Lethal Reprisal

“Hang on, I’m just about to get out of the car, so if I lose you I’ll call you back.” Marley parked along the curb in front of her rental cottage she’d moved into in the summer. “Have you heard from the boys recently?” she asked, slinging the straps of her bag over her shoulder as she climbed out of the car. Their younger brothers. Identical twins who had caused their fair share of mayhem when they were younger.

“Not for a few weeks,” her brother said. “You?”

A middle-aged woman was walking her goofy golden retriever up the opposite sidewalk. “I talked to them both a few days ago.” She locked her car as she strode up the walkway to her front door where the porch light glowed in the darkness, making a mental note to pick up a few Halloween things and some candy in case any trick-or-treaters came next week. Maybe she could even talk Decker into carving a pumpkin or two with her once he got here and settled in a bit. “Neither of them could get leave to come see you but they both said to say hi.”

He grunted in acknowledgment. “It’s fine. You sure I won’t be in the way staying at your place?”

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. She snorted. “I’m sure.” She had nothing going on in her personal life and no one knew about the tragedy that had rocked her world a year ago last June. Not her brothers. Not even her best friend Everleigh.

She was still too raw to talk about it, the pain too fresh. But life, in its own cruel way, kept moving on, and she’d been forced to move on with it. After more than a year of feeling empty and lost, she had finally accepted that he was gone. Had put a lot of effort into creating a life for herself here.

“I can still book a rental,” Decker offered.

“No way, you’re staying with me.” Left to his own devices, Decker would revert to his solitary ways and then she would barely see him. They needed the time together. “Don’t worry, I promise to give you your space when you need it.” Time and distance hadn’t done their relationship any favors over the years. It was time for a new strategy and a fresh start, beginning with this long-anticipated visit.

“All right.”

“Text me when you land so I know—”

“That my plane didn’t crash,” he said in a dry tone that made her smile. “I already sent you my flight details, so you can track me yourself.”

She entered the code into the lock on the door. “Thank you.” She’d adopted a pseudo-mother role for the family at the age of not quite sixteen, had tried her best to be the glue that held the remains of their shattered crew together. It was still an integral part of who she was. “I’m really looking forward to seeing you, Deck.”

A beat of silence followed. “Me too,” he said and cleared his throat. “See you Friday.”

“Yes. Safe tra—” She broke off, glancing over her shoulder when a car suddenly raced up the street behind her. It swerved to miss the retriever that had somehow gotten away from its owner.

Bang, bang!

She instinctively ducked as the gunshots cracked through the air, swallowed a cry as the bullets punched through her front window just feet to her left. Jesus.

“What was that?” Decker demanded in a taut voice. “Marley.”

Marley didn’t answer, too busy scrambling inside. What the hell?

Heart pounding, she flung the door shut and went to her knees behind the narrow section of wall between the door and the ruined window.

“Marley, what—”

“I gotta go,” she blurted and ended the call, waiting tensely in place.

She heard the car speed off and disappear down the street. She stayed where she was a few more seconds, listening for the rev of that engine to signal it had come back. When it didn’t, she pushed out a breath and crept over to pull the edge of the curtain aside and risk a look outside.

The bullets had punched two holes through the front window about chest height. Beyond her tidy front lawn, the street was quiet and still. No sign of the car coming back.

She rose to her feet, peeking left and right down the street for good measure before dialing 911 to report it. Gun violence was practically unheard of here. That some asshole had just driven by and randomly taken shots at her for kicks was terrifying.

She turned and headed for the kitchen to get some cold water. The call had just connected when her front door suddenly flew open behind her. She whirled around, a scream sticking in her throat as a man rushed in and shut the door behind him.

Shock slammed into her, along with an icy wave of cold that froze her to the marrow of her bones.

“911, what is your emergency?” a woman’s disjointed voice said through the phone now dangling at Marley’s side.

She stumbled back a step and dropped it with a thud on the hardwood floor in the heavy silence that throbbed in her ears.

Stared in disbelief as a sharp blade of agony sliced through her, certain she was looking at a ghost. Or dreaming.

Because there were no other explanations as to how Warwick James was standing in her living room.