Read Online Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1 by Jonathan Janz - Free Book Online

hears him come in behind her. “Want one?” she asks.
    “Better not,” he says.
    Twisting off the bottle cap, she takes a swig and turns to look at him: the loose jowls, the mournful eyes, the mouth that always seems about to smile sadly. He’s holding his hat before him in a way that’s somehow endearing, like a polite little boy apologizing for breaking a neighbor’s window.
    “You think I’m crazy too,” she says.
    The merest ghost of a smile. “What makes you think they believe you’re crazy?”
    “They talk to me like I’ve escaped from the group home. Ever since I told them what happened.”
    “It is pretty hard to swallow.”
    “The hysterical housewife, deranged with grief—”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    She looks away, guzzles some beer. She burps loudly and wipes her mouth, wondering how her daughters are doing with Chris’s folks. She needs, just about more than anything else, the comforting noise of her daughters fighting over the Trikester that Kate had outgrown and that went to Olivia, except Kate didn’t like seeing Olivia on the pink tricycle she used to ride. Then Olivia’s high-pitched screaming would pierce the day, and Charly would storm outside to officiate and mete out punishment. It drove her nuts, keeping those two from killing each other, but right now it was exactly what she needed.
    That and her baby boy.
    The sobs grab hold of her like the hands of some cunning strangler. She drops the bottle in the sink and bends double, the storm of tears racking her weary body. She feels the cop’s soft hand on her shoulder, but where the hell is Eric? Every time the feds question her he’s in another room, and she still hasn’t gotten an answer about where he was last night when Jake was kidnapped.
    The cop’s arm encircles her shoulders, draws her against his kneeling body. Her equilibrium fails and she sinks toward him, and then they’re sitting together like that on the kitchen floor when Eric walks in. His face is already red with anger; she doesn’t even kid herself it’s because he’s been crying. She wonders if on some level he’s worried about their son. Or maybe his selfishness doesn’t even allow the occasional slip into normal human behavior.
    “What’s going on?” Eric demands.
    Charly returns his stare, wondering, Does he actually think I’m having a romantic moment with this chubby sheriff?
    Next to her the cop says, “I thought she needed some help, Mr. Florence.”
    “What’s wrong?” she asks Eric.
    “The cocksucker’s here.”
    She frowns. “What?”
    “What do you mean, what? Bledsoe . That cocksucker Bledsoe just pulled up.”
    Though she knows Sam can’t do a thing to help get Jake back, for the first time since the creature stole him from his crib, Charly feels a surge of hope.
    Eric starts to go out.
    “What are you going to say to him?” she calls after him.
    Red-faced, he rounds on her, “I’m going to tell him to get his ass off my property.”
    “He didn’t do anything wrong,” she says, rising.
    “And you can shut your goddamned mouth.”
    The cop, who has risen with her, suddenly seems to grow in stature. “Don’t speak to her like that,” the cop says.
    Eric utters a breathless little laugh, as if Kate or Olivia had just deigned to challenge his authority. “Listen, fatass,” Eric starts. “It’s none—”
    “You want to explain to your wife why you and that girl were in the car last night?” the sheriff says.
    Charly feels her mouth drop open. She stares at the cop, who blushes.
    “I’m sorry, ma’am. That was a terrible thing to say, especially right now. It’s not my place—”
    “Now you start in,” Eric says. “Just like those FBI guys. Look, do any of you have any idea what it takes to run a basketball program? She’s an assistant , for chrissakes, she was diagramming plays—”
    “At two in the morning?” Charly asks.
    “Parked at the end of a gravel road?” the cop puts in.
    “We were in the front