“Four minutes,” VoiceOver read.
“Mikhail!” I shouted again, pulling his leash out of the drawer in the foyer table.
Something creaked above me again, and I shook my head, going breathless.
Something was wrong. That wouldn’t be my family. I called their names. They didn’t answer. Where were they?
Damon, what have you done?
I heard a noise, like the refrigerator closing, and maybe…
“Mom!” I yelled.
What was that? Where was my dog?
Racing into the kitchen, I halted, facing the direction of the refrigerator. “Hello? Who’s there?”
No answer.
Shit. I lunged, swinging open the back door. “Mikhail!”
Rain pattered the terrace and awnings, and I couldn’t hear him. He would come in if it was raining, and it he didn’t, he’d be huddled right outside this door. No jingling leash telling me he was running for me or whining to get out of the water. Where did he go?
Two footfalls hit the floor above me, and I stopped breathing.
Damn you. The fear of that night seven years ago when he first messed with me came flooding back, only this time, I doubted my dancing could get me out of this.
I slipped my hand in my pocket, finding the house keys already there, and fitting two between my fingers as a weapon. I closed the door, hearing my phone ding, probably with the notification that my ride was here. I gripped the leash in one hand, the keys in the other, and backed up a step.
The floor whined to my right as someone stepped, and I tried to inhale but couldn’t. Then something clicked from somewhere in the house, a door softly closing.
Weight settled on one of the stairs, and I heard the rings on a curtain slide along a rod. Closing.
More movement in the attic, and in my head, I’d already run.
Go. I forced every ounce of energy to pool in my legs as I gripped my weapons, spun around, and bolted out of the kitchen, taking the straight shot all the way to the front door.
I grabbed the handle, whipped it open, and flew outside into the rain and cool morning air. I slammed right into a car and fumbled with the door handle, finally opening it.
“Jesse?” I said the driver’s name I got from the app.
“Yeah, you okay?”
I scurried inside, barely registering the cackling I heard coming from inside my house since I’d left the door open.
Asshole.
My heart was trying to jump out of my goddamn chest.
And it still didn’t answer where my family was. Or my dog.
“Lock the doors,” I told him.
He did and took off, rounding the fountain and heading for St. Killian’s, the address I’d already entered into the app.
I put my head back, still gripping the leash in my hand. Mikhail. God, he wouldn’t hurt him, would he? The dog was coming to me less and less. I didn’t know if he was warming to Damon or hiding in fear.
Rain spattered the windshield, and the driver stayed quiet as he drove, probably noticing that I was out of sorts.