Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (46 page)

“
M
aybe I’d make him quit first, but I am just saying, it’s not right for Detective Chase to make demands on who
we
date
—we
are
in high school
.”

“
Y
ou’ve
done a
one-eighty
.
Maybe Carden has
softened you a bit,” I laughed, a grin stretching across my face.

I
hitched a
ride home from school with Lauren
because
A
gent Bronson
was still out sick
, possibly with what either Janice or I had been stricken with
.
An apparent miscommunication
,
t
here wasn’t a replacement
black sui
t
waiting for me at the school.
Checking the time, I remembered
Janice had a
previously scheduled
doctor’s appointment for a
checkup
after her illness, and the agent assigned to the house
was with her
.

I was exhilarated
to be free of the watchdogs, but annoyed
I was stranded at school without a ride.
I sent a text to my mother to let her know I was riding with Lauren
,
and she responded
that
it was
tolerable
.
Gerald Smith h
ad been silent.
Maybe we had numbed to it?
As we drove
towards my
house, Lauren glanced over at me and smiled
a brilliant smile
.

“So, you and Wolfe doing the hookup, huh?
I’m jelly, baby,
and
that is one piece of eye candy, wooooo!”

“What are you talking about,” I said
, fighting a forceful smile, f
ailing miserably
in my effort
to sound nonchalant
.
“We are just friends.”

“
D
on’t say that under oath,”
she laughed, making
a left turn onto Nikale street.

She
pulled up in
my
driveway;
I jumped out, thanked her, an
d strolled into my living room.
The house was dead s
ilent, unnerving
.
It was strange to be alone in a house that was normally bustling with activity
—
even if it
would
only be
Janice, she moved around
with the energy of ten people.

“
H
ave a seat
right
o’er there
, lil’ lady,” a
crackled
voice boom
ed from the corner of the room.

I gasped, turning my head slowly towards the voice. M
y eyes focused on
a
silhouette
in my peripheral vision.
I eased over
;
still wary of
whom
I would lock eyes with
.
He stood in the corner in an odd stance,
an average
-sized
man of forty
something
, hair in a halo around his scalp, beard grown into a scraggly mess under his chin.
He wore a
stained
flannel
shirt
,
unbuttoned,
with
a
t-
shirt
underneath
that said
Incorruptible
,
cutoff
jeans
, and
scuffed
biker boots
.
Stepping with caution towards my couch, I lowered myself onto the cushion, choosing to avoid eye contact and staring at the ground.

“What do you want
,
and why are you here, Mr. Smith
?
”
I mumbled
incoherently
.

I recognized him.
It was Gerald Smith.
I had met with him
in a prison interrogation room
during
our
last murder case
.
He blamed my father
for putting him in jail
.
He
had been
the caller.
He wanted us to know something e
qualed revenge but what was it?

“Well, I’ve been waiting
. I’ve been patient
.
Those black cars keep showing up, watching everything
,
and now they’re gone
.
What, they don’t care ‘bout ya anymore?
Or better yet, them feds think I’m gone
?
”
he scoffed before
unleashing
a
malevolent
fit of
laughter.

I gazed
straight ahead
out
the window
through the
split
between the drapes.
The day
wasn’t somber. It was
beautiful
.
Things like this couldn’t happen on a sunny day.
It
wasn’t right.
Breathe
, I had to remind myself.

“What do you want
?
”
I croaked faintly.

I inhaled the deepest breath I could
muster
, to store up enough air
to power an
earsplitting scream for help
if I spotted a jogger
.

Given the time
of day
,
my neighbors
were
at work, nobody was home at Maddie’s house
,
and
our
homes were nicely spread out on our street
—
something my parents looked for
when house shopping
.

Gerald shrugged away from the corner and
marched
towards me.

“Well, I want revenge.
I
need
payback.
The best way to make
your sad excuse for a father
pay for what he’s done to me is to take his love away
as
he did mine.
My wife didn’t wait
for me while I was in jail
.
My
kid’s
with her who knows where
.
I’ll probably never see them again
,
and so he doesn’t deserve to see you
anymore
!
”
he
shrieked
, seeming to
look
past me
with wild eyes
as
he pulled out a gun from the back of his pants
, pointing it at my face
.

His expression was
filled with
murderous fury
as
his eyes bore into mine
.
He drew in
closer, pointing
the barrel at my forehead.
The cold steel
hit
my skin and a blast of adrenaline coursed through my veins.
My heart pulverized my chest; I could hear each forceful beat.
My hands t
rembled
;
my lungs forgot how to work.

“I could just go
bam
and end it
alright
now
,” he taunted callously, my terror debilitating me
as
the hard,
cool
end of the gun
press
ed
angrily
against my
skin
.
“
But that would be too easy.
My girls mourn
ed
my loss
..
.
j
ust as your father will do,”
he
sneered as he
slid
the gun
from my forehead
to my temple,
the
barrel
bearing down
so hard
it moved my head
against my will.

Squeezing my lids shut, I waited for the blast, my body shivering violently.
My mouth drained of saliva,
feeling like cardboard,
rendering me unable to
speak.
I didn’t know what
I could
say to get out of this
, my mind was scattered
.

I came to a realization I would die. Irrational thoughts
danced around my brain
.
How would my parents feel when they discovered my body? Or would Janic
e
be the first on scene
?
She wouldn’t be able to take it.
When is the blast coming?
Just do it, get it over with.
I braced myself for death
, grabbing the edges of the cushion.
I was read
y
.
With the
gun
shoved
against my temple, I opened my eyes, frozen, looking
upward
through my eyelashes.
Behind him,
I saw blonde curl
s.

Haley.
She was with Gerald. She was in on it all along.
She wants revenge too.

Seething anger replaced
my terror
as a
massive rage
brewed insid
e
of me
;
a second batch of adrenaline
flooded my body.
I was about to die at the hands of Haley Frost.
How could I have been so
stupid?

A painful scream ripped from my lungs
a second after a loud
thud
sounded
in front of me
—
like a steel bat
had struck
a
base
ball.
I gasped, realizing I wasn’t shot.
Gerald
had been hit in the
skull
and
was stumbling
backward like a newborn deer
.
Haley
stood behind him; holding
a frying
pan
, a shocked expression upon her face
.
As if possessed by a demon, his
eyes rolled in the back of
their sockets
as he
staggered
to the ground
, gun waving carelessly in the air
.

A
gamut of
swear words
rang out
as
she
dropped the frying pan,
grabbed me by the wrist
, and pulled me
off the couch
. A
s we sprinted
towards the front door, another
thud
sounded, but this time,
it was
Haley
—
Gerald had
hurled
the pan
from across the room.

Two steps from the front door,
I looked back
as
the lights shut off in her face
. S
he
released her grip on my wrist
, crumbling to the floor like a discarded marionette.
B
lood
seeped
out of her skull onto her
blonde curls
, oozing onto
the white tile
of the foyer
, making a
dark crimson t
rail in the grout
.
I blinked my eyes forcefully to stay conscious
as Gerald grabbed my shirt and
jostled
me back onto the couch in the living
room
, his
merciless
eyes fill
ed
with so much
hatred
, he looked deranged
.
H
e shoved me
, and
my leg slamm
ed
against the hard, wooden frame.

“Please stop!
”
I moaned, reaching for my leg in agony.