Saving Sloan (Sloan Series Book 2) (2 page)

It really was a beautiful church. Old. The kind of old that made the hardwood floor creak when you stepped down. It had about ten rows of pews on either side of the center aisle. The front had the altar, rail, pulpit, and piano. A large wooden cross hung on the wall behind the pulpit; to the right of the cross hung the prayer request board and attendance board. Also, a door led to the one and only classroom. It was small, but it was homey. Sloan loved how cozy it was. It made her feel safe, especially now that Donna was back in her seat in the front row. Right where she belonged.

The second verse of the song started, and movement next to her caught her attention. It was Ray. He gently nudged her back and moved past. He slapped his brother’s arm and motioned for him to move out of the way. Frowning, Aaron stepped to the side. With a grin on his face, Ray headed toward the front. While Sloan watched in awe, Ray kneeled down and started praying.

Ray had told her once he’d gone to church a few times and believed in God, but he wasn’t saved. Pastor Dan crouched beside him and, after a few words of prayer, Ray stood like the weight of the world was off his shoulders. He hugged the preacher who hugged him back. Donna shouted happy exclamations, and the congregation clapped.

Even Aaron, who Sloan could have sworn had wet eyes. She wondered if Aaron would ever go up there, then thought better of it. She knew he wouldn’t. It wasn’t his style. If Aaron ever got saved, it would be on his own terms, somewhere private where no one would know. For all she knew, he wouldn’t even tell anyone after the fact. It was such a personal experience after all. Some people shouted about it. Some never told a soul.

Ray wasn’t being private. He stood proudly next to Pastor Dan, smiling from ear to ear at Sloan. She couldn’t help but smile back. When the pastor asked for everyone to come up and hug him, she was the first in line. She rose on her tiptoes to grab him around the neck easier and kissed his cheek. “I’m happy for you,” she said into his ear.

He pulled her closer to him. “I am too. Thank you.”

After much happiness and celebration, it was decided that next Sunday would be the baptism. Ray didn’t see any reason to wait, and neither did anyone else. They would walk down to the creek close to the Falls and dunk him under. Then they would go to the picnic area and have a covered-dish lunch. It would be a big party. Sloan couldn’t wait. It was nice to have something to look forward to.

Like always, the Hunters walked her to her car. She actually had
gotten a new car for her birthday after all the dust had settled. It was a bright red — some said candy apple — Dodge Charger. Brand new and beautiful. The seats were light tan leather. The gearshift sat between the front seats, and the ignition was push-button. The car had two doors, but it had a pretty big back seat for when Ray, Aaron, and Mackenzie all went somewhere.

“Lunch?” Aaron asked when they got to her vehicle.

“Starving,” she answered, looking in her bag for her keys. “Any ideas?”

“Well, since my brother decided to convert to the
good
side and took so much time doing it.” He smirked lovingly at his brother. “The hotel restaurant will be too full. Fast food maybe? The diner?”

“The diner will be full too.” She was sort of sad about it. She loved the diner on Sundays. They had the best meatloaf around.

“I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not.” Ray laughed, leaning on the hood of her car. “I feel pretty good right about now.”

“You look it.” Sloan grinned. And he did. He looked happier, brighter… different.

On the other side, she heard Aaron clear his throat and scoot the gravel with his toe. Did he think she meant Ray “looked” pretty good? Like
looked,
looked? She hoped so much he wasn’t getting jealous. That’s all she needed. Selfish as it was, she wanted them both and wanted God to show her which one to go with. But she understood if Aaron moved on to someone else, someone he didn’t have to date with his brother, if that’s what people called what they were doing. He was twenty after all. No one expected him to be tied at her side forever.

“I guess we’ll have to get fast food.” She tried to sound happy about it. It wasn’t Ray’s fault church lasted longer than usual… well, it was, but it was for a good reason.

“Okay, we’ll meet you at the arches. See you in a few.” Aaron grabbed Ray playfully by the back of the neck and led him to his Mustang. Sometimes they rode together. Sometimes they didn’t. Just depended on the mood and what they had going on after church. Aaron had to be at work at six for overtime, so he wanted to be able to eat and leave if they went out. Sloan liked that about him. He could be jealous of Ray. He could be annoyed by him. But he always took care of him and always made sure they had money so Ray wouldn’t have to work while going to school. Now when summer came, the free ride on Ray’s part was over. But for now, Aaron took care of him. It was one of the qualities she admired most about him.

