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she thought she’d buried once again threatening to consume her.
    She stood on shaky legs and forced herself off the floor so she could look for the police through the bathroom’s tiny window.
    She heard a tapping sound behind her, the familiar sound of Rosie on her phone. “Are you tweeting about what a head case I am?” she asked.
    Rosie gave a little laugh but didn’t answer. At least she didn’t seem too scared, which was good. Though Talia tried to instill some caution into her sister, she was glad the months in hiding hadn’t left Rosie with the unfortunate paranoia that Talia only mostly kept under control.
    Yes, Rosario had suffered from the fallout, but Talia had done her best to keep her sheltered from the reality of her situation. And while the attack on Talia had scared her, Rosario had been kept away from her in her own safe house so she never saw the true horror the Seattle Slasher had inflicted on her.
    Though Rosie was a lot more street-smart than most girls her age, thanks to the lessons Jack and his friend Danny Taggart and his brothers had drilled into her, she didn’t have the instincts for danger that came from experiencing violence firsthand.
    Talia hadn’t done much right, but she’d kept Rosie out of harm’s way.
    She heard a car pull up outside and slid open the bathroom window. Since the house was all one level and all of twelve hundred square feet, including the garage, she could easily hear the footsteps falling on the flagstone walkway. Seconds later, there was a knock at the front door. “Ms. Vega? It’s Officer Roberts from the police department.”
    “I’ll be right out,” she called through the window.
    She kept Rosario behind her as she hurried through the bedroom to the front door, turning on every light in the house on her way. By the time she peeked through the peephole, the house was blazing with light, no shadows left to conceal any creeps who might be lingering. Outside, a uniformed officer stood illuminated by the floodlights that automatically came on when the alarm was tripped.
    She unlocked the door, let the officer inside, and briefly explained what happened.
    “So you heard something banging in the garage but didn’t see anything?”
    “That’s correct,” Talia said.
    “And you were here, inside the entire time?” Officer Roberts asked Rosario.
    “I was asleep,” she replied.
    “She got in a couple hours ago, right after midnight,” Talia added. “I waited for her to get in to set the alarm.”
    The cop made a note on his notepad. “Okay if I take a look outside?”
    “Of course.” Talia nodded.
    Talia could hear the crunch of gravel under the cop’s feet and saw the beam of his flashlight as he moved around the side of the house. She went into the kitchenand was pouring herself a glass of water when she heard a knock on the door that led to the single-car garage.
    Talia put down her glass and opened the door to Officer Roberts. “I think I know what the problem is.”
    But another voice, deep, male, and all too familiar, distracted her. “Where’s your sister? Is everything okay?”
    Talia turned to see Jack in her entryway, dressed in frayed jeans and a gray sweatshirt that proclaimed him property of the U.S. Army. His eyes were a little puffy and his short dark hair was ruffled as though he’d just rolled out of bed. Which, at just after two on a Tuesday morning, he no doubt had.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked.
    “I texted him from the bathroom,” Rosario said.
    “Rosie, we shouldn’t bother Jack with stuff like this,” Talia said tightly, even as her stomach did a little flip at the idea that he was willing to pull himself out of bed at this ungodly hour to make sure they were okay. “He doesn’t need to deal with our problems anymore.”
    Jack’s heavy footfalls echoed on the wood floors as he took the ten steps that led from the door to the small kitchen.
    Talia turned to face him. “I’m so sorry, Jack. Rosie