Chapter 6
SIX
He was coming for her.
Piper ran. Her feet pounded against the dirt. Tree branches clawed at her clothes. Her heart raced. She couldn’t escape. The fear was encompassing. It tasted bitter on her tongue. Panic trapped the scream in her throat as a large form suddenly appeared in front of her.
Arms encircled her. They sucked the last of the air from her lungs as she tumbled to the forest floor. She fought, clawing against the man holding her down as the surrounding images shifted. The kitchen in her mother’s trailer appeared. Chipped linoleum flooring. The groceries she’d brought over scattered all around. Oppressive summer heat making it hard to breathe. Sweat poured down her back as she stared up at the masked man hovering over her. His eyes were black holes. Evil intentions poured off him.
Trapped. He had her trapped.
Piper woke with a scream on her lips. The bedsheets were tangled around her feet. She kicked them off, her breath coming in pants. Bile rose in the back of her throat, and she stumbled to the bathroom. She threw up. Tears pricked her eyes as she rested her head against the cool porcelain seat, trying her best to gather her wits and calm the sheer panic running through her body. It’d been years since she had a nightmare that fierce. She didn’t need to call her old therapist to ask why. Elena’s murder had triggered Piper’s memories.
God, why did Elena have to die? Sometimes I can’t make sense of this world or the things that happen.
Tears pricked her eyes. She let out her grief and her anger, pouring it onto God, because He was the only one strong enough to take it. Then, once she was depleted, Piper rose from the bathroom floor. She splashed cold water on her face. A quick glance at the clock confirmed there wasn’t enough time to go back to bed. Instead, she brushed her teeth, took a shower, and dressed for the day.
As she was applying concealer to the hollows under her eyes, Emma appeared in the bathroom doorway. She was still dressed in her pajamas, her eyes sleepy, and her long hair tangled. In one small hand, she carried a brush.
Piper turned to face her. “Good morning, sweetheart. You’re up bright and early.”
“I used the alarm you gave me. Can you braid my hair?”
“Of course, I can.” She pulled out the chair from under the vanity and patted it. “Come here. One braid or two?”
“One. ”
Emma promptly sat down and Piper went to work untangling the curls that’d worked themselves into knots. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her right eye with a balled fist. “Robbie was mean to Carolyn at the playground yesterday. He pulled her hair. She started crying. So then I told him to stop it and he called me a bad name.” She met Piper’s gaze in the mirror. Her youthful cheeks and sweet, round face offset the seriousness in her expression. “I explained everything to Mrs. Hutchinson. She gave Robbie a talking to. Pulling hair and calling people names is against the rules.”
Mrs. Hutchinson was Emma’s teacher. The older woman was compassionate, but she didn’t let the kids get away with anything unacceptable. Piper liked her a great deal.
“Great job, Emma. You handled that exactly as you were supposed to.” Piper weaved the light-colored strands of her niece’s hair into a tight braid before wrapping the end with an elastic band. “I’m proud of you for sticking up for your friend.”
Her niece had a heart of gold and was a fearless champion of any underdog. Ava said Emma was exactly like Piper. She appreciated the compliment, although Piper believed Emma was a much better version. She wasn’t jaded. She was full of joy and light and everything good in the world.
Emma bloomed under Piper’s praise. A broad smile stretched across her face. Then she admired the braid in the mirror. “That looks good.” She gave her a fierce hug. “Thanks, Aunt Piper.”
“You’re welcome.” Warmth infused her insides. Piper held on to Emma for a second or two more. “Go get dressed and come down for breakfast. I don’t want you to be late for school.”
“Okay.” She skipped out of the bathroom.
Emma’s happiness brought a smile to Piper’s face and erased the last of the darkness caused by her nightmare. She hurried downstairs. The scent of coffee and bacon greeted her. Ava stood at the stove in her robe, the brace on her leg already attached over the leg of her pajamas. Several surgeries had put her sister back together after the car accident, and while she’d come a long way, things were far from 100 percent. She would probably need one more surgery at the end of the summer and was currently undergoing physical therapy.
Piper waved her sister from the stove. “Let me do it. Sit down.”
“I’m fine.” Ava stubbornly blocked the pan of eggs and held on to the spatula. “It’s easier for me in the morning when I’m well-rested. I did my stretches already and the physical therapist said it’s good for me to be standing.” She eyed Piper, her gaze lingering on the dark circles concealer did little to cover. “You didn’t sleep well.”
“Nightmares.” Piper poured a cup of coffee and then refilled Ava’s. The rich, dark brew smelled heavenly. She drank some and popped bread in the toaster. “Finn outside with Moxie? ”
“Yep.” Ava kept stirring the eggs. “Want to talk about it?”
“The nightmare? No.”
“What about working with Jackson?”
“Not that either.”
