Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(91)

“That’s enough,” Leo snapped. He stood back, panting, his eyes flashing in anger. Behind Seth, Abbadelli panted harder. “I’ll just have to convince him to have a nice long drink.” He set the flask on the railing. “Ready for a show that’ll make you beg me to let you drink?” Leo looked at his father. “Watch him,” he ordered. He turned and dashed down the porch steps into the dark night.

He’s getting Victoria.

Seth wondered if he should have drank.


“Open it,” Jason told Victoria. One-handed, she inserted the key into the lock and unhooked the industrial-sized padlock from the door. She handed the key back to the boy and debated making a run for it. One swift kick to the balls, and she and Trinity could take off. Jason handled the gun like he couldn’t bear to touch it. She doubted he would shoot them.

Leo she had no doubts about. She’d seen the killer in his eyes.

Her wrist and arm screamed every time she took a rough step. Running would make her pass out from the pain. Besides, where would they run? Back to the cabin to the two men with shotguns? And she couldn’t leave without Seth.

Jason gestured for Trinity to slide open the shed door. A faint light spilled out. Victoria looked inside and caught her breath. Trinity made a small sound in the back of her throat. On a filthy mattress at the back of the small shed lay a woman. Her hair was long and black. With streaks of gray.

Isabel.

Victoria glanced at Jason. He looked as confused as Trinity. The boy didn’t know why the woman was there. “Do you know her?” she asked him. Jason gave a brief shake of his head.

The woman moaned and shifted on the mattress. Victoria stepped up into the shed and darted to the woman, kneeling on the floor next to her. She brushed the long hair out of the woman’s face, and Isabel’s eyes opened. A split second of fear shone from her eyes until she focused on Victoria. She relaxed and her lids fell shut. Victoria’s hand stroked through a wet mass in her hair. Blood. She could feel the wound starting to crust on the woman’s scalp.

Someone had hit her in the head. Leo?

“Is she all right?” Trinity asked. She hovered over Victoria’s shoulder.

“I don’t know. She’s been hit in the head. She woke and saw me but fell back asleep.”

She shook the woman’s shoulder. “Isabel? Isabel? Wake up.”

“You know her?” Trinity whispered.

Victoria nodded. She looked back at Jason, watching from the shed door. “She needs a hospital. She has a serious head injury.” Maybe. “I can’t get her to wake up. Do you know how she got here?”

Jason shook his head again. The teen looked horrified.

“Jason, do you know why she’s here?”

Jason looked pleadingly at her, turmoil rolling in his gaze.

She tried again. “Jason, what is going on with your father?”

The teen’s shoulders slumped. “I think he killed those girls. The ones last week.”

Trinity sucked in her breath. “Your father? Why? Why do you think he did it?”

“Because I found some pictures on his camera. I was going to use it and I scanned through some of the pictures saved in the memory and saw pictures of those dead girls. Brooke was one of them.” His voice wavered on her name. “I wasn’t supposed to be using his equipment.”

“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Trinity asked. She looked heartbroken, her crush on the boy disintegrating. “How could you cover it up?”

“They were just pictures, you know? They didn’t mean that he’d done it. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. And then I found the skulls… I didn’t know what to think. How could my father be a murderer?” His voice cracked on the word.

“Skulls?” Victoria asked. “Three of them?”

Jason nodded. “I stuck the skulls and the camera in my bag. I wanted to go to the police but I didn’t know what I’d say. And what if he didn’t do it?”

“Is that why you were avoiding him?” Trinity asked.

“Yes, he’d discovered his stuff was missing and he was on the warpath. Grandpa thinks he’s a big wimp, but when he gets mad he can be kinda violent.” Jason wouldn’t look at either one of them. Victoria wondered what pain Leo had inflicted on the boy.

“You need to help us get out of here,” she said in a hushed tone. “He’s killed before. He’ll do it again. I don’t know why he got me to come out here, but I don’t think it’s to give me a present.” She looked at Isabel. “I think he plans to kill all of us.”

Tears streamed down Trinity’s cheeks. “No,” she whispered. “This isn’t happening.” She looked at Jason. “Come with us. You don’t want to stay here with them.”

Jason looked from Trinity to Victoria and back. “I can’t. I can’t do that. He’ll—”

“He’ll what? Hit you? Do you think he arranged for me and Isabel to be here so he can throw us a party? Your father is a cold-blooded killer, Jason!” Victoria clenched her arm tight to her chest, her wrist throbbing. “We have to get out of here now.”

A shadow loomed behind Jason. “Hello, Victoria. Did you get to chat with your mother again?”

Victoria wanted to cry.