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“My parents really love the Everly Brothers,” she told this woman, who she was coldly certain didn’t care at all. She felt as if she were looking at herself from a distance, standing on Annabeth’s pristine front steps in her grubby T-shirt, jeans, and Converse, with her hair such a mess she’d had to decide to simply not care about whatever it was doing. “They named my brother after my mother’s favorite uncle, but me they named after their favorite classic band. What can I say? I get to be unusual.”
“How is it that I can help you?” Rebecca’s mother asked, still not smiling. Or relaxing her stiff posture in any way. Or inviting them in, either.
Everly found herself standing up tall as well, as if mirroring Annabeth would help the situation. “I was just wondering if you’ve heard from Rebecca?”
“This is some kind of joke, I presume?” Annabeth shifted her attention from Everly to Blue. “Let me guess. You’re the one who called me yesterday.”
“We’re just looking for your daughter, ma’am,” Blue said, in his gruffest military voice.
Annabeth appeared immune, which made that odd little itch on the back of Everly’s neck start up again.“You’re not going to find her here. Is that why you came?”
“You seem real broken up about the fact she’s missing,” Blue pointed out, that drawl in his voice was another one of the weapons he used.
But Annabeth didn’t seem to notice that, either.
“My daughter is a grown woman who makes her own choices,” she said coolly. “In this case, last I heard, she’s off somewhere with some new boyfriend.” She inclined her head very, very slightly toward Everly. “Despite your theatrics. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
She went to close the door, and Everly didn’t know what came over her. But she threw herself forward, sticking her arm out to keep the big door from shutting on her. She was aware of Blue behind her, and maybe that was why she did it, as if she could muscle this woman’s door open if she wanted, when she’d nevermuscleda thing in her life.
“I just want to know what happened to Rebecca. Those social media posts don’t sound like her. I don’t believe them. I think something’s wrong.”
I saw them hurt her,she thought, but didn’t say.
“Step back,” Annabeth said in a frigid sort of fury. “Or I’ll be forced to call the authorities to have you removed.”
“Come on,” Blue said from behind her, and Everly felt his hand at her hip, gripping her like he meant to haul her away if necessary.
But she was holding Rebecca’s mother’s gaze, and she couldn’t bring herself to drop it.
“I was there that night,” Everly said quietly. “I sawwhat happened. You must know that this act isn’t going to change that.I know.”
Blue’s hand got almost hard enough to hurt, there at her hip, but he didn’t yank her back. He didn’t step in and stop her, or try to smooth things over.
Everly chose to take that as unspoken support.
“Youknow?” Annabeth stared back at her, seeming to grow another inch as she did it. “What, exactly, do you think you know?”
Everly played a hunch, and smiled. “Everything.”
And for a moment, the three of them simply stood there, locked in place.
Annabeth had stepped back into her foyer. Everly was halfway through the open door. And Blue was behind her, a solid wall that for a long, frozen moment was the only thing that reminded her that her feet were actually on the ground.
“You’re a little whore, aren’t you?” Rebecca’s mother murmured, so very politely that it took Everly an extra beat to register what she’d actually said. “You should have died that first night. Instead, you’ve caused me nothing but trouble.”
And everything sped up.
Blue hauled her backward, hard. The door slammed in her face, and as it did, Everly had the confused notion that another fire alarm was blaring—but nothing blew up. There was no fire, no flames.
Blue was beside her, pulling her by the hand and then shoving her ahead of him. She had the faint notion they would run for the street, but he went the other way, breaking ahead of her and then tugging her along with him.
He took a hard right, throwing himself between the garage and the house, headed away from the street and what she would have considered safety. She didn’t understand—
But then she heard footsteps behind them and the sounds of men’s voices, urgent and loud. She ran faster.
Blue kicked his way through a gate at the side of the house, then hauled her through it.
And then they were running flat out into the backyard. Everly noticed the perfectly cut grass on a lawn that meandered around a sparkling blue pool. There were several different terraces set here and there, all with stunning views of Lake Michigan as it lapped there at the bottom of the bluff.