“Nice try, kid, but you aren’t getting out of both those topics. I’ll pick the safer of the two.” Ava’s brows arched. “You and Jackson haven’t seen each other in years and then you invite him home for dinner. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve been on the dating scene, but I know what attraction looks like and you two still have it.”
Piper groaned. Despite her failed marriage, Ava was a romantic. She needed to nip this in the bud. “First of all, Jackson and I are working together on a murder case. There’s nothing fun about that. Second, I invited him in for dinner because it was the polite thing to do.”
“Did you apologize for breaking up with him in a letter?”
She slid some more bread into the toaster. “If you must know, yes, I did. He said it was water under the bridge. No hard feelings.”
Ava was quiet for a long moment. Piper glanced at her sister, recognizing the furrowed brow and the way Ava was intensely stirring the scrambled eyes. Her sister knew something and was debating saying it.
She narrowed her gaze. “What?”
“Grandma Mary swore me to secrecy, but now that you and Jackson are working together, I think it’s better if you know.” She turned to face Piper. “After you left town, for almost a year, he checked in with Grandma Mary to see how you were doing. He was devastated by the breakup. Worried about how you were after the attack… Jackson really loved you.”
Dumbfounded, Piper stared at her sister. “Why didn’t either of you tell me?”
“I tried. I told you to call him.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No, but your letter specifically asked him not to contact you. Jackson wanted to be respectful of your wishes, but also wanted to make sure you were okay. Grandma Mary said that once you were settled in South Dakota, he stopped asking.”
She sagged against the counter. “My PTSD was under control by then.”
“That’s what she told him.” Ava turned off the burner and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Listen, Piper, you rarely listen to me, and perhaps I’m not the best person to give advice in the romance department considering my disastrous divorce, but I wouldn’t be doing my job as your big sister if I don’t say this. Jackson was one of the good ones. If friendship is all there is between the two of you, then fine. Leave it there. But if you decide at some point you want more… I’d tell him.” She smiled. “It’s rare to get a second chance with a first love.”
The back door opened, saving Piper from a response. She needed time to process everything Ava had shared.
Moxie burst into the kitchen, a ball clutched in his mouth. Finn followed. The eight-year-old was tall for his age. He nearly came up to Piper’s shoulder and was skinny as a rail. He was dressed for school in jeans and a rock band T-shirt. His hair was neatly trimmed and combed back from his face.
“Morning.” Piper greeted him with a hug and a kiss on his cheek. The bread popped out of the toaster, and she placed one on Finn’s plate before pouring him some juice. “Moxie is getting very good at catching your curve balls.”
Finn grinned. “He sure is.”
Finn washed his hands at the sink before plopping down at the table. He said a quick grace before digging into his food. Moxie collapsed at his feet. His brown eyes tracked the fork from the plate to Finn’s mouth. He snuck the pup some eggs.
Ava laughed and pointed a spatula at her son. “I saw that.”
Finn’s grin widened. “No one wants to eat dog food after working out.”
“Dogs should,” she shot back.
Everyone laughed. Emma bounced into the kitchen. The next twenty minutes were spent eating breakfast and rushing through the rest of the morning routine. Grandma Mary arrived. She was driving Ava to her morning physical therapy. Finn caught the school bus. Emma shrugged on her light jacket—the morning was cool—and then her backpack. Her sparkly sneakers caught the light as she hopped down the porch steps toward Piper’s SUV. Her kindergarten wasn’t attached to the elementary school where Finn went. Instead, it was housed in a building near the sheriff’s department, along with the preschool.
Ava waved from the doorway. “Have a great day, you two.”
Piper waved back. The front door shut. Dew still coated the grass, and fluffy clouds spotted the sky. Birds chittered from the oak tree. She hit the fob on her keyring and the SUV beeped. Piper opened the door for Emma, taking the little girl’s backpack so she could get seated. She glanced at the spelling sheet in her other hand. “The next word is wig.”
Emma’s nose wrinkled. “W.”
Hair rose on the back of Piper’s neck. She spun, half-expecting to see someone standing at the end of the driveway.
No one was there.
Her gaze swept the neighborhood. Sprinklers were on at the McAllisters’. Mr. Jenkins, the elderly man three doors down, weeded the area around his rose bushes. A sedan from the end of the street flashed its brake lights at the stop sign and then turned right. No one was paying Piper any mind, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But she couldn’t shake the instinctual feeling that someone was watching her.
Real? Imaginary? Piper couldn’t tell. She’d had the same sensation last night, but it’d just been an animal in the woods.
“Did you hear me, Aunt Piper?” Emma tugged on her shirt. “W-I-G. Wig. ”
“Correct. Great job.” Piper shoved Emma’s backpack in the seat next to the little girl and then closed the door. She scanned the neighborhood again.
Nothing.
Still the sense of being watched lingered.