The dog didn’t move. Dust sifted from the ceiling; they needed to get out. He pulled on the leash, sliding a resisting Viggy across the floor until Theo could reach him.
Theo knew there was no way Viggy would walk out of the house on his own. Wrapping his arms around the K9, Theo lifted him. Viggy stiffened as his paws left the ground.
“Shh,” Theo soothed. “I’ve got you.”
After a moment, Viggy went limp. Theo carried him out of the house and through the gates.
“Is Vig okay?” Hugh called from where he stood by the lieutenant.
No. He’s not okay. We’re not okay. “He’s not hurt,” Theo answered, his voice rough.
Everyone else was quiet, subdued, as Theo carried Viggy through the crowd of officers toward his squad car. Theo kept his gaze locked in front of him and let the numbness take over.
Chapter 8
Four Days Earlier
Cliffs towered above them to the left and dropped away on the right. Jules tapped a nervous rhythm on the steering wheel, hating that she was going twenty-five miles under the speed limit because the curvy mountain road into town completely freaked her out. At least the sun was high in the sky, so everything was well lit. Vaguely, Jules recognized that the view was beautiful, the craggy mountains surrounding them furred with evergreens and aspens until the bare, blue-gray peaks poked out above the tree line. She couldn’t really appreciate the scenery, though. All she could do was concentrate on not driving her family off a cliff. Four or five cars were stacked up behind them, so Jules steered into a pullout and stopped to let them pass before entering the westbound lane again. To add to her humiliation, one of the vehicles that passed her was an extra-long RV. Another was a semi.
Ty snorted. “You’re driving even slower than—”
“I know, Ty. Thanks,” she interrupted, trying not to snap. Her sleepless night and driving marathon, capped by this treacherous mountain road, had drained her reservoir of good-natured comebacks and robbed her of her patience. Once she passed through a gap in the rocks barely wide enough for the two-lane road, houses and shops appeared, and the speed limit dropped to a much more tolerable twenty.
The kids were quiet as they looked around. “It’s small,” Ty said in a neutral voice.
Silence filled the SUV until Jules asked, “Is small good or bad?”
There was a silence as they considered the question. “I haven’t decided yet,” Tio finally said, and the others made sounds of agreement.
“Fair enough.” Jules was too tired and, at the same time, too wired to have any kind of first impression of their new town. “Sam, could you be my navigator?”
Sam picked up the handwritten directions. “T-turn right on B-B-Bridesw-well.”
“We passed Brideswell several blocks ago,” Tio said.
With a sigh, Jules flipped her turn signal so she could go around the block and head back toward Brideswell. She was pretty sure this road trip would never end.
After that first false start, the directions were clear, and they found the right street number attached to a crooked mailbox. The deeply rutted driveway seemed to go on forever, twisting this way and that, the pine branches reaching out to brush against the Pathfinder. The closeness of the evergreens dimmed the sunny morning, and Jules’s simmering anxiety rose to a boil.
As she turned left, avoiding exposed tree roots and rocks that threatened to grab the tires, the trees thinned, and the house came into view. The place had been white a long, long time ago, but all the exterior paint had faded to a wind-stripped gray. The front porch looked a little cockeyed, and the area in front of the house resembled a sparse hayfield rather than a lawn. A small, lopsided barn stood a short distance from the house.
Dee sucked in a breath. “There’s a barn, Jules. Can I get a horse?”
“Uh…” The question barely penetrated as she tried to take in the huge amount of work the house would require. Going from a shoebox of an apartment to this…there was no way. She wasn’t handy enough for this house.
“Can I?” Judging from the increased excitement in her little sister’s voice, she’d taken Jules’s hesitation for actual consideration.
“Let’s try to keep ourselves alive for a while, Dee, before we start adding dependents, okay?” Parking in front of the sagging porch, Jules braced herself and got out. It was warm but dry—nothing like Florida had been. She slapped at a stray fly, managing to smack her own ear but missing the bug. As her siblings piled out of the SUV, she circled to the rear hatch. Movement helped. If she’d stood staring at the wreck of a house, she would’ve sat on the ground and burst into tears.