Read Deadly Violet - 04 for Free Online

against that, taking a couple more teetering steps in, yelling Heidi’s name. The tall, blond woman did not so much as glance back. She was moving at a steady, even pace. And the same was true of her companions. Maybe they’d been hypnotized.
    “Get out of there!” Cassie shrieked. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    That got nothing in response.
    The only course of action left now was to follow them right in there. Cass absorbed that, hurried across to the mirror and put a hand against it. And felt solid resistance. It was a normal sheet of silvered glass.
    So how’d the others gotten through?
    She was still trying to figure that one out, gazing helplessly at the receding human shapes … when the surface of the mirror wavered, then went blank. And then returned to normal.
    Cassie was left gawping at her own reflected face. Heidi and the kids were gone. She had been unable to stop it.
    Numbness spread out through her. And was shattered – seconds later – by the bellow of a sports car engine, splitting the air outside the house.
    Ritchie Vallencourt had finally arrived.
    And what precisely was she going to tell him?
     
    She’d gotten back to the front door by the time that he burst through it, knowing what was coming next and hoping she could calm things down.
    The young detective sergeant was already in a hellish state. His almond eyes were as wide as a startled horse’s. And he usually had color in his handsome face, but that was in the past.
    His Browning was already drawn. He stared through Cass as though she wasn’t there.
    “ Heidi? ” he began bellowing.
    Cassie holstered her own weapon.
    “ Kate? Joanna? Talk to me! ” he yelled.
    She tried to get a hold of his shoulders, knowing how appallingly painful this had to be for him.
    “Ritchie, you need to slow down,” she begged him
    But he didn’t even look like he could hear her.
    “Where are they?” he howled.
    “We’ll get them back, I promise.”
    “Where’ve they gone ?”
    He started moving forward. Cassie tried to stop him. And an instant later, she found herself being shoved aside and slammed against the nearest wall.
    Her hands went instinctively to her belly, frightened for the life inside her. But her back had taken the force of the impact. There had been no genuine damage. And besides, Ritchie hadn’t meant to do that – he just wasn’t thinking straight.
    She watched him helplessly as he went running down the hall. He disappeared from sight, but Cassie could still hear him. His yells were becoming increasingly frantic. And it sounded like he was overturning stuff, driven by his panic to a mindless frenzy.
    The worst thing was that she had been the same. When Kevin, Angel, and Little Cassie had been taken from her, she’d been like a wounded animal, screeching and clawing at anything that moved. She still remembered every dreadful second of it. Now, the same was happening to someone that she knew and liked.
    There was nothing in the slightest she could do but listen. Cassie let her head drop back against the wall and felt her shoulders tremble.
    When the hell was Ross going to get here? He was the kind of person who could deal with stuff like this a hell of a lot better than she was able. Mr. Calm and Sensible. Mr. Reliable. It was part of what she liked about the guy.
    And she was still waiting for him, when she heard the gunshot.
     
    It came from the same direction Vallencourt had vanished. And was followed by a cry, a thump, and then more yelling. Except that Ritchie wasn’t calling for his wife, this time. This was wordless yelling, caused by pain or fear.
    Something else was going down. And, again, she had no idea quite what. But both her Glocks came out, and then Cassie was powering herself in the direction of the screams.
    They were coming from the bathroom. Something bad was happening to the man in there. And the door was most of the way closed, so that she couldn’t make out what it was.
    Cassie kicked her way in.