Page 79 of Blood of Vengeance

And why did the breeze cutting across the patio smell like roses?

“You okay?” Zella laid a hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of the dreamlike state I had found myself in.

I huffed a laugh and shook my head, fighting hard to regulate my breathing because nothing in that moment made sense. We were at Flinch’s house with two men watching over us. We were safe.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, shoving down my anxiety. “Just distracted for a second.”

In an act of normalcy that felt almost like a mirage, we stepped outside into the hot night air, both of us laying our towels on a chaise before diving into the pool. No slow walk in for us—Zella had water therapy twice a week, and I would rather face the blunt, cold shock quickly instead of dragging it out. Plus, I thought the water might wash away the last of the reservations I felt about being outside since they didn’t make sense. Gator stood off to the side—not quite out of sight but definitely not impeding our fun, and certainly not being a creeper and leering at us. I appreciated the effort he took to disappear into the shadows.

“This is nice,” Zella said, settling in against the side of the pool and kicking her legs out in a modified sort of float. “I could do this every day.”

“Your bones would love it.”

“My bones need this water to be about fifteen degrees warmer for love, but the infatuation is real.”

I laughed and found my own spot along the side, mimicking her position. “How have you been feeling?”

Zella paused, the small moment of quiet a sign that she needed to put her words together in a palatable way. Her autoimmune arthritis left her tired and hurting more often than not, but she didn’t complain. Never laid out all the ways her own body betrayed her on the daily. That pause was as close to a truth about the level of pain she had been feeling than I would ever get in words.

“I’m okay,” she finally said, turning her head and giving me a small smile. “Stress is hard on me, and I was stressed when you were out here alone. It’s better now that I can see your face and know you’re all right.”

“I’m sorry I added stress to your life.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s my fault, not yours.”

Lies, but no way would she ever tell me different. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” She shivered and looked off into the distance, something in the sudden change of her posture making my heart begin to race. “It’s sort of creepy out here with nothing around.”

I followed her gaze, eyeing the mountains in the distance. Noting the vast nothingness between us and them. Not truly nothing—there was desert vegetation along the way. Shrubs and cacti and tall grasslike plants that moved in the wind. That anyone could technically hide behind.

“Yeah. It’s a bit secluded.” But now that Zella had pointed out the creepiness, I had no way to avoid it. Every time the wind blew those grasses, I darted my eyes in that direction. Every bug buzzing and twig snapping, I jumped. And the entire time, I stood in the pool and felt someone else’s eyes on me.

“Sorry,” Zella said, stealing my attention back and giving me another small smile. “I have a feeling I just completely freaked you out.”

“No, I’m just…” I tried to find the words to explain how I felt—tired, anxious, nervous, scared—but none of them quite matched the sensations and instincts running through my body. Something felt off about the night, and that fact led me to feel something more than fear.

I felt like prey being hunted.

“Maybe we should—” Before Zella could finish her sentence, a sound reached my ears that had me frozen in place. It was a laugh, one I had heard a hundred times over. One that had haunted my dreams for weeks. One that had brought me out to Arizona in the first place.

“No,” I said almost automatically. “Zella, we need to go.”

Without question, she turned and pulled herself up onto the pool edge. Climbing out with much more grace and speed than I would have expected. Once on her feet, she held out a hand and pulled me up behind her, not asking why. Not waiting for more info. A good thing, considering I didn’t have anything more than what could have been a trick of the wind.

Gator appeared behind Zella, looking me up and down as I reached for a towel.

“What’s wrong?”

Before I could answer, his phone began to ring. From the table under the patio, so did Zella’s. Both adding auditory chaos to a moment of pure stress.

Gator turned his back to answer his phone while Zella jogged over to grab hers. She answered on speaker, Cutter’s voice an immediate addition to the night.

“Get inside. Right now. No matter what you’re doing, get your asses inside and stay there. We’re on our way.”

Zella’s amber eyes caught mine, likely reflecting the fear I felt, and then we were in motion. Gator must have gotten the same message from someone else because he began growling out orders for us to get inside and lock the doors. We rushed in through the back, Zella continuing through the kitchen on her way to presumably make sure the front door was locked. I turned to slam the back one, making the mistake of looking up through the open doorway one more time.

There, just past the pool where Zella and I had been swimming, stood the man from outside the coffee shop. The one who had been staring at me. The one who had made me feel so uncomfortable and out of control. That pale skin and those long fingers suddenly just a few yards from me, emitting that rosy smell that I had caught on the breeze. He stood close enough for me to really see him. To notice the almost waxiness of his skin, to catch the slight gray tone to it. His bony face looked off, his expression one of almost lust. And he still stared seemingly into my soul, but he also wore a smile this time. One that sent ice down my spine. One that meant I had been right—I’d felt like prey, and I was.

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