Dark Deceptions Read Online Free Page B

intruder was human, it was most likely a vagrant looking
     for a warm bed for the night. Unless, somehow, her cover had been blown.
    She discarded the notion as quickly as it had occurred. It had been too long and she’d been too careful. Probably just the
     wind. But better safe than sorry. She grabbed the poker and headed toward the stairs. She’d have preferred her Beretta, but
     it was upstairs in a lockbox. Too far from Adam. There simply wasn’t enough time.
    Moving silently on bare feet, she crept up the stairs, straining for further indication of where the danger lay. If only she
     could get to Adam’s room, they could crawl out the window. The gable would give them a way down to the roof of the porch and
     from there to the ground—and safety.
    The landing at the top of the stairs was shrouded in darkness. It provided cover, but made it difficult to see. At the end
     of the hall, the glow from Adam’s night-light spilled out into the corridor, the soft light almost comforting in its normalcy.
     She started to move, pulling up short as a shrill moan echoed through the house, the sound emanating from the spare room.
    Adrenaline flooded through her and she lifted the poker as she stepped from the landing into the hallway, ready for a fight.
    Nothing moved.
    Waiting another moment, just to be certain, she inched forward, back to the wall, sucking in a breath as she swung into the
     spare room. A breeze lifted the curtain as snow spilled through a broken window. Jammed into the hole, a twisted tree limb
     moved back and forth, screeching against the jagged glass. Annie sighed, relief washing through her, her warrior instincts
     dissipating as quickly as they’d come.
    She’d meant to cut back the tree. Remove that branch. But there’d always been something else to do and she’d kept putting
     it off. Now she’d be replacing a window as well.
    First thing tomorrow.
    Grabbing a towel, she stuffed it into the hole between the glass and the branch. Then, after bending to retrieve the poker,
     she headed back into the hall to check on Adam. The hall was warmer than the spare room, but she shivered anyway. The aftermath
     of her scare.
    Adam’s room was chaotic as always. No matter how easy she made it to put away toys or how often she managed to do it herself,
     there was still always a mess, her son fond of throwing things every which way.
    His bed was shadowed, his covers piled high. As usual, he’d burrowed his way to the very bottom of the bed. As a toddler he’d
     always managed to turn himself round about. Head under the blankets, tiny little toes pressed against the pillow. Nothing
     had changed.
    She smiled, lifting the covers, and then choked on a scream as she realized there was no Adam. Only a pile of abandoned stuffed
     animals, their friendly faces adding horror to her rising panic. The wind outside whistled, drapes flying high as she whirled
     to face an open window.
    Heart shriveling, she called Adam’s name, her mind conjuring images of him hurt and frightened.
    Outside, in the softly falling snow, she could see fading tire tracks on the drive. Someone had been here. Someone had taken
     her little boy.
    “Adam,” she screamed again, but the wind whipped her words away, taunting her terror. “Adam��”
    But she was too late.
    Adam was gone.
    “So in the final days of April, General Hooker leads the Army of the Potomac upstream to slip around Lee’s left flank.” Nash
     drew a hooked arrow on the board to illustrate the point, just as the beeper on his belt vibrated twice. “Lee responds aggressively
     and during the first week of May wins what may have been his greatest victory.” The beeper vibrated again, this time repeating
     its message twice, but Nash ignored it, looking instead at his students. “Who can tell me what happens next?”
    Several hands shot up, while others thumbed through their text.
    “Hillary?”
    The girl smiled, shifting provocatively in her seat. “The