Ian felt the knock as much as he heard it, as Cole stiffened beside him as though the child had morphed into a two-by-four. When the second one came, as brusque as the first but louder, Cole began to make a sound in his throat like the whirring of a helicopter. Justin tumbled from the bed as quickly as Ian did, both of them startled.
“What the f**k?” Justin mumbled.
“I have no idea,” Ian replied. With a still-muggy brain, Ian stumbled towards the door of the bedroom. “One second,” he hollered at the third rap of knuckles.
The first kick sounded at the exact second that Justin began a series of expletives and the resulting splinter of wood frame sounded louder than Cole’s distress.
“Jesus Christ!” Ian hollered. “What the f—” And then his brain clicked into functioning.
Oh, God. No.
He
