Page 114 of Deeper Than the Dead

What now? Vera was so weary of the damned drama.

“Is everything all right?” she said instead of hello, when she wanted to demand what the hell had happened now.

“You need to come home,” Eve said, her voice too quiet.

“What is it?” Fear blasted away the effects of the alcohol.

“I had to come back by the house for my phone charger and found Luna here. She is really upset. Someone was in the house again.”

“On my way.” Vera shoved the phone back into her pocket. She steadied herself and met Bent’s expectant gaze. “I have to go.”

When she swayed, he took hold of her arms and steadied her. “Hold up a minute. What’s going on?”

“Someone broke into the house again.” Damn, she should have considered that he would need to go too.

His expression hardened. “I’m driving.”

Boyett Farm

Good Hollow Road, Fayetteville, 11:50 p.m.

Bent had searched the house and yard and found nothing except a broken pane of glass in the back door—the entry point.

Luna had calmed down after Vera’s arrival. A fight with Jerome had prompted the mutual decision that a cooling off period was necessary, so she’d come home for the night and bumped into an intruder. Like the one Vera encountered: tall, muscled, outfitted in a black ski mask and gloves.

They—all three sisters—sat on the sofa, Luna wrapped in Vera’s arms as if she were two years old again. Eve as usual looked stiff and uncomfortable at the closeness. She wasn’t much of a hugger. Hadn’t been since their mother died. Vera thought about that for a moment. Eve really had changed after that painful day. Vera reached her free arm out and draped it around her and pulled her closer, whether she appreciated it or not.

“This is weird,” Eve muttered.

Vera smiled, her lips pressed against Eve’s hair. “Little bit.” She eased away, removed her arm.

Eve grinned at her. “Thanks for the thought though.”

“It’s always the thought that counts.” Vera dropped her head against the sofa. This was so much like when they were kids. She glanced down at Luna. Except she had been a baby rather than a grown woman on the verge of marriage.

Luna was the baby of the family, yet she was the only one to get this close to marriage. Spoke volumes about just how screwed up Vera and Eve were.

Thanks, Dad.

Then again, for Eve apparently it had started with their mother.

And here Vera had been confident their childhood in the before period had been pretty perfect.

Bent entered the room, and they rose from the sofa in anticipation of whatever he had to say. For Vera her attention first swept from hair to boots and back before landing on his face. He really was far too handsome for his—or Vera’s—own good, with her teetering in such a precarious emotional place right now.

So very cliché, Vee.

“What happened with the security system installation?” This question he directed at Eve, who had volunteered to take care of that detail.

“They can’t come until next week,” she said with equal measures impatience and frustration. She glanced at Vera.

She was supposed to have told Bent but forgot. Oh well. A lot of crazy shit had happened. “Sorry.” Vera raised her hand. “I was supposed to tell you that.”

He gave a nod. “I’ll take care of the back-door repair in the morning. For now, I have it secured in a temporary manner.”

Vera had heard a power drill. She suspected he’d picked through her father’s tools until he found what he needed to secure the door closed.

“We appreciate that,” Vera said.

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