“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me what all he was doing.”

“You have to tell Rountree about that when she gets here. Tell her Blake was at our house. You said he looked ragged. Maybe she knows something else—”

I put the phone in my pocket, felt its bulk against my thigh. “I’m going over there.”

“Why? You should wait here for Rountree. We need to tell her about the man at the door.”

“You can tell her,” I said, moving away from her. “You saw him, not me.”

“But I need you here. I want you here. With me and the baby and our family. I don’t need you running around and not knowing where you are.”

I wanted to stay. More than anything else.

But I couldn’t.

“I’ll call you when I can,” I said before I leaned in to kiss her.

“Ryan. Don’t. Let Blake deal with whatever he has to deal with. This guy is out there. He could be back at our house, looking for you.”

Amanda didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, that Blake and I were tied together by things I couldn’t talk about. Things she didn’t know.

“Rountree will be here soon,” I said. “You’ll be okay here. If anyone comes to the door or sets foot in the yard who you don’t know, call nine-one-one. Immediately.”

“Anyone like this woman you keep asking me about?”

I ignored the question. “Just do what I said. Okay?”

I stepped out the door into the light rain, which I barely noticed.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

When I reached our house, I stopped in the alley a few doors down from where we lived. I replayed the moment from an hour or so earlier when Blake had emerged from behind the garage, his face pale, his clothes dirty. I hadn’t seen his car. He’d simply appeared from behind the garage.

I wanted to be cautious, to avoid announcing my presence in case someone else—the man who had already been to our house once that day, for instance—lurked inside, watching or listening for a car.

I saw no other vehicles in the alley, nothing in our driveway. Cold, light rain continued to splat against the trees and the houses, but otherwise the neighborhood was silent. I approached the house, my shoes skimming through the standing water. Rain ran down my neck and underneath my shirt, mingling with the sweat that had already been there.

The back door came into sight. It was closed, unmarred. Everything looked normal. I brushed a raindrop off my cheek.