Under His Domain by Kelly Favor Page A

send.
    Are
you ok????
    That was her first message.   She couldn’t sit still anymore.   Her body was thrumming with crackling
energy like she’d never felt before—a high voltage tension that seemed
like it might explode her head.
    Her breathing was rapid and shallow and
her hands were clammy as she resumed pacing the floor of the kitchen and into
the main living area of the townhouse.   Kennedy stared at the cell phone like it was a living thing, an oracle,
and she was a victim of its hideous, inert silence.
    The cell phone was quiet, blind and
uncaring.
    Easton’s
dead.
    You
know he’s dead.   Just admit it, deal
with it.
    She sent another text and another.
    Now the dam had broken and she called
him.   It went immediately to
voicemail, as if his phone was shut off.  
    Easton’s calm, deep voice haunted her as
he began telling her to leave a message and he would return the call as soon as
possible.
    Kennedy uttered a strangled shriek and
then hung up.
    Her throat was tight, closing, and she
couldn’t breathe.   The time was now
after eight o’clock and the street was filled with people traveling to work.
    The day had more than dawned and Easton
had been gone for much too long.   It
was time to do something.   Perhaps,
Kennedy thought, it was time to call the police and alert them to the
situation.
    But what would the police do?   They weren’t going to get anywhere with
a slick mobster like Jimmy DeLuca.   He’d been eluding the police for years and years and he’d expect someone
to come looking for Easton, so he wouldn’t leave any obvious signs of whatever
he’d done.
    “Oh my God,” Kennedy whispered.   “Please, please, someone help me.   Please, somebody…”
    She didn’t know if there was a God or
not, but in that desperate moment, she prayed like she’d never prayed in her
entire life.
    And strangely, at that very second, her
phone began to vibrate and the ringtone chimed loudly, startling her into
opening her eyes.
    Kennedy was shocked to see that Nicole’s
number was showing on the caller ID.
    Shaking, she answered in a small, quiet
voice.   “Nicole?”
    “You have a lot of explaining to do,”
Nicole said, her voice cold.   “You
should be ashamed of what you’ve done.”
    Kennedy burst into sobbing tears, unable
to even speak.
    Nicole’s voice took on a different
tone.   “Kennedy, what—what is
it?”
    “I—I—I’m in trouble…” Kennedy
said, hardly able to get the words out.
    “Are you safe?”
    “I don’t…I don’t know.   Easton’s gone.   Something bad…” she started to sob
again, partly in relief that her sister actually sounded concerned despite
everything that had gone on between them recently.
    “Red and I are coming to get you right
away,” Nicole told her.
    Kennedy tried to talk but words were
becoming difficult.   “I…I can’t
breathe…”
    “You’re hyperventilating,” Nicole told
her, sounding even calmer.   “You
need to slow down, Kennedy, and tell me exactly where you are.”
    “I’m at Easton’s house,” she said, the
words sounding faint to her own ears.  
    “Easton’s house?   And he’s not there?”
    “No, he’s gone.   He’s in trouble.   He’s…”
    “Just stay there.   Stay there and don’t leave, okay?”
    “Yes.”
    “We’re coming to get you straight away,
Kennedy.   It’s going to be all
right.”
    Kennedy got off the phone and went to the
couch, curling up in a ball, shaking and shivering, her mind seeming to snap
into a million pieces.

 
    ***

 
    There was a loud knock on the door, and
Kennedy sat up on the couch, her eyes wide with fear.  
    For a moment, she was sure she saw the
outline of a thug’s gun in the window by the door, but then she saw Red peering
in the window, his hands clasped next to his face to try and cut the glare.
    Kennedy got up off the couch and walked
to the door, opening it and allowing Red and Nicole to enter.   They walked in slowly, looking around
the