Page 68 of Our Little Secret

“When was this?”

Leah shrugged. “Hmm. About fifteen minutes ago, I think. Yeah . . . the last time I saw him was right before I heard the garage door go down, when you and Neal came up the stairs, into the kitchen.”

“So where was he exactly?” Brooke was still scanning the street and trying not to let her imagination run away with her. But she couldn’t dismiss the unsettling thought that Gideon had been outside, as well as inside her house. She felt invaded, sick at the thought. “Over there?” She pointed to the park entrance.

“By the park entrance.” Leah joined Brooke at the window, their pale reflections side by side, like ghosts wavering in the old glass. But the area outside the walls of the park was empty, no one standing near the gate, no one standing beneath the lamppost. She only saw a solitary man in a jacket and a driver’s cap come out of the park. He was walking his dachshund and paused at the corner while the dog sniffed the stop sign. As he crossed the street, Brooke told herself it was nothing.

Losing interest in any activity, Leah picked up her book. “You’ll talk to Neal?”

“Yes. Absolutely tonight.”

“Good. Because I need to get back, much as I love it here. Things to do, you know. Not fun things, but”—she shrugged as she started for the stairs—“it has to be done. Again.”

Leah headed to her room just as Brooke heard the faintest sound of a vibration coming from the kitchen. She turned to the nook where she’d dropped her purse on a chair.

The burner phone.

Crap!

Rather than take a chance on someone coming up and surprising her, she hurried down the steps to the garage, where she removed the phone from its zippered pocket. There, on the bottom step in the darkness, she read the message glowing in the dark:

I hope pretty little Marilee is enjoying the dance.

CHAPTER 16

Acold snake slithered down Brooke’s spine as she read the message.

Gideon knew! Goddamn it, he knew about Marilee! Where she was.

Her heart kicked into overdrive as she raced up the stairs and into the house.

He wouldn’t hurt her! He wouldn’t dare!

But she’d seen the fury in his eyes, caught the bit of malice when she’d struggled with him.

How far would I go?he’d queried, as if it were a hypothetical question, one never to be tested.I would do anything,he’d said.Anything.

Her blood turned to ice.

“We have to go. Now!” Brooke was frantic as she pushed open the door to the den. “We have to pick up Marilee! Now!” Her stomach was in knots, her worst fears crystalizing.

Neal, seated at the desk, hastily closed his laptop. “What? Why?” He was on his feet in an instant. “Did something happen?” His expression said it all: He was suddenly panicked as he reached for his jacket, which was slung over the back of his chair. “Oh God.” He glanced at the television mounted on the book case to the side of his desk, where a picture of Allison Carelli appeared, the number of a tip line beneath her smiling visage.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“What?” He was forcing an arm down the sleeve of his jacket.

“I mean I haven’t heard of anything new. It’s—it’s just a feeling I have.”

“A feeling?” He glared at her. “Did Marilee call? Text?”

“No.”

“What?”

“It’s just a feeling I’ve got that something is wrong.” Even to her own ears, her reasoning sounded ridiculous, but she couldn’t tamp down the panic that was bursting through her. Gideon knew. Somehow he knew about Marilee being at the dance. Her heart was pounding, dread riding on the back of the swelling alarm.

Neal was thoroughly confused. “Because she’s there with Nick?”

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