We crept around the back of the house until we found a lush but rain-flattened garden, all the roses and tulips and hydrangeas bowed toward the earth under the relentless torrent. The pebbled path led right past the back wall of the house and terminated at a set of double glass doors.
“What now?” Noelle asked.
On cue, my phone beeped. Kiran squealed and Taylor jumped. I tugged it from my pocket and read.
GO INSIDE THRU PARLOR & UPSTAIRS.
“Can I just say again that I don’t like this?” Kiran whimpered.
Noelle grunted and reached for the door. She had to shove it hard to unstick it, but it opened. I held my breath as I followed her tentative steps inside. The room was an enclosed patio, filled with furniture covered by drop cloths. Noelle moved straight ahead, feeling her way in the dark and with the help of the occasional lightning flashes. The house was dead quiet, except for the sound of our tiptoed footsteps and the slamming beat of my pulse.
We came to the foot of a set of carpeted stairs. My phone beeped again. Kiran squealed.
“Stop doing that!” I hissed.
“I’m sorry! I can’t help it!” she replied, hand at the base of her throat.
I read the text.
WHEN U GET 2 TOP, MAKE RT & GO 2 RM @ END OF HALL.
“Why doesn’t he just come down?” Taylor asked, her voice trembling as she kneaded her wet fingers together. “What’s with the cloak and dagger?”
“C
learly, MT likes to play,” Ivy said, grabbing the bannister and starting up the stairs. Was it just me, or did it seem like she was enjoying this? I made a mental note to find her a good therapist later. As long as we all survived.
“You ready for this?” Noelle asked.
“I hope so,” I replied.
I took her hand as we followed after Ivy and I was grateful when she didn’t shrug me off. With every step, my heart rate seemed to speed up, my pulse pounding so loud in my ears I couldn’t hear a thing. As my foot hit the top stair, I lost my balance and tipped sideways. As the door at the end of the hallway loomed ahead of us, every fiber of my being told me to run. Every instinct said this was wrong. But it was like I couldn’t turn back. We were on a roller coaster, cresting the top of the hill, and all there was to do was plummet toward the earth, scream our heads off, and trust we’d arrive alive.
We paused outside the door.
“What do we do?” Taylor whispered.
“Well.” Noelle released me and wiped her hands on the front of her wet jacket. “I’m going to open it.”
She looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded. What else could I do?
Noelle slowly reached for the door. Her fingers trembled. She grazed the handle. And then my phone beeped.
“What now?” Ivy hissed.
I looked down at my phone, but the text was not from MT. It was from Sawyer’s cell phone, and the message knocked all the wind out of me.
GET OUT NOW! RUN!!!!!
“Omigod,” I gasped. “Run!”
We all turned around as one and froze. The overhead lights flickered on. My knees went out from under me and I grabbed Noelle to keep from going down. Standing right in front of us, not ten feet away, was Graham Hathaway, dry and clean and holding a gun trained right at my heart. But it wasn’t him that stopped me cold. It was the person standing next to him, a menacing smirk on her pretty, familiar face.
“Cheyenne?” Ivy blurted.
“What’s up, girls?” she asked in a perky voice.
Her cheeks were rosy, the smattering of freckles across her nose brought out by the glow of the lights. Her long blond hair was back in a black velvet headband, and she wore tan riding pants, a tight black T-shirt, and black riding boots, like she’d just come in from exercising her horse.