Saving Jake by Sharon Sala

Author:Sharon Sala
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2016-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Jake didn’t remember the rest of the drive home and was in such a daze that he almost drove past his own house. By the time he got inside, he was shaking. He thought about taking that bottle of tequila to bed, and then opted for a cold shower instead.

Later, he crawled into bed naked and pulled the covers up to his chin. “Please God, help me,” he said, and closed his eyes.

He flashed first on the fire, and then the blood on the victims. He could feel himself falling into the pit where nightmares reigned when another face superimposed over the darkness. Her eyes were gentle, her voice was soft, and she was reaching toward him.

Laurel.

He slept.

* * *

It was morning before Laurel saw the dead dog lying in her front yard. She was getting dressed and had glanced out her bedroom window when she saw it. She sighed. It appeared her in-laws had paid her another visit in the night. They seemed to think that anything dead would remind her of what Adam had done. So one would assume Beverly’s visit in an attempt to make peace had not spread to the rest of the family.

Bonnie was still asleep, and Laurel needed to get rid of the carcass before she woke up. So she grabbed a pair of gloves and got a shovel from the back porch and hurried to the front yard.

It didn’t take long to ascertain the dog had been dead longer than twenty-four hours, and since it wasn’t there when they’d left for the fall festival, someone had to have dumped the carcass here. The ground was still soft enough for the last rain to make digging easy, and so she quickly dug a shallow grave near the bar ditch. She ran back, grabbed the carcass by the tail, dragged it into the hole, and then covered it up. By the time she was finished, she was nauseous and shaking, but the deed was hidden from Bonnie, and that’s all that mattered.

She went back inside to clean up and make Bonnie some breakfast. After this, putting food in her mouth and keeping it down was pretty much impossible. Maybe she’d feel better after church, but it was a horrible way to begin the day.

* * *

Adele Payne spent the night at the hospital in Blessings. Her daughter, Beverly, and her son David and his wife, Trisha, had been with her until daybreak. At that point, they’d gone to Beverly’s house to sort out all of the children who’d been left with Beverly’s husband, Garrett.

Luke and Melanie had three boys, ranging in age from ten to fifteen. Beverly decided to keep the youngest one with her three children, and David and Trisha were taking the two older ones home to stay with their two.

Once Luke came out of surgery and they learned he was going to live, their relief was huge. But Melanie, who seemed at first to be the least injured, had fallen into a coma around midnight and had yet to wake up.

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