red hill - jamie mcguire

“She should come back in,” I said softly. “It’s not safe out there.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said. His voice was so smooth and calming. “For helping us. That was pretty
impressive.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “I’m glad everyone made it here safely.”
Nathan walked away, twisting his upper body and whispering something into his daughter’s ear.
His shaggy hair was opposite his gray suit and boring tie. He glanced back at me, and I looked away,
realizing at the same time he did that I was still staring. It had been a while since I’d felt anything but
fear. Next to the nightmare we were all living, embarrassment didn’t seem so bad.
I looked at Nathan again from the corners of my eyes, trying not to get caught. The girl’s eyes were
getting heavy, and I found myself curious about their situation: Where was her mother Did they find
themselves together much like Andrew found himself now with the girls
“He’s nice,” Stanley whispered. His voice was tired and sad, but the corners of his mouth were
turned up ever so slightly. “If you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” I said, shaking my head and dropping my eyes to the ground.
Nathan
FOUR HOURS OF WORRYING AND being in an unfamiliar situation had exhausted Zoe in every way
anyone could be exhausted, and while I was watching the woman with the fiery red hair and
staggering blue eyes break it to Miranda and Ashley that their father was dead, I noticed a pair of
French doors right off the living room and peeked in, seeing a king-size bed that took up most of the
room around it. There were piles of clothes everywhere, and opened dresser drawers. Odd, because
the rest of the house was immaculate.
Zoe didn’t flinch when I peeled back the covers and let her sink into the pillow-top mattress. The
luxurious down pillow and high thread count of the sheets didn’t match the farmhouse. As I thought
about the custom-made tree-trunk coffee table in the living room, and the seventy-inch flat screen, I
decided that wasn’t true. There were a few oddly placed expensive items peppered inside the old,
outdated house. That puzzled me, much like the tiny woman with a huge set of balls holding the rifle in
the living room.
I waited to be sure Zoe was sound asleep, and then stepped into the living room, listening to
Ashley weep quietly on Cooper’s shoulder. She was asking the mystery woman how her father died
and about a woman named Leah. The answers were vague, I assumed on purpose. The details didn’t
really matter, only that two girls had lost their father, and everything they expected to find here was
gone with him.
Cooper held Ashley as she shook and moaned, rubbing at her face and raking her back in
frustration as she bounced between devastation and anger. Finally, she met the woman’s eyes.
“Why are you here, Scarlet”