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"You keep s like that, and I’ll turn you over my knee"

"Now that’s ain--a silence that hinted at kisses and otheras you want or need me to And I’ll keep this until the day I die But if one of the girls asks me about usI won’t lie to thedom of Adulthood She wanted to hear no

Laila backed out of her uncle’s e in, and returned to the kitchen She’d hoped to find sanctuary here but now she felt only troubled The very air in the entryway seereat hurry and offered the house no explanation

She wandered around the kitchen, afraid for some reason to venture out but also afraid to stay put Maybe she should call the church She had that phone nu there Maybe she had an e to use her cell When she reached it she discovered at last a cause for her concern

The rectory had a landline still Had he been there, she would have teased her uncle for being part of a church so old-fashioned they still used big black rotary phones with dangling cords But her small smile died when she lifted the receiver and found a crack in the cradle More than a crack, the phone was ed She stared at the phone in her hand before resting it gently onto the cradle again So it up so violently and with such force the phone had cracked open As a s off her uncle’s ar to his biceps with her hands, so upside down from her knees It see as she hung and she’d swung, she’d never once feared he would drop her And he never had She’d never er than her uncle Only a e with one fierce slaan to race She needed to get out and seek safety She picked up her suitcase and raced to the door, but the sound of footfalls on the hardwood stalled her steps

She spun around ready to thank God her uncle had coain like he always did

But it wasn’t hi woant black-and-purple dress, understated lipstick and a eThe sun had already set; the diaphanous curtainsher The woman, whoever she was, looked about forty-five years old and had long dark hair classically coiffed And for so about the set of her lips, the line of her jaw, resley

"Who are you?" Nora said, her voice groggy with pain She didn’t folloith "Where am I?" because she didn’t want to know

"You don’t know?"

"If I kneould I ask?"

Nora pulled on the handcuffs behind her back She had small hands and could sole rooht, and no lock pick set or hairpins were to be found Her heart thundered in newfound panic

"I’ll give you a hint," the woman said with a smile that held no friendliness at all "You’ve slept with my husband"

"That doesn’tthe field down as much as you think it would"