Chapter Sixty-Six Hanna
Chapter Sixty-Six
Hanna
I needed Jeremy somewhere safe. Various plans scurried through my mind only to be abandoned as unworkable. All carried too
much risk. Plan B, stashing him in the locked butler’s pantry with a knife in his hands, turned out to be the least offensive
to him. The solution risked igniting new nightmares for both of us about his being locked away and trapped, drugged and vulnerable.
So, this had to work and fast.
The demented Tanner legacy needed to end now. Tonight. Tomorrow the town would burst into haunted life. The spectacle and
celebration of Halloween would start long before the sun descended. Trick-or-treaters would flood the streets. Tourists would
flock from one over-the-top festivity to the next.
Xavier’s house had achieved cult status with expert and novice ghost hunters alike.
Both Tanner houses had been added to area tours.
They kept to the sidewalk but even that was too close today.
The next few hours needed to play out as they had in my mind.
I’d lit up most of the rooms of the house but left this one dark, pointing a welcome arrow directly at its doorway for exactly that reason.
Rain pelted the leaded-glass windows. A hammering wind shook the old house, causing the lights to flicker. This was exactly
the mood I didn’t want. I despised any scene with a horror movie vibe and that’s all my life consisted of lately. I’d been
thrown from one tragedy to another. From one unanswered question to the next.
I sat in Xavier’s oversized leather chair in the corner of his darkened library. From this vantage point, and with the help
of the hallway light, I could see shadows around the door, the outline of the bookcase on the far wall, and the stormy night
brewing outside the window.
I’d turned off the sound on my phone, including the usual pings and alerts of the alarm system. Still, when a warning light
popped up on my screen five minutes ago I jumped. Adrenaline ran through me at an unrestrained gallop. I’d spent my entire
life avoiding scary things. Tonight, I walked right into a wall of terror. Opened the door and invited it in for a chat.
My phone blinked a second time. The warning light flashed. The motion sensor.
I didn’t need to check which one or where because I knew.
Click.
The rumble started before the bookshelf across from me began to swing. My nerves shook hard enough to rattle my teeth. Shivers
danced up and down my spine like I’d been thrown naked into an icy snowbank.
A figure slipped into the room, wearing all black. The blond surfer hair stood out.
Lukas Grange. Stella’s ex. He usually hid in plain sight and wore a nice suit. Brilliant. Successful. Connected. Helpful. A man born in affluence and jettisoned into power. Determined to succeed. The possible future judge.
A demented piece of shit.
He must have sensed someone near him. The beam from his flashlight hit me in the face the second before I turned the desk
light on, washing the room in soft white.
He jumped as the hand holding the flashlight dropped to his side. The other stayed nestled in his jacket pocket. The rest
of him waited, alert and ready.
That made two of us.