69

Sierra’s POV

The morning sun hit my eyes. I was warm. Louis was wrapped around me, his breath soft on my neck. Katie was a lump of blankets between us. For one perfect second, I forgot.

Then I remembered the movie. The blanket fort. The text.

My whole body went cold. I carefully untangled myself and stood up. My phone was on the coffee table. I picked it up like it was a spider.

The text was still there. The picture of our fort. Our happy, secret moment. He saw it all.

*I’ll be inside soon.*

The words made my skin crawl. I felt like throwing up.

Louis’s eyes opened. He saw my face and sat up fast. “What’s wrong?”

I handed him the phone. He read it. His face got hard. Not scared. Angry. A deep, quiet anger.

“Okay,” he said. He said it calm. Too calm. “Okay.”

He got up. He didn’t yell. He walked to the big window and looked out at the garden. At the spot where Lyle must have stood to take the picture.

“He’s telling us he can get past the cameras. Past the fences. He’s telling us he’s coming in.”

“What do we do?” My voice was a whisper.

“We change the rules,” Louis said. He turned around. “We don’t wait for him to pick the time. We pick it.”

“How?”

“We make it easy for him.”

I stared. “You want to let him in? Are you crazy?”

“Not let him in. Make him think he can get in. And be waiting.” Louis’s brain was working fast. I could see it. “We show him a weakness. A fake one. We make a mistake on purpose.”

He came and sat back down on the floor with me. Katie was still sleeping. He talked low.

“We pretend to have a big fight. A huge one. We make it look like I’m so mad I’m leaving. For real this time. You’ll be here, alone and upset. The security will be sloppy because I’m gone and mad. We let the news leak. He’ll hear it. He’ll think it’s his chance. To come comfort you. To be the hero. To step into my place.”

It was a scary, smart plan. It used what we knew about Lyle. He didn’t just want to hurt us. He wanted to be us. He wanted to be the husband.

“And when he comes?” I asked.

“He won’t get near you,” Louis promised. His eyes were serious. “You’ll be in the safe room with Katie the whole time. The house will look empty and easy. But it’ll be full of my best people. And me. I’ll be here too. Hiding. And when he walks in… we grab him.”

It was a trap. We were the cheese.

I didn’t like it. I hated it. But what else could we do? Run forever?

“When?” I asked.

“Tonight.”

The day was weird. We had to get ready for our fake fight. We had to act normal but also secretly plan.

Louis called Martin and some other tough-looking guys to the house. They met in his office with the door closed. I played with Katie in the garden, but I kept looking at the window where Lyle took the picture. I felt naked.

In the afternoon, the fight started. We were in the kitchen. We made sure the window was open a little.

“I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE, LOUIS!” I yelled. I’m not a good yeller. It felt silly. But I tried. “YOU’RE NEVER HERE! YOU CARE MORE ABOUT CATCHING THIS CREEP THAN ABOUT US!”

“DON’T YOU TURN THIS ON ME!” Louis yelled back. He was a better yeller. He sounded real mad. “I’M TRYING TO PROTECT YOU! BUT NOTHING IS EVER GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU, IS IT?”

We sounded like a bad TV show. Katie heard us from the playroom. She came running in, her face scared. “Stop fighting!”

That part wasn’t fake. My heart broke. I picked her up. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy and Daddy are just… having a discussion.”

Louis turned away, like he was too angry to look at us. “I’m going out. I can’t be here.”

He stormed out. A few minutes later, we heard his car peel out of the driveway. It sounded angry.

The house got very quiet. Katie was crying softly. I held her. “It’s okay,” I whispered, rocking her. “Daddy will be back.” I felt like a liar.

I put Katie to bed early. I read her an extra story. I told her Daddy loved her very much. She fell asleep holding my hand.

Then it was time. I took Katie to the safe room. I brought her pillow and her bunny. The room had a little bed for her. She didn’t wake up.

Louis came in through the secret door. He looked tired. He hugged me hard. “You were great,” he whispered.

“This feels wrong,” I whispered back.

