Where was the other man, Huxley? What had Calvin done with him?
She went down the stairs much faster than she'd gone up them, not entirely on purpose. Her knees were still wobbly and she half-ran, half-stumbled down them. She kept a death grip on the weapon, all the while sending up a prayer that Mellor wouldn't try anything, because she had no idea what she was doing. She went past the head of the stairs and turned, pointing the barrel at Mellor and using both hands to hold the weapon as steady as she could. It wobbled because she was still shaking, but she thought - she hoped - she was aiming it close enough to him that he wouldn't take any chances.
Calvin followed Mellor at a safe distance, and in contrast to her own trembling, he seemed ice cold and impervious to stress.
"Keep going," he told Mellor in that same soft tone. They headed down the stairs.
After a moment Cate moved forward to follow. Neenah came down the attic stairs then, moving very slowly and clinging to first the bannister and then the door frame. Her gaze met Cate's and she swallowed. "I'm okay," she said in a thready tone. "Go help Cal."
Cate went down the stairs to the bottom floor. She saw the other man lying on the floor in front of the front door, his hands tied behind him. He was groggily trying to sit up.
"I can't manage him and three bags at the same time," Mellor said.
"So untie him. He'll be able to walk." Calvin kept the shotgun at his shoulder.
Mellor untied Huxley and helped him to his feet. The other man swayed, but stayed upright. His blue eyes glared hatred at Calvin, but he might as well have saved the effort for all the reaction Calvin showed.
Between them, the two men picked up the three bags and went out onto the front porch, Huxley stumbling and weaving but managing to walk. Following Calvin onto the porch, Cate watched them stow the bags in the Tahoe, then climb into the front seats.
Just before Mellor cranked the engine, she heard the faint, high-pitched sound of her children's voices, and knew her mother was returning with the boys. She almost burst into tears at the realization of how close they had come to walking into a deadly situation.
Huxley shot both of them a deadly glare as the Tahoe went past. She and Calvin watched until it was out of sight.
"You okay?'" he finally asked, still looking down the road. She wondered if he thought they might come back.
"I'm line." Her voice was thin with shock, almost soundless. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I'm fine. Neenah - "
"I'm okay," Neenah said, appearing in the doorway. She was still white, still shaky, but she was no longer clinging to things to walk. "Just shook up, I think. Are they gone?"
"Yeah," Calvin said. He held the shotgun easily in one hand, the barrel now pointing downward, as he gave Cate a searching look. "That was a good idea, turning the stamps upside down."
It had worked; her pitiful attempt at signaling for help had worked! "I read... I read that an upside-down flag is a distress signal."
He dipped his head in a brief nod. "You were nervous and shaky, too. I drove down the street and circled back on foot, figured I'd check things out and make sure everything was okay."
"I didn't think you'd noticed." He'd glanced at the envelopes, shuffling them in his hands, but hadn't even blinked his eyes to show any reaction.
"I noticed."
His calmness made her feel her own shakiness even more acutely. She looked at Neenah and saw that she, too, was trembling as she tried to hold things together. With a choked sob Cate dropped the gun she was holding and grabbed Neenah in a tight hug and they clung together for comfort and support. She felt Calvin putting his arms around both of them, murmuring something soft and probably comforting, if she'd been able to understand what he was saying, but the actual words didn't matter. A part of her brain noticed that he was still holding the shotgun, and that was definitely comforting. For a long moment they leaned into his surprising strength; then she heard Tucker's piping shout as he raced toward them, Tanner keeping pace beside him.
"Mr. Hawwis! Is that a gun?"
Her children's voices had Cate straightening and wiping her face dry of the tears that had seeped under her lashes, and she went down the steps to grab both of them and pull them tightly to her.
Chapter 9
Goss and Toxtel drove all the way back to the main road before they spoke. Goss had been content to let the silence continue because his head hurt like a son of a bitch and his ego had been squashed like a bug. How in fuck had a damn handyman taken him from behind like that? He couldn't remember hearing anything, seeing anything, just the back of his head exploding with pain and the lights going out. Bastard must have hit him with the shotgun butt.
The best thing about Toxtel was that he wasn't chatty. He didn't waste time asking what the hell had happened, either, when it was obvious what had happened.
Hot nausea boiled in Goss's throat and he said, "Pull over, I gotta puke."
Toxtel whipped the Tahoe to the side of the road and stopped. The two left wheels were still on the pavement, since there wasn't much of a shoulder, and when he got out, Goss almost fell into a gully or ravine or whatever the hell they were called. Balancing himself with a hand on the side of the SUV, he made his way to the rear bumper and bent over with his hands braced on his knees.
The position made his head throb even worse, and all the trees and bushes and other green shit did a slow, sickening whirl.
He heard the driver's door slam, and Toxtel came around the side. "You okay?"
"'Concussion," Goss managed to say. He sucked in deep breaths, righting the nausea. Letting a handyman get the jump on him was bad enough: he didn't want to puke in front of Toxtel, too.