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immediately attached the leash to a docile Brandon’s collar. “Mom, he was acting so strange. He led us right to her. Do you think he sensed that she was up here?”
    “No. Not on the second floor. Something else set him off.” Whoever I saw in the woods, Adrienne thought with a jolt Whoever gave me that creepy feeling they were slinking around watching. For once her premonition of danger had been right and she felt as if ice water were trickling down her back. She grabbed Skye’s hand. “Hurry. We’re not staying in this room a moment longer than we have to.”
    Adrienne’s agitation was contagious. Skye’s tears vanished, she gripped Brandon’s leash, and they made a beeline for the open hotel room door. Then Brandon balked. He sat down and growled. “Oh God,
now
what?” Adrienne gasped, almost breathless with nerves.
    Skye leaned forward just enough to peek through the open door into the hall. Her body tensed. She drew back, shut the door quietly, and looked at her mother. Her lips had turned the same porcelain white as her face and she seemed to be all huge, terrified eyes. “Someone’s out there.” Adrienne stared at her. “Someone’s coming down the hall to this room carrying something like an ax.”
    “An ax?” Adrienne gaped, quelling a wild urge to laugh. “Skye, an
ax?”
    “I
saw
it! At least it was some kind of weapon that looked like an ax.” Skye was not prone to exaggeration and she suddenly sounded like a terrified little girl. “Mommy, what should we do?”
    Adrienne went blank. She’d known fear before, but it had never been imminent. The threat of injury or death had never borne down on her with the immediacy of this moment. She was totally unprepared and completely panicked.
    Brandon looked up at Adrienne with his clear, amber gaze and growled softly again, almost as if he were saying, “Snap out of it!” She drew a deep breath. Then, mercifully, her emotions seemed to shut down and a strange calm came over her. “Lock the door,” she said evenly. “We’ll push this dresser in front of it. Then we have to get out of the room.”
    “Get out? How?”
    “Jump from the porch.”
    “Jump?” Skye’s voice cracked. “We’re on the second floor!”
    “We’ll make it.”
    “What about Brandon?”
    “There’s just dirt and grass beneath us, not concrete. He’ll make it, too.”
    “Mom, he can’t. He’ll get hurt!”
    Adrienne looked fiercely at her daughter. “Skye, Julianna was
murdered.
Don’t you understand? She’s still warm. Her killer might not have left. That could be him corning down the hall. Now help me push the dresser in front of the door to slow him down and then we’re going to jump, dammit, Brandon or no Brandon!”
    The girl looked cowed but immediately turned to the long, mahogany dresser behind her. Adrienne went to the other end and they pushed it hard until they’d scooted it directly in front of the door. Before Adrienne had time to draw a deep breath, the doorknob, just visible above the dresser, turned violently.
    She and Skye stared at it, frozen. Brandon let out another low, menacing growl before the knob turned again, then rattled as the person on the other side shook it. “Who’s in there?” a ravaged voice demanded. “Open the goddamn door or I’ll break it down, I swear!”
    “Now we jump,” Adrienne said, heading for the French doors that opened onto the porch.
    Skye hung back. “Mom, I’m afraid.”
    Something hit the door hard. Perhaps a man’s shoulder. The door shuddered. “Next time it’s comin’ down,” he shouted savagely.
    “Oh God,” Skye whispered.
    Adrienne took her hand and pulled her toward the porch. “Don’t think. Just jump. It’s our only chance.”
    Brandon lagged behind, clearly confused, growling and barking. The door shuddered in its frame again and Adrienne waited to hear wood splintering as the madman outside attacked the door. The scene was absolutely bizarre, but actually happening. She’d