Paradise Falls (Paradise Falls #1-5)(22)

Katie’s Volkswagen came trundling around the corner and pulled to a stop a few feet behind Elliot’s hulking muscle car. Jennifer’s stomach dropped through her knees and she ran for the bedroom door, yanked it open, and took the stairs two at a time, gritting her teeth through the ache in her ankle.

She couldn’t let him hurt Katie.

The door came open. Elliot turned as Katie stepped out of the Beetle and drifted to the sidewalk, her face an open mask of shock and fear.

Holding the revolver in front of her chest, Jennifer stepped out on the porch and aimed it square at Elliot’s face. The color drained from his face, but he didn’t move.

“Get off my porch,” she said in a voice steadier than she expected.

Elliot put his hands up, and his grin faded. His eyes locked on the muzzle of the gun, bobbing with it as it trembled in her hands. He licked his lips and his adam’s apple slid up and down.

“I’ll call the police,” Katie said.

“Call ‘em.” Elliot’s eyes never left the gun. “Go right-a-f*cking-head, Katie. See what happens.”

“I’m warning you,” Jennifer said.

Elliot’s kept his eyes on the gun and laughed. “What are you going to do, Jenny? Do you know what’ll happen to you if you shoot me?

“I know what’ll happen to you.”

Elliot didn’t move.

“Get away from me,” Jennifer hissed. “Get away from my house and don’t come near me again or I’ll kill you. I swear to God I will. Don’t you dare go near my sister, either.”

Elliot nodded slowly, and got halfway to his parked Charger before looking back.

“Now you’ve made me mad,” he said, calmly. “Be seeing you, Jenny. You too, Katie.”

He backed away, never taking his eyes off the barrel of the gun, until he pivoted on his heel and slowly walked over to the Charger. When he dropped into the driver’s seat, Jennifer let the gun hang in front of her, dangling from her two hands.

The car’s obnoxious exhaust rumbled down the street. When he was out of sight, Katie carefully peeled the revolver out of Jennifer’s grip. Jennifer caught her breath and took it back from her sister to make sure the hammer was down. The gun hung in her hand as they moved back into the house. Katie bolted the door.

“Jesus,” Katie said. “I thought you were going to kill him.”

“I should have,” Jennifer whispered. “It’s my fault--“

“It’s not your fault,” Katie said. “Jennifer, this has got to stop. He’s f*cking crazy.”

Jennifer sank into the couch and looked up at her sister. “I don’t know what to do.”

“What did he want?”

“You know what he wants,” Jennifer said.

Katie sat down and pulled Jennifer’s head onto her shoulder. “You don’t need to live like this. It’s time to go.”

“I can’t,” Jennifer said. “I can’t. This is our house.”

Katie sighed, and went upstairs. She came back down and brushed out Jennifer’s hair. It soothed her, and she finally managed to set the revolver down on the couch. After her hair was brushed out, Katie braided it for her.

“Go get dressed. We’ll get out of here for a while.”

Jennifer nodded and went upstairs to change. Katie stood at the bottom of the stairs when she returned, looking over the pictures on the wall.

“I remember this,” she said. “The time we went to Six Flags with Dad on the school trip.”

Jennifer examined the faded picture taken when she was sixteen, Katie fourteen. Jennifer was taller than her father, drawn out and lanky. Katie was already beautiful.

She’d grown into a striking woman, full figured with red hair that was rich and silky while Jennifer’s was dry and refused to behave itself. Jennifer looked through the picture, not seeing the happy smiles, just patterns, like the swirls of a soap bubble. Jennifer tugged Katie’s arm.

“I don’t know what to do,” she croaked. “He’s never come to the house before. I mean he never tried to get in.”

“Let’s get out of here for a while.”

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere but here. Do you have that gun?”

“I’ll put it in my purse.” Jennifer kept her voice low, as if Elliot could still hear. “I have a permit. I can’t take it with me to school, that’s all.”

Katie shook her head as Jennifer got in the Beetle, pushing the seat back with her legs so she could stretch out. She took one last glance at the house as Katie pulled away, and sighed.





9.





A ball of ice swelled in Jacob’s stomach. He swayed and leaned against the refrigerator door, then pinched the bridge of his nose. Jennifer’s abandoned helmet sat on the kitchen table.

He looked at his hands, and flexed his fingers. The warmth of her lips lingered enough to still taste her. She tasted like cinnamon. Thinking about it gave him the shakes, so he sat and held his head in his hands. What did he do to drive her away?

She touched the scar on his shoulder, felt it through his shirt. The bullet punched clean through the meat of his shoulder, and he healed clean with barely a twinge when he moved his arm. The puckered crater was the ugliest scar of them all.