Silent Night Sanctuary. Rita Herron

      “All I know is that she’s been seeing a shrink.” He jammed a toothpick between his teeth and chewed on it. “And since she moved back, she’s kept to herself. Don’t want anything to do with her old friends or the town. Except for Jerry, that is. Apparently Jerry thought she wanted to rekindle their relationship.”

      Jealousy left a bitter taste in Gage’s mouth.

      Had Leah really tried to get back together with his brother?

      HE SWALLOWED THE pill, chasing it with a stiff whiskey, and paced the bottom floor of the old house. The mountains were full of rotting shanties and abandoned houses like this, places he’d discovered on his secret hikes into the woods.

      Places no one would think to look because they probably didn’t even know about them.

      The rooms smelled musty and dank, and he wheezed a labored breath, then removed his inhaler and pressed it over his mouth and nose. Dammit, he was allergic to dust and half the trees in the woods.

      Upstairs in the attic room, he heard footsteps. Then the little girl began screaming for help and beating the walls.

      A chuckle rumbled in his chest. Poor kid, didn’t she know it was futile? They were miles and miles from the town, deep in the ridges.

      She could scream her lungs out and no one would hear her.

      Sick of her whining, he strode outside to escape the sound. He didn’t know what he was going to do with the kid yet.

      But Leah Holden had called in the cops, so he couldn’t give her back.

      Still, he wasn’t ready to kill her. Not yet.

      If it came down to it, he’d do it. He could bury her out in the hills and no would ever find her or link him to her kidnapping and death.

      Then his peaceful life in Sanctuary could go back to normal.