“Storm clouds, huh?” I murmured. “Funny, but I don’t think that there are any other kinds of clouds in my life these days.”

18

   I left Jo-Jo’s salon, went outside, and got into my car. I put the tube into the cup holder and texted Finn, asking him to get a list of everyone who’d bought a gold tube of Heartbreaker lipstick from the Posh boutique in the last six months. He hit me back a minute later, saying that he was on it.

   I also texted Silvio, asking him to check and see if any other stores in Ashland sold the lipstick, just to cover all the bases. He too texted me back a minute later, saying that he would look into it, and he even sent me a little smiley face, telling me that he was happy to help. My assistant really did like this sort of thing. Then again, it wasn’t the strangest thing I’d ever asked him to do. And it certainly wasn’t the most dangerous.

   I cranked the engine, steered down Jo-Jo’s driveway, and left her subdivision behind. I’d just pulled out onto the main road when the car’s sound system chirped with a new call. I hit a button on the steering wheel to answer it.

   “Hello?”

   For a few seconds, there was silence. Then a series of loud crashes and bangs sounded, along with several muffled shouts and the distinctive tinkle-tinkle of breaking glass. I glanced at the screen on my dashboard to see who was calling.

   Ryan Colson.

   I’d told Ryan to call if anything suspicious happened, but the noises coming out of the phone were downright violent. Someone had broken into Jade’s house.

   I floored the gas pedal, speeding toward her place. I thought about ending the call to dial Bria and tell her what was going on, but I wanted to stay on the line and hear what was happening.

   Nothing—absolutely nothing.

   After that first initial blast of sound, the noises stopped completely, and I didn’t hear so much as a whisper of conversation in the background. Whatever was happening at Jade’s house, it was now taking place away from the phone.

   Either that, or Jade and Ryan were already dead.

   I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, driving as fast as I dared on the curvy mountain roads. Still, it took me ten long minutes to reach the subdivision where Jade’s house was, and my phone stayed silent the whole time. I made the appropriate turn and cruised into the neighborhood.

   The first thing I noticed was the black SUV parked about fifty feet away from Jade’s house.

   The car itself wasn’t unusual, but it was sitting down at the curb, instead of pulled up in someone’s driveway. It was also parked the wrong way on the street, pointing out toward the subdivision exit, as though someone thought he might need to leave in a hurry and didn’t want to waste precious time turning the vehicle around.

   As much as I wanted to zoom up the driveway, leap out of my car, and bust into Jade’s house, I forced myself to drive at a normal speed, just in case anyone was watching the street from inside the house. Sure enough, one of the curtains twitched, as though someone had pushed it aside just enough to peer through the crack in the fabric. On my passenger’s seat, my phone was as quiet as before, although I could hear a faint hum through the car’s sound system, telling me that the line was still open.

   I reached the end of the street and made a right, as though I were going somewhere deeper in the subdivision. Really, all I wanted was to get out of sight of Jade’s house. Since it was the middle of the day, the neighborhood was empty, with most folks at work and school. I steered my car up a driveway and parked in front of the first home I came to.

   I picked up my phone, listening, but everything was as quiet as before. A fist of fear squeezed my heart tight. If there had been noise—yells, shouts, screams—I would have at least known that Jade and Ryan were still alive. The silence told me nothing.

   So I ended the call and dialed Bria. It went straight to her voice mail, so I hung up without leaving a message and called Silvio. He picked up on the second ring.

   “Calling so soon?” he asked in a dry, amused voice. “You just texted me fifteen minutes ago. I haven’t even had a chance to start looking into your lipstick question yet.”

   “Someone’s in Jade’s house.”

   “Who? How many are there? What do they want? Is it the Dollmaker?” His voice sharpened with every word.

   I glanced around, making sure that no one was in the surrounding houses and watching me, but the neighborhood was as deserted as before.

   “Gin?” Silvio asked. “How many people are there? What’s going on?”

   “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

   He protested, wanting me to wait for him to call the others and for everyone to arrive so that I would have some backup, instead of going into the house blind all by myself.

   “No,” I said. “Jade and Ryan don’t have that kind of time. Whoever broke into her house has already been in there for almost twenty minutes. That’s more than enough time to kill them or do whatever they came here to do. I’m surprised that they’re still here.”

   Silvio sighed, realizing that I was right. “Well, at least promise me that you’ll be careful. That you won’t take any unnecessary risks.”

   Despite the tense situation, I still smiled, even though he couldn’t see me. “There you go, trying to mother me again.”

   “Well, someone has to,” he snapped.

   “Thank you, Silvio.”

   “I’m on my way right now, and I’ll call the others en route,” he snapped again, although his voice was a bit less peevish than before. “Do me a favor. Don’t die before we get there.”

   “Why, I wouldn’t dream of it,” I drawled.

   • • •

   I hung up with Silvio, palmed a knife, and got out of my car. Given the watcher at the front windows of Jade’s house, I didn’t dare use the street, so I walked around the side of the home I’d parked in front of, crossed the yard full of plastic castles, swing sets, and other toys, and slipped into the woods. It only took me a few minutes to work my way through the trees and back over to Jade’s house.