“It’s the only way.” He kissed my forehead. “I’ll be right out there. You’ll see everything on the screens. The minute he’s caught, I’ll come get you.”

He left. The door sealed shut. It was me and Katie in the white, quiet room.

I sat in front of the wall of screens. They showed every room in the house. The lights were low. It looked empty and sad. Perfect for a lonely wife.

I watched. Nothing happened. Hours ticked by. My eyes got dry from staring.

Then, on the screen for the kitchen, something moved. The back doorknob turned. Slowly. So slowly.

The door pushed open. A figure stood there, backlit by the moon. Lyle.

He stepped inside. He closed the door softly behind him. He stood in our kitchen, looking around. He touched the counter where I make coffee. He had a small backpack on.

He walked through the house. He was smiling a little. He looked… happy. He went into the living room. He straightened a pillow on the couch. He ran his hand over the back of Louis’s favorite chair.

He was acting like he lived here. Like he was coming home.

My skin was ice. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run out and hit him with the flashlight again.

He walked up the stairs. He went to Katie’s room first. He stood in the doorway for a long time, just looking at her empty bed. Then he went to our bedroom.

He sat on the edge of our bed. He put his head in his hands for a minute. Then he looked up. He looked right at the security camera in the corner. He knew it was there. He smiled right at it. Right at me watching.

He waved.

Then he reached into his backpack. He pulled out a bottle. It looked like water. And a cloth. He poured something on the cloth.

My blood froze. That wasn’t part of the plan. He wasn’t just here to look.

“Louis,” I whispered, even though he couldn’t hear me. “He’s got something. He’s in our room.”

On the screen, Lyle stood up. He walked toward the camera. His face got bigger and bigger on the screen. He reached up.

The screen for our bedroom went black.

He’d cut the camera.

“NO!” I gasped. I jumped up. Katie stirred in her sleep.

I didn’t know what to do. The plan was to grab him in the living room! He wasn’t supposed to go upstairs! He wasn’t supposed to have a bottle!

I looked at the other screens. The hallway camera showed our bedroom door, still closed. Where was Louis? Where was the team?

Then I saw movement. On the screen for the main hallway downstairs. Louis. He was running up the stairs. Two other men were behind him. They had heard. They were coming.

But Lyle had a head start. And he was in our room. With a cloth and a bottle.

I couldn’t stay in the safe room. I just couldn’t. I had to know.

I checked that Katie was still asleep. I unlocked the heavy door. I slipped out into the dark basement.

I could hear footsteps pounding on the floor above me. Running. Shouting.

I crept up the basement stairs. My heart was in my throat. I peeked into the kitchen. It was empty.

I heard a shout from upstairs. A crash. Then a loud THUD.

And then silence.

The worst kind of silence.

I ran. I didn’t think. I ran up the stairs. The hallway was empty. Our bedroom door was open.

I stopped in the doorway.

The room was a mess. A lamp was knocked over. Louis was on the floor, on his knees. He was breathing hard. One of his guys was holding his arm. There was blood on Louis’s shirt.

And Lyle. Lyle was on the floor too. He wasn’t moving. The bottle was spilled next to him, a dark liquid soaking into the rug. The cloth was beside his hand.

Louis looked up and saw me. His eyes were wild. “I told you to stay in the room!”

“Is he…?” I couldn’t finish.

“He’s alive,” one of the other men said. He was checking Lyle’s pulse. “Out cold.”

Louis got up. He walked over to me. He put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay? Is Katie?”

“We’re okay,” I said. I was shaking. “You’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing. A cut from the broken bottle.” He looked back at Lyle on the floor. “He had chloroform. On the cloth. He was going to use it on you. To take you.”

The world spun. He wasn’t just watching anymore. He was going to take me.

Louis pulled me into a hug. He held me tight. I could feel his heart racing. “It’s over,” he whispered into my hair. “It’s over.”

We stood there in our wrecked bedroom, holding each other. The ghost was on the floor. He wasn’t a ghost anymore. He was just a man. A crazy, sad man.

But he was our crazy, sad man. And we had to figure out what to do with him now.