With her stomach rumbling, Sloan slid in the driver’s seat, put her foot on the brake, and pressed the push-button start. The Charger roared to life. The sound never got old. She put on her seatbelt and stopped when her eyes glanced at the passenger seat.

Roses. Five long-stemmed red ones lay there with a black ribbon tied around the stems in a perfect bow. They were beautiful, but she couldn’t imagine where they’d come from. Her mom was the only other person with a key to the car, and it had been locked. Whoever it was had been crafty. Scanning the area, she noticed the window was down slightly more than she remembered — which wasn’t much — but she didn’t think it was enough for someone to break in. But what did she know?

Gingerly, she picked up the flowers and brought them to her nose. The sweet smell of fresh roses made her sneeze. Allergies stunk.

Between the stems of two of the roses lay a white folded-up piece of paper. She took it out and unraveled it, hoping to have a clue for who gave them to her.

5 Days.

Nothing more. No name. No address. Not even an explanation. Five days till what? Five days since what?

She tossed the flowers in the seat and put the car in drive. Maybe Aaron and Ray knew about it.

Still, those words in cursive computer letters wouldn’t get out of her mind

5 Days…

CHAPTER TWO

Four Days Before the Fall…

S
LOAN HATED
M
ONDAYS.
S
HE’D HATED THEM
before her attack. She hated them now. Every Monday, she groaned when the alarm clock went off, hated rolling out of her warm covers, and winced at the thought of putting her feet down on the floor. If she could just have Mondays off too, it would be lovely.

Sadly, her alarm clock kept doing its duty, thanklessly singing that same annoying song every five minutes from six o’clock on. It sure didn’t deserve the beating she gave it every Monday, but beat it she did. She slammed the alarm clock silent at six twenty-five, pained that the night — and the weekend — went so quickly.

It wasn’t even that she stayed up exceptionally late on Sunday nights. She just didn’t like Mondays. And the worst Monday of all would be the one after graduation in a few weeks, the first one where she’d have to work at the grocery store to make some extra money for college. Time just needed to stop and let her breathe. Breathing would be nice.

Sloan forced her warm feet onto the cold hardwood and gritted her teeth. Maybe if she invested in a rug, it wouldn’t be so bad. She’d have to get right on that.

Dragging herself into the bathroom to get freshened up, she fixed her toothpaste on her toothbrush and brushed her teeth while cringing at herself in the mirror. Wow, she looked rough. Messy hair. Sleepy eyes. Not zombie-ish yet, but it was getting there.

The mirror over the sink reflected the window on the opposite wall. Since it was warmer, her mom kept it open most mornings unless it was unseasonably cold. Tennessee still had cold snaps way into May. From the window, if the wind was just right and the trees hadn’t budded all the way yet, Sloan could see all the way across the street. Today was one of those days.

The sun had barely come up, but there was enough light to see to the sidewalk in front of the neighbors’ house. Some mornings, she saw Mindy and Kenny standing out, waiting for the bus. It had probably already come this morning, though. She was running late.

A shadow across the street caught her eye, and she stood up a little straighter with her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. The shadow moved again, enough for her to see it wasn’t a shadow at all: a person dressed in black. He stood with his hands in the pockets of his zipped-up jacket. His feet were just a little apart, and his chin tilted up toward the sky.

With her toothbrush still firmly hanging out of her mouth, Sloan stood higher on her tippy toes to see him better. She could swear he looked familiar.

Then it hit her. He wasn’t looking at the sky. He was looking in her bathroom!

Furious, Sloan spat out the toothpaste and hastily rinsed her mouth. She stood and wiped her face with a towel as she turned toward the window. She was this close to giving the pervert a piece of her mind.

Angry, she threw the towel down and said a few choice words under her breath. She started out the door and froze. Her sleepy brain had finally woken up.

She knew that face.

Boyd.

Slowly, Sloan turned and peeked out the window, praying he didn’t see her cowering. He was upright. No wheelchair in sight. And staring at her. He didn’t move, didn’t even flinch, and didn’t take his eyes off of her.

