Read Online The Reckoning by Jana DeLeon - Free Book Online Page A

her cousin out of the room. She had no idea what to do, but knew she couldn’t get her head right with the doll staring at her. Before she could change her mind, she grabbed her cell phone from the kitchen counter and pressed in Holt’s number.
    “Get to Sarah’s house quick,” she said.
    “On my way,” Holt said, and disconnected the call without question.
    Sarah stood in the middle of the kitchen, her body taut, her expression full of fear. “What’s happening to my baby?” Sarah wailed, and started to sob.
    Alex gathered her cousin in her arms and stood there in the middle of the kitchen, rocking her and trying to soothe her, but having absolutely no idea what to say. The reality was, Alex was scared, more scared than she’d ever been before.
    Except for that summer.
    Everything seemed to come back around to that summer, no matter how much she tried to push it aside. She’d never faced it before. Had pushed it far down in her memory, pretending it didn’t matter since it was so long ago. Now, it had come back to roost. And at the time that Sarah needed her to keep it together the most, she was lost.
    It took Holt less than ten minutes to arrive, which told Alex that he’d already been awake, dressed and somewhere other than his cabin when she called. Apparently, a good night’s sleep wasn’t going any better for Holt than it had for her.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, as soon as she opened the front door.
    Alex waved him in and looked over at Sarah, who she’d finally gotten settled at the breakfast table with a cup of tea. Her cousin’s pale skin and sunken eyes worried her. Sarah couldn’t afford to let her health slide, but Alex didn’t know how to alleviate her worry. Especially now that she was as worried as Sarah.
    “Follow me,” she said, and headed down the hall toward the bedroom, Holt close on her heels.
    As soon as they were out of earshot of the kitchen, she gave Holt a recount of the morning’s events. He looked a bit irritated when she told him about the crow, and Alex knew he thought he’d been summoned here for a bit of overactive imagination, but when she told him about the doll, his jaw set in a hard line and he pushed past her to the window, flinging the drapes back.
    The doll, soaked with rain, sat on the branch of the tree, its black eyes staring at them. Holt muttered a low curse and strode down the hall, out of the house and into the storm.
    Alex followed him around the house to the window. He stood about ten feet from the tree, studying the ground beneath it.
    “No footprints,” he said.
    Alex held one hand over her forehead to shield her eyes from the rain. “Could the rain have washed them away that quickly? I know it’s pouring, but—”
    “Are you sure the doll wasn’t already in the tree the first time you looked out?”
    “I think I know the difference between a crow and a doll,” she said, glaring at him.
    “I know. Never mind.” He pulled a digital camera from his jeans pocket and took a couple of photos, then pulled on a pair of gloves and carefully removed the doll from the tree.
    “I have evidence bags in my truck,” he said. “Let me get this situated and I’ll be inside.”
    Alex nodded and hurried back into the house, happy that Holt was smart enough not to bring the doll inside the house where Sarah could see it and freak out all over again.
    “You’re dripping on the floor,” Sarah said, as she entered the kitchen. Her voice was flat and vacant, and she stared at the puddles collecting on the floor beneath Alex’s robe as if mesmerized.
    “I’m sorry.” Suddenly Alex felt self-conscious about her thin, wet robe. “I’ll be right back.”
    She hurried to the guest bedroom and threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then hung her bathrobe in the shower to dry. Holt was already in the kitchen, sitting at the table across from Sarah, when she got there.
    “You didn’t see or hear anything?” Holt asked Sarah.
    Sarah shook her head.