Page 72 of The Midnight Knock

A few minutes after seven forty-five, the bell above the cafe’s door chimed. Fernanda came inside. She joined Kyla at the booth, looking uneasy, flustered, and clearly not excited to be sharing a booth with two men she didn’t know. Kyla ignored her. In the kitchen, Tabitha was banging pots and pans.

A little while after that, Stan Holiday arrived: sweat on his brow, a busted lip. He’d had a scrap with someone.

The big man grabbed Penelope by the arm. “Get up. You’re coming back to the room.”

“Back?” the girl said.

“To the room. Now.”

“Why?”

“To keep you safe.”

“Safe from what?”

Stanley hesitated, just a moment. The time was almost eight o’clock. “That bastard’s here. He cut our tires.”

Thatgot everyone in the cafe sitting up a little straighter.

“Who did?” Penelope said.

“Ryan. Ryan Fucking Phan.”

Tabitha appeared, pushing a trolley full of food. Thomas said, “Don’t forget, Miss Powers asked that you bring a plate to her room.”

Penelope and Stan kept talking about some man named Ryan. Kyla experienced a strange tingle in her mind: she knew the name, and yet she didn’t.

Stanley said, “Frank can deal with Ryan when he gets here. You’re coming with me.Now.”

Fernanda went very tense. Without even thinking about it, Kyla murmured, “Don’t worry. Frank isn’t coming.”

Stanley whipped around to stare at her. “Excuse me?”

Kyla blinked. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d just said.

And then, outside, Tabitha started screaming.

THE ULTIMATUMETHAN

8:15 p.m.

That awful fog of déjà vu was growing thicker by the minute. It made Ethan feel strangely divorced from the horror of what he’d just seen: Sarah Powers face down on her bed, her pants around her knees, her head and neck hidden beneath a pair of bloody pillows. Ethan would swear he saw it all a moment before he and Hunter had followed Tabitha’s screams into room 4. Ethan had passed through the door, gone down the hall, seen the body, turned and seen the face of a strange man watching him from the back porch—and then he’d done it all again.

Another double exposure. An aching overflow. It almost felt like his mind was trying to record two memories in the same place at the same time.

Those double exposures persisted, here, in the motel’s office. He could hardly concentrate on what the twins were saying. Thank God he heard it twice, then.

“A grave crime has been committed on our land,” Thomas said.

“Against our family,” Tabitha said.

“Against our blood.”

“We will see justice done,” Tabitha said.

“Even if it means watching all of you die.”

Ethan heard it, then heard it again. His head throbbed. He had to sit down. Fernanda stood near the door. Stanley sat in the office’s other chair, his head in his hands, quivering like a child. A child with an enormous handgun strapped to his hip.