Unforgivable by Tina Wainscott

someone out there kidnapping teenagers. We’ve always felt so safe around here. Nothing happens more than a guy beating up on his wife or getting drunk, that kind of thing. Once the Sherwin boys lit some firecrackers and threw them in our horse pen. The horses went crazy, I tell you. My pa was fit to be tied. Those boys spent a couple of days in jail over that.”
    The problem with the darkness that Silas lived in, with what he did for a living, was that whenever he talked with girls like Geraldine, he pictured their photo in the newspaper with the caption “missing”. He summed up their features, their attributes, all the sweetness and ambition and talent wasted because some creep decided they should be dead.
    He tossed his money on the table, including a large tip, and headed out into the sultry day. Katie and Ben were just two squiggles in the heated distance. An old junk barn across the street was closed up for lunch, and beyond that, the town turned rural. 
    He didn’t like what he’d learned so far about Katie. She was isolated, both physically and socially. Even the hospital was set off by itself. Only the souls of the dead were near enough to hear her scream, if she had reason to. The safest thing he could do was stay away from her. It was a bad combination, her long-standing dissatisfaction, their attraction. He had no intention of interfering with her marriage, which was why he’d stayed away for so long. Until it became necessary to come and get closer to her. 
    But not too close. 
     

 
    CHAPTER  6
     
    “What do you think?” Katie lifted her arms and twirled around. The yellow hip-huggers were a little too small, but seeing her hips encased in them, the thin slice of flesh between them and the flower print top, made her feel sexy. Like one of those cover models on Cosmo .
    Ben glanced up from the paper. She could already see his answer in his eyes. “Where’d you get that from?”
    “Bertrice dropped off some of her old clothes while you were picking up the bags of soil for me.” Bertrice had pulled in with the old Chevy she’d just bought. Geraldine and another teen were in the car, ready for a Saturday of driving around. “Just for something different.” She smoothed her hands over her hips.
    “You look like some hippie leftover.”
    “This is what’s in style right now, or was recently anyway.” The jeans flared slightly at the bottom and flowed over her bare feet. “Come on, it’s at least different than what I usually wear.”
    “Katie, what’s going on with you lately? Aren’t you happy? Is that what this is about?” He gestured toward her outfit.
    She sat on the footstool in front of Ben. He looked regal in the throne-like chair.  “No, of course not. I’m just bored with—”
    “Me,” he stated flatly.
    “No, of course not. I’m bored with myself. You must be bored with me, too.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” He set the paper down and rubbed her knee. “I like you just the way you are. I don’t like these changes. They make me think you’re dissatisfied with your life, a life I’ve worked very hard to provide.”
    “That’s not true.” The words stuck in her throat. 
    “This isn’t about having a baby, is it?”
    She shook her head and pushed out, “I’m fine with that.” They’d had the discussion a few times. Early in their marriage, Ben wanted to wait so he could enjoy having her all to himself. Then the…problem started. He said it would be too expensive to go to a fertility clinic. Oh, but she did want a baby. Maybe not now, but someday. “Can I wear this tonight at least? Then I’ll give it back to Bertrice.”
    He glanced down at the outfit, then returned to his paper. “If you must.”
    He sounded a lot like a father. She cut a glance to the dollhouse.
    “ Merry Christmas, darling. ” Ben uncovered the spectacularly intricate Victorian dollhouse.
    She sank to the floor in front of it, reliving girlhood longings for something this