Free Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson Page A

feel them tearing up as I fought the memory of my nightmare.
    ‘Isn’t it enough to know that we’re going to catch them?’ he said eventually.
    ‘No,’ I threw back at him. ‘Not if it means either of you getting hurt in the process.’ I looked down at the carpet, fighting back tears.
    Alex’s hand was suddenly under my chin, lifting it up until I was looking him in the eye once more. He cupped my face in both of his hands, holding me firmly so I couldn’t turn away. My breathing stopped.
    ‘We won’t get hurt. I promise you.’
    I wanted to believe him but a parent being murdered when you’re a child makes promises like that redundant.
    ‘You’d better not,’ is all I said. The fear in me gently washed away, like a wave pulling back from the shore. I knew it was only temporary, but I could hold it at bay for now.
    ‘Can you try to forgive Jack, now that you understand?’
    Alex’s hands were still holding my face. I nodded.
    The noise of a car pulling up outside interrupted the silence that had opened up between us. Alex was out of the chair in a second, stepping over me to the window.
    ‘It’s Jack,’ Alex said, looking through the chink he’d made in the curtains. I wondered who else he thought it might have been.
    Half a minute later, Jack came through the door.
    ‘Hi,’ he said with a broad smile.
    ‘Hi,’ we both answered at the same time.
    Jack took one look at me, his smile fading, then asked, ‘You all right?’
    ‘I’m fine.’ I glanced at Alex who was looking at me strangely. ‘It’s just, I . . . I . . .’ I had just found out he was hunting our mother’s killers on some crazy vengeance mission. I was a billion miles away from being fine.
    ‘We were just talking about old times,’ Alex cut in.
    I tried to pull myself together. ‘Yeah, about the time I broke my leg.’ It was the first thing that popped into my mind.
    ‘Oh yeah, I remember that.’
    Alex flashed me a look that I found hard to read. I wasn’t sure if he was wondering whether I was losing it or whether he was wondering why on earth I’d picked that particular memory. But he looked back at Jack and, without skipping a beat, said, ‘I gave Lila my coat – do you remember? You complained about it as you thought I’d get hypothermia and you’d have to drag me back on the sledge too.’
    ‘Sounds about right.’ Jack grinned
    I watched helplessly as Alex reached for his jacket, hanging off the banister.
    No, don’t go, don’t go! I wanted to yell.
    ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Jack, I’ve told Lila I’ll take her for a run tomorrow on the base, hope that’s OK with you.’
    ‘Sure, sounds like a good idea.’
    We were crowded into the narrow hall. Alex suddenly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his chest. I breathed in deeply.
    He kissed the top of my head. ‘Night, Lila.’
    Then he was gone and Jack was setting the alarm by the front door. It beeped a few times and then he went to the back door to make sure it was locked. I stood watching him from the hallway, questions running like water through my mind and threatening to spill over my lips. I couldn’t believe he was keeping this all from me. I turned and walked up the stairs before I opened my mouth and it all flooded out.
    ‘Goodnight,’ Jack said.
    ‘Yeah, goodnight,’ I replied.

8
     
    As soon as my bedroom door shut, I fell onto the bed and curled up on my side, hugging a pillow to my chest. It had been a mistake to ask Alex who they were. Names didn’t matter, what they looked like didn’t matter. Why they did it – that was the only question that had ever mattered to me. I needed to know why, for what possible reason, anyone could murder a woman in cold blood, in her house, in broad daylight.
    And my brother and Alex must know why, because they’d managed to find the people responsible. With information gleaned through their work. It made no sense to me. How could they find out information five years after the