shadows. Except for her eyes. Her eyes saw into his soul. She was a part of him, that much he knew, but for some reason, his mind wasn’t letting him see everything.

  He sat up and ran his hands through his hair and looked around the abandoned house he had taken for his den.

  Chapter 31

  I woke up the next morning with a heavy head. I stared at the ceiling of my friends’ guest room. The girls were still asleep. They had just taken off their shorts and were asleep in the shirts they had worn home. I figured I could run down to the house and get our luggage out of the car. That way at least everyone could change.

  Before I went to sleep, I had called Detective Jeffries. He assured me that once they were done in the house, we could get back in there. He had even given me the name of a company that cleans houses after a break in like ours. I was going to give them a call. The pictures, I could handle. My clothes, sure. But the bathroom was a war zone, and my mattress was beyond saving.

  Detective Jeffries said to give him a call around noon to follow up. Looking at the clock, that gave me about three hours to get a game plan going. I already had the list growing in my head.

  1. Call the cleaning company.

  2. Give Sam money for the door.

  3. The toilet and shower doors can wait until Joe can come take a look and see where we stand.

  4. Speaking of Joe, call him and ask him to come look, or maybe send one of his guys over to see what the damage was.

  5. From what I see, most, if not all, of my clothes were ruined, which means all I had left was what I had taken on the cruise with me. That would get me by for a couple days, but at some point I would need to replace what I had lost.

  6. Oh yeah! Call our insurance company and report this—file a claim.

  The list seemed to just go on and on. I was surprised when the tears stayed away. When Brian had been there, it had been easy for me to fall apart, even if only for a moment. He let me get it out, and then we tackled the problem together. But, in this moment, it was just me.

  Of course, Bee, Anthony, Amy, and Ben were all there, and they were amazing. But in the end, I had to get up and get going, because if the kids saw me falling apart, they would follow suit. And that wasn’t going to happen. It was my job to protect them. I had to keep it together.

  “Mommy?” Jessie stuck her head over the edge of the bed and looked at me.

  The girls had been passed out, and arms and legs were everywhere. I didn’t want to disturb them, so I just made a pallet on the floor and passed out.

  “Hey, baby girl. What’s up?” I smiled at her.

  “Why couldn’t we sleep at home yesterday?”

  Maggie must have heard us talking because her tousled head soon appeared.

  “Did Carey or Jimmy tell you anything? Or Sam?”

  They shook their heads.

  “No. But we heard stuff,” Maggie said quietly. She had been told more than once that eavesdropping was not something that she should be doing, but in this case I let it go.

  “What did you hear?” I asked.

  “We heard Sam tell Carey and Jimmy that someone went into our house,” Jessie said.

  “He said they destroyed all our pictures and messed up your room really badly,” Maggie continued. “Is that why you had Jimmy and Carey take us to Mrs. B’s house?”

  God! What do I tell them? I don’t want to scare them, but I wasn’t going to lie to them either. I took a deep breath and dove in.

  “Well, someone did come into our house. They messed up the back door and a lot of our pictures. And yes, they really messed up my room. So badly, that I am probably going to have to call Uncle Joey and ask him to come out and look at my bathroom.”

  “Is your bathroom messed up really bad?” Jessie asked, concern etched on her small face.

  I nodded at her and sat up. “I think it is. At least parts of it are.”

  Both the girls just stared at me, and I offered up a tentative smile. That is where it started—what I did from there on out was going to be closely watched by the kids, and my short term goal was to rise to the occasion.

  I reached up and took their hands in mine. I remembered a time when I could hold all four of their hands in mine. Oh how they’ve grown—our girls.

  I squeezed them, and they placed two of their hands over mine. Brian’s girls, that’s what he called us.

  “We’re still Daddy’s girls,” I said. “We’re gonna get through this. I promise you. We
’re gonna help the police in any way we can. We’ll answer questions and tell them if we see anything funky, okay? And then we’re gonna do what we always do. We’re gonna get ready for school and meet your teachers, buy your supplies, buy groceries, and do all the stuff we like to do. This isn’t going to interfere with our lives, okay?”

  Secure in my ability to get things done, both girls gave me a confident nod and scrambled up to grab their shorts and get some breakfast.

  I told them that I would go down to the car with Sam and get our luggage so that we could at least change and get cleaned up. One more thing for the list—I would have to ask Bee if I could do some laundry.

  I went into the guest bathroom and splashed water on my face. My hair was passable if I put it up. I rinsed out my mouth, which at least got rid of the fuzzy feeling. I looked at myself in the mirror, surprised to see no dark circles or worry lines etched in my face. I guess not having many options did that to you.

  I squared my shoulders and went downstairs.

  * * *

  “Look, Squirt, Iron Man would not take Superman. You know it, and I know it, so stop arguing.” Ant was gently teasing Maggie, who was gamely in Iron Man’s corner.

  “I bet he would put up a good fight!” Maggie came back at him.

  Ant scoffed at her and stole a piece of bacon off her plate.

  “HEY!” Maggie fussed and ran around the table and took Ant’s whole plate.

  Bee and Anthony just smiled. Despite our reason for being there, all that had happened, I knew Bee loved the noise. One drunken night, she told Amy and I through her tears that she and Anthony had wanted a house full of kids—at least four. But no matter what they did, she just lost baby after baby. I think she was seeing what might have been, and it brought a sad smile to her face.

  I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Bee.”

  She hugged me back. “For what?”

  “For being my friend.”

  She swatted me on the butt with her spatula. “You’re the sister I never had.”