She looked out to the back yard where Paige had left her hula hoop and soccer ball. Rachel had gone out and attempted to hula hoop for the first time in about twenty years. She’d broken a sweat and nearly cried from laughing.
“I don’t know yet,” she said.
They ended the call and Rachel headed back inside. It was a special night, as she took the time to read to Paige and they snuggled in bed together without worry or tears. With the exception of Peter not being in the house, it almost felt like normal. She kissed Paige goodnight and headed downstairs only to find that Grandma Tate had come back from her book club while Rachel had been upstairs.
“Did you like it?” Rachel asked.
“Oh, sure. It was fine, I suppose. Never been much of a reader.”
“Then why a book club?”
“Because I want to try something different. Even by beating this cancer I’m still old. Might as well get stuff done while I can, right?”
Rachel’s cell phone started to ring as she laughed at this. “That’s a little morbid, Grandma.”
She didn’t bother checking the caller ID, as she was distracted by Grandma Tate. She also assumed it would be Jack again, maybe with another update on Nick Nelson.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Hello,” came the reply. And for a moment, she thought it was Jack. But no, it was deeper and older, maybe a little grizzled. Her dad, maybe? She’d still not decided how to approach that situation ever since Jack had laid that pleasant little bomb at her feet. “This is Agent Gift, yes?”
“It is,” she asked. “Who is this?”
The man on the other end chuckled. It was a deadly, dry sound. “Oh, I think you know who it is. And I’m coming for you. I’m coming for you soon.”
Lynch.
She gripped her phone tightly as fear and anger created a massive wall of determination inside of her. “You’re very stupid to be calling here, Ly—”
“So what book is your grandmother’s book club reading? Something good, I hope.”
“How do you—”
“The woman in the blue windbreaker that was sitting beside her didn’t seem too pleased with the book selection.”
“What are—”
“See you soon, Rachel.”
The line went dead and Rachel looked around the living room, her eyes instantly going to the lock on the front door. She then looked to the book Grandma Tate had set on the coffee table, the book she’d be reading for her book club.
How does he know? It was a loaded question and one that Rachel was a bit too scared to answer.
“Who was that?” Grandma Tate asked.
“Grandma, who was sitting beside you at the book club?”
She answered, though it was clear that she was confused by the question. “A woman I had never met before. A lady named Katherine…oh, I don’t recall her last name. Why?”
“What was she wearing?”
“I don’t recall,” she said, growing concerned.
“Did she have on a windbreaker?” Rachel asked. “A blue windbreaker?”
“Now that you mention it…yes. She even made a comment about how she was glad she decided to wear it because it was a bit chilly in the room.” She paused here and then asked again: “Rachel…who was that on the phone?”
“That,” Rachel said, “was Alex Lynch. And he’s a lot closer to us than we thought.”