Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [67]
She’d spent far too much time reading about serial killers—before Tessa was murdered. Once that happened, she’d found the very thought of it so revolting that she’d had to avoid certain sections of the bookstore. Some of the other parents had wanted to read everything they could, trying to understand the how and the why of Tessa’s death. Rachel didn’t want to understand anything. She’d simply wanted to take her daughter and run to a safe place as fast as she could and David had appeared, deus ex machina, to protect her, when she’d never thought she’d needed protection before. And now here they were, in a place that was anything but safe.
She wouldn’t, couldn’t look at Caleb. He’d told her to leave town, and she should have gone at the first warning. She should have listened. If Maggie was right, and you didn’t outgrow torturing helpless creatures, then chances were he’d moved on to bigger and better victims. And sending her out of town would have been the perfect setup. David would insist on coming with her and there would have been no one left to stop him.
Or maybe Caleb had some sick, strange compulsion and he was trying to stop himself. Maybe that was why he wanted to send her away, to somehow keep her safe from his own monstrous hands.
“Give an old man a kiss, Rachel,” Stephen Henry said, still with that annoying tone that had become part of his everyday speech.
She leaned down dutifully, trying not to look at the man standing behind his chair, the hand that rested on the handles, strong and long-fingered and tanned by the sun. Hands that had done things too horrific to even think of. Even if he’d been a perfect Boy Scout from there on out, there was a darkness of the soul that would never leave you.
She brushed Stephen Henry’s cheek with hers, but before she realized it, Caleb had caught her chin in his hand, tilting her face up to his, forcing her to look into his dark, endless eyes for a long, silent moment.
He had to see the disgust and condemnation there, even while she tried to hide it, and then she pulled herself away, stepping back. “Good night, Rachel. If Maggie hauls me off to prison without giving me a chance to see you again I hope you’ll be very happy with my brother.” There was that malice again, hidden beneath the polite words, malice that only Rachel seemed to hear.
“That’s not going to happen, Caleb,” Stephen Henry said. “As soon as I get home I’ll call our lawyer.”
“Not necessary, Father. I’m sure Sheriff Bannister and I can come to some kind of understanding. If not, I think I can manage to escape before she calls out the bloodhounds.”
Maggie didn’t blink, didn’t respond. “You take care of yourself, Rachel,” she said, turning her back on the men. “You and Sophie mean a lot to us Bannisters, and I need to make sure you two are safe. Nothing’s going to happen to either of you, not on my watch. But it doesn’t hurt to pay attention.”
Attention to what? Rachel wanted to ask. But they were already heading out the door, leaving her behind.
At the last minute Caleb turned back to look at them, an unreadable expression in his eyes. David put an arm around her. For some strange reason she wanted to throw it off, but she remained still, motionless, the perfect image of a devoted couple.
And then they were gone, the door closing behind them. David took a step away from her, almost as if she were an infection. “I’m going in my study for a while, dear,” he said smoothly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
At least his earlier amatory mood had vanished. The thought of fending off one of David’s rare romantic moves was enough to make her want to head for the powder room again.
But she composed her face in a Madonna-like smile, and kissed the air beside his cheek. “Sleep well, then.”
His smile was benevolent. “I will, my love. I will.”
14
It was a good thing he didn’t have to make conversation with Stephen Henry in the car. His adopted father kept up a monologue that wouldn