Maria nodded. “He escaped after I fought back. Hopped in his truck and tried to drive out of town. They found it in the gulley the next morning.” She paused, as if re-living the sordid event was too much, before shaking it off. “But his accident isn’t what saved me. The only thing that saved me was the bat I kept under my bed. I fought back. You could do that, too, sweetie.”
Tommy had a crew of paid bruisers that were fanatically loyal to him. His right-hand man was a walking killing machine, with an arsenal to boot. Grace let out a hollow laugh. “I don’t think a bat’s going to help me.”
“Not just that. What good is a bat if you’re not ready to swing it? You gave me the idea with your ballet classes. What about if someone taught you how to protect yourself?”
“You mean like self-defense?”
It was a good idea. She thought about taking lessons once before, back when she first left Tommy, but when she saw the Jaguar do a drive-by outside of the studio when she went to sign up, she was too spooked to go back.
“Exactly! And I know just the man for the job. He’s still a Marine, even if he’s retired from duty and working for the sheriff's department now. I’m sure he’d do it if I asked.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to be a bother. And,” she admitted, “I don’t want anyone else to know. This is my problem. People… people have gotten hurt if they got in between Tommy and me. I can’t let that happen again.”
“Hush.”
Grace hushed.
“Did you see the welcome sign on your way into the village?” Maria asked. She waited for Grace’s nod, then said, “I made it. Just like I make most of them.”
“It’s lovely.”
“Thank you. Now hush.”
“Maria—”
Maria swatted her in the arm with the dish towel resting on the tabletop. This one was a dark burnt orange color with a drawing of a black cat with glowing green eyes on it. “I’m not looking for compliments, sweetie. I run my Ophelia and I paint, that’s what I do. And what I paint on that particular sign is very important.”
Grace thought she might know where Maria was going with this. Daring to chime in, she remembered, “‘Hamlet helps’?”
“Hamlet helps,” agreed Maria. “And Maria knows how to keep her mouth shut. One problem at a time, sweetie. I’ll get someone to teach you to fight back so you don’t look like you’re ready to bolt, and then we’ll worry about stopping this Tommy from getting to you. You’re not alone anymore.”
A lump formed in Grace’s throat. She swallowed roughly, forcing it down. “Maria, I—thank you.”
Maria’s pale blue eyes went icy and cold as she firmed her lips; at that moment, Grace thought she looked almost eerily like her big brother. She reached out, laying her hand over Grace’s.
“Let him try to follow you here,” she said, her throaty voice nearly vibrating with the challenge. “He’ll learn and learn quick what happens to outsiders who don’t want to play nice.”
12
Maria disappeared early the afternoon she had arranged for Grace to have her first lesson.
She said she needed to head into the city in order to buy more supplies for her art. Grace suspected that Maria wanted to give her space for when Sylvester came over to give her those self-defense lessons.
Weather was nice in Hamlet. Over the last few days, Grace noticed that, despite living in the shadow of the mountains, the small town was a little warmer than Dayton had been. Now that it was creeping toward the end of October, it was chilly, but not so cold, and she suggested they hold the lessons outside.
Yeah. No. Maria didn’t like that. Once the caffeine wore off and some of her anxiety started to face, Grace wasn’t as worried about Tommy getting to her. She reminded herself of the power of Ophelia’s locks. And Maria was right—no one was getting in an out of town without someone picking up on it. Without giving Sly all of the details, she told her boyfriend about Grace’s trouble, and found out that no less than four locals reported seeing the black car.
Grace tried to call off the lessons. Maria insisted she take them, if only because every woman needed to be able to protect herself. And, because she got this idea in her head that Tommy would find a way to sneak in and snatch Grace off the street, she arranged the furniture in the foyer so that there was space to practice.
Grace tried to argue, especially since her fright hadn’t kept her from dancing in the backyard. Of course, Maria didn’t exactly know that, since she only did it when Maria was away from Ophelia, but still. As big as the open room was, she was afraid she might break some of Maria’s expensive knickknacks. Maria didn’t care—and she absolutely wouldn’t budge on having the lessons inside.
Sylvester would rat her out. Grace knew it. There was no way she could go outside. Besides, she was actually a bit touched at how much Maria cared for her. So maybe she didn’t argue as much as she wouldn’t.
Of course, that left Grace waiting nervously for her teacher to arrive. Maria told her that he would be stopping by around four. Because she didn’t know what to expect, she dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of her favorite leggings so that she would at least be comfortable, then hovered nearby so that she could answer the door.
At a quarter to four, the doorbell rang. Since old habits die hard, Grace peeked through the peephole.
What the—