Love Gone Read Online Free PDF

considered this thoughtfully as
she poured a small amount of oil in her frying pan.
    “Yes, this girl, Emily, or so she
said, definitely had a darkness around her, but it was more than
just a dark cloud of ill luck or something. It was really…oh I
don’t know. It sounds silly.”
    “What is it Faith?”
    “Well,” she started, turning to face
him while the first fillet started sizzling in the pan behind her.
“She just seemed evil. Yes, that’s it. Just plain evil. No other
way to put it. She got close to me and said that Liam and I should
be careful, and it was all I could do not to push her away and
start running. Know what I mean?”
    Before Mac could answer, the doorbell
rang.
    Her stomach leapt in fear at the
unexpected sound. Her eyes flew to meet Mac’s and he looked down at
her, uncomprehending.
    The doorbell rang again. Insistent, as
if the person on the other side of the door knew that they were
unwanted in this house, but they didn’t care, they were determined
to be let in.
    “Are you expecting someone?” She asked
him, almost whispering.
    “No.”
    “Mom?” Liam called from his room down
the hall. “Is there someone at the door?”
    “Stay in your room Liam,” she shouted.
Why had she said that, she wondered? It was just someone at the
door. Maybe someone lost or one of the neighbors returning
something they’d borrowed or stopping by to invite them somewhere.
They were a close knit block and it wasn’t unusual for one of the
neighbors to stop by unexpectedly without a phone call. This was
Alaska, not New York. Neighbors were friends here. But still, the
bell had spooked her.
    “Listen, you stay here,” Mac
instructed her. He didn’t look all that confident himself. “I’m
just going to go see who that is.”
    She fought the urge to hold him back.
Keep him with her and just ignore the bell.
    “Okay, thanks honey.”
    She stood frozen against the counter,
listening as Mac walked down the hall, past his son’s room, and
opened the door.
    “Can I help you?” She heard him
say.
    She couldn’t hear the other person.
Could only make out a very faint response. Nothing that told her if
it was a female, a male?
    “No, I don’t think that would be a
good idea,” she heard Mac say. Louder this time. He sounded upset.
Oh god, what was happening?
    She slipped out of her heels and
padded silently around the corner of the kitchen into the hall.
From her vantage point, she could see down the length of the house.
Behind her was the living room where she could feel the faint heat
of the fire, really crackling now, Liam had done a good job getting
it started. She could see Mac’s broad back as he stood in the
doorway, blocking whoever was standing in front of him. She leaned
forward slightly, straining to hear the other person. Could it
actually be Emily? Here? At her door?
    Before she had another chance to hear
a response she heard a scuffle outside on the porch. A grunt from
someone standing away from the door and then a squeal like a little
girl had been violently pushed and fallen with the wind knocked out
of her. Mac roared with rage and suddenly she saw another man
standing in the dark outside space framed by her doorway. He was
pushing at Mac and grunting in an almost unearthly way. He was
trying to push his way into her house!
    Stunned she wasn’t sure what to do.
She was frozen. Then she heard Liam’s door opening. Of course he
would be confused about the noise, he would try and help, she had
to protect her son. With no regard to her own safety she rushed
down the hall, behind Mac and slammed into Liam’s room, knocking
him over as she pushed her way in and locked his door behind
her.
    “What is it? What the hell is going on
mom?” Liam struggled to get up off the floor where he’d fallen
after she pushed into the room.
    “Shhh!” She waved him back with her
hand as she pressed against the door to hear what was happening.
“She was frightened, but she wasn’t sure how frightened