Heart beating out of her chest, Sloan slung the door open, ran out of the bathroom, and grabbed her cellphone from her room. As she ran down the stairs, she fumbled through her contact list until she found the number for Detective Mary Morgan. The detective had said to call her if she needed anything. Well, Boyd standing across the street sure counted. She needed her.

“Hello. Detective Morgan.” A lady answered on the second ring as Sloan reached the bottom of the stairs. Her tone sounded business as usual. Not even a hint of sleepiness on Monday morning.

“He’s here!” Sloan yelled as she put her hand on the door handle.

“Who? Is this Sloan Bridges?”

“It’s me. He’s here.” Sloan flung open the door and ran down the steps so she could see the sidewalk parallel to the bathroom better. “He’s…” Gone.

Nothing. No one across the road from her. She made circles in the grass, looking everywhere for him. It hadn’t been two minutes since she’d seen him. He couldn’t have gotten away that quickly.

Feeling brave, she ran across the road to where she’d seen him. Sure enough, when she looked up, she saw her bathroom. It made her sick that all this time anyone could have peeked in without her knowing it.

“Sloan! Sloan!” She heard yelling in the phone in her hand. She’d completely forgotten about Detective Morgan.

Sloan raised it to her ear as she kept scanning the area. “He was here. I saw him.”

“Who?”

“Boyd.”

There was a pause. “Boyd Lawrence? He was at your house?”

Sloan took a second to catch her breath. Her heart was beating so hard it hurt. “I saw him looking in my bathroom window.”

“Your bathroom is on the second floor if I remember correctly.”

“It is, but he stood across the street. You can stand at a certain angle and see in the bathroom.” She didn’t have time to explain geometry to her. “The point is I saw him, and he saw me.”

“He was in his wheelchair, Sloan. With a monitor on it. We didn’t get an alarm that it left his house.”

Did she not get it? Why wasn’t she sending officers to check on her? Why weren’t they going to Boyd’s house? “No wheelchair. He was walking. Please. Send someone here to check it out. He could still be around somewhere.”

She turned her phone off, giving help plenty of time to get to her house quickly. Detective Morgan, the police, the cavalry, it didn’t matter as long as they showed up and showed up now.

“Where are you? Where are you?” Sloan whispered and tapped her phone nervously on her fingers. She had evidence Boyd had been there — her eyes, but the police wouldn’t believe that. They’d need something concrete, and she’d give it to them. If only she could find it.

Sloan turned when a car slowed behind her, scared it might be Boyd to grab her and drag her off to finish want he started in December.

It wasn’t Boyd. The silver Honda only belonged to one person: her best friend Mackenzie Woodard.

“Looking for something?” she asked, slightly amused as she drove slowly with the window rolled down.

“I saw him,” Sloan blurted out.

“Who?” Mackenzie slammed on the brake and put the car into park.

“Boyd!” She probably shouldn’t have yelled, but she needed someone to believe her.

“Boyd?” Mackenzie jumped out of her car and ran to Sloan’s side. “Boyd Lawrence was here? Where is he?” She looked all around them. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know. I was brushing my teeth, and I saw him looking in the window at me from this side of the street. You can see… see?” Mackenzie’s eyes followed Sloan’s finger until they reached the bathroom window.

“I do see. You need to keep your blinds down.”

“Obviously.” Immodesty was the least of her worries.

“And you are sure it was him?”

“No doubts.”

“How did he get his wheelchair here all the way from Brown Hollow Road? Did someone drive him, you think?”

“He wasn’t in the wheelchair.”

Mackenzie’s eyes widened then her brows furrowed. Sloan felt the same way.

Confused.

Sirens broke the silence before Sloan could say any more about it. “Cops are coming.” She ran to the edge of the sidewalk and waved her hands in the air to signal where black-and-white cars needed to go. Two of them pulled up, one with Detective Mary Morgan in the front seat. She jumped out and ran to Sloan.

“Where is he now?”

“I don’t know. He was gone when I got out here.”

Detective Morgan’s steely eyes captured the entire scene in less time that it took Sloan to speak. “There’s no wheelchair marks. The grass isn’t disturbed.”