There With You by Samantha Young
Regan
The image of that odious woman smashing her lips over Thane’s wouldn’t leave my mind! It had to be Angeline Potter, of all people! The woman had just ratted on me hours before and then put her sweaty little paws all over Thane.
How dare she!
How dare he!
I’d never experienced jealousy like it, watching that woman kiss the man I love, wearing his freaking kilt jacket just to make the image oh so cozy. The jealousy when Thane went on the date with that woman from his office building had been bad, but nothing compared to this. It consumed me. Because I knew it was the future I had to look forward to if I stayed in Ardnoch. One day he’d meet someone “more appropriate,” and I’d have to watch them kiss and watch her be affectionate with Eilidh and Lewis too. Watch them be a family together.
Tears blinded me and I forced them back, concentrating on the pitch-black road as I drove. Without even thinking about it, I found myself in Caelmore turning down the driveway toward home.
Except it wasn’t my home anymore.
“I shouldn’t be here,” I whispered as the headlights bounced across the driveway. Lachlan and Robyn’s home was in darkness, except for the outdoor floodlight. The hallway light was on upstairs in Thane’s. While most of the windows faced out toward the sea, he’d designed one long, narrow floor-to-ceiling window on the upstairs landing that looked out toward the fields and driveway. The light above the front door was also switched on.
I shouldn’t be here.
I slowed the SUV to a stop beside Eredine’s tiny electric Smart car. She was so tall, I wondered how she fit in the thing. The kids would be asleep. It was wrong of me to come, but I just … I just had nowhere else to run.
It was ironic and not at all funny that the one place I ran to, to get away from Thane, was the one place he’d find me.
“You’re hopeless,” I muttered, pushing open the door.
As I climbed the steps to the front door, I half expected Eredine to come out at the sound of my car. When she didn’t, I fumbled in my purse for the keys I still had and should probably give back. Letting myself in, I breathed in the house’s scent, and longing pierced my chest.
It smelled a little spicy, like cinnamon, but beneath the scent wafting gently from the kitchen was that indecipherable smell that was all Adair. It was on the kids’ clothes and buried beneath the citrusy aroma of Thane’s shower wash. I’d come to think of that scent as home.
Squeezing my eyes shut against the pain of loss, I took a breath and then opened my eyes when I realized how quiet it was. There wasn’t even the murmur of a television.
Eredine must have fallen asleep.
Walking into the living area, it was the dirty plates smashed on the floor by the island that got the blood rushing in my ears first.
“Eredine,” I whispered. I moved around the broken pieces, my gaze shooting toward the sitting room, looking for—
A limp hand peeked from behind the sectional.
“Ery!” I yelled, hurrying behind the large sofa to find my friend collapsed on the floor. “Oh my God, Ery.” I fell beside her, brushing her curls from her face and wincing at the sight of the blood trickling down her temple.
She’d been knocked out.
Terror consumed me.
“Eilidh! Lewis!” I jumped to my feet, slipping on some kind of sauce off the plates and catching my fall on the stairs. Righted, I launched myself up them faster than I’d ever moved in my life. “Eilidh! Lewis!” I screamed as I reached the landing.
But when I burst into Eilidh’s room, the duvet was thrown off her bed, and her new dollhouse was on its side like there had been a struggle. A sob burst out of me as I wrenched open her closet. “Eilidh!” I cried, pushing through the racks of clothing, hoping she was hiding.
Nothing.
Panic made my breath come in sharp, painful bursts, and I choked on my tears as I rushed from Eilidh’s room into Lewis’s.
“He isn’t here,” I gasped, trying to draw breath, trying to think.
His closet was empty too.
“Lewis!” I shrieked.
“Regan!” The voice cut through the blood pounding in my ears.
“Lewis?”
I turned around, following the voice.
“Regan!”
It wasn’t Lewis. It was Ery.
Hurrying back downstairs, I found Eredine leaning against the island, pale, trembling as she touched her fingers tentatively to her temple. Crossing the room, I grabbed her elbow to steady her. “What happened? Are you okay? Where are Eilidh and Lewis?”
Tears rushed to her eyes and spilled over in an instant. “They’re not upstairs?”
Fear clawed at my lungs. I shook my head.
“I was just … I was in the kitchen cleaning up. The kids were in bed. He came out of nowhere and I tried to get away,” she sobbed, shaking so hard, I thought she might break. “He smashed me over the head with something. I’m so sorry.”
“Who would take them?” I tried to stay calm, to not hyperventilate. They needed me. “Who would—” Realization dawned. “McClintock. Oh my God.”
Where was my cell? I’d left my cell! “Where’s your phone? We need to call Thane and the police. It’s McClintock.”
Eredine pushed off the island, frowning as she looked over at the dining table. “My cell was right there.” She pointed to the table. “That’s what I was rushing over for when he hit me.” Her eyes came back to me. “Regan.” Her gaze flew behind me and widened with horror. “Regan—”
Pain ricocheted across the back of my skull seconds before darkness descended.