Anvil novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Green Toolbox

Tucker's POV

At three in the morning I stood in Lizzie's dark kitchen with the little blue sugar tin in my hand.

I had told her tomorrow.

I had meant it when I said it, with her warm against my side and her heartbeat under my palm.

Then I had lain awake for two hours, listening to her breathe, and a plain fact had settled on my chest.

Rhett knew about the key.

He knew where she hid it, and he knew the box was there.

Sooner or later he would stop asking a six-year-old and just come in.

If he came, I wanted to know what he came for.

If it was what I thought, I did not want Lizzie to be the one who saw it first.

That was the reason I gave myself.

It was a good reason, and I still felt like a thief.

I lifted the lid and took out the key.

It was small and brass, and it lay in my palm without any weight at all.

The hall closet door did not squeak. Lizzie had oiled the hinges years ago.

I moved the winter coat aside, lifted the green box off the shelf and carried it to the kitchen table.

I set it down very gently.

I stood over it a full minute with my hand on the lid.

"Danny," I said under my breath. "What did you leave her?"

The padlock opened with a soft click.

The lid rose on a hinge that had never been used.

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