Free Don't Say a Word (Strangers Series) by Jennifer Jaynes

what do you think you’re doing?” he called. “This is private property.”
    In the background, Sammy began to cry even louder. Piglet, her barks now howls, stood rigid only a few feet from the man. He kicked awkwardly at the dog, but his foot didn’t connect, and he stumbled.
    “Carrie . . . bring Sammy to my bedroom and lock the door,” Allie instructed. “Now!” Carrie silently grabbed Sammy’s hand. He screamed as she pulled him away.
    Ignoring Johnny, the man continued to talk to Zoe. “Zoe girl. I didn’t come to hurt nobody, okay? I just need to know what you told them about me.”
    Bitty grabbed Zoe by the arm and pulled her back to the house.
    “No, don’t!” the man shouted. “I need to talk to her!”
    But Bitty kept moving. She and Zoe scrambled up the stairs of the deck and to the door.
    “Dude! You didn’t hear me talking to you?” Johnny asked, finally stepping off the deck and into the yard.
    The man’s eyes darted from Zoe to Johnny. He blinked and regarded Johnny for the very first time, his eyes bugging out. He reached into his waistband and pulled out a gun. He swung it in Johnny’s direction. “Don’t you come closer, you hear me?” he warned.
    Allie’s world went still.
    Johnny stopped in his tracks and raised his hands. “Whoa. Easy now.”
    The man’s hands shook as he took a step closer to the house. “I just want to talk to Zoe. That’s all. I didn’t come here to hurt anybody, okay?” he said, looking frantic. “Now bring her back out.”
    “Jesus! Put that gun away, dude. Someone could get hurt.”
    “I said bring her out!” the man screamed.
    “Look, I don’t know what in the hell is going on, but you don’t want to be doing this,” Johnny told the man.
    “Shut the fuck up!” he roared. Then he returned his attention to the house. “Bring her out, dammit. Bring her the fuck back, I said!”
    Allie stepped into the living room, slid the door shut, and locked it.
    A long moment passed in silence.
    Finally realizing they weren’t going to bring Zoe out, the man lumbered toward the house.

CHAPTER 11
    AS THE MAN reached the top step of the deck, the screams of police sirens split the cold morning air.
    The man paused, his eyes darting from the sliding glass door to the windows of the back bedrooms, then to the sliding glass door again. “Shit!” he yelled. He glanced once more at the house, then jumped from the deck and quickly vanished into the woods.
    Her hands trembling, Allie unlocked the sliding glass door and slid it open.
    “What the hell?” Johnny asked from the yard, dumbstruck. “This place is insane.”
    “Come in, and make sure to lock the door behind you,” Allie said. Blood still thundering in her veins, she hurried to her bedroom to check on her son.
    As she passed the foyer, she saw Bitty at the front door, talking to a uniformed police officer.
    “In the backyard,” Bitty was saying. “He just took off into the woods. He hasn’t been gone two minutes.”
    “And you don’t know who he is?” the police officer asked.
    “I have no idea, but he seems to know my foster children.”
    Zoe unlocked the bedroom door, and Allie rushed inside and folded a crying Sammy into her arms.
    “You scared me, Mommy!” he whined, big tears sliding down his cheeks. His blue eyes were wide, frightened. “I no like what you did. Why you scare me like that?”
    He sobbed against her chest, his long, damp eyelashes fluttering against her collarbone. She sobbed right along with him. “I’m so sorry, honey,” she said, pressing her nose in his hair and kissing his head. “Mommy didn’t mean to. I just needed you to go inside the house. But everything’s okay now. Everything’s okay.”
    Allie felt the air behind her part. She turned to see Johnny. “Daddy!” Sammy cried. He released Allie and ran to his father.
    Allie went to the girls. They were huddled together on the bed. “Are you guys all right?”
    “Is he gone?” Zoe asked, her