Page 71 of A Vineyard for Two

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t see anyone.’

He pulled away from her, and she followed. There was no way she was hanging around here on her own. She heard Rover barking from inside. Brookes jogged towards the house. Harper was right behind him. He opened the door and Rover ran out. He seemed more agitated than when she had left him barely five minutes earlier.

‘He senses your fear.’

She watched as Brookes knelt beside Rover and told him to seek. ‘If anyone is here, Rover will find him.’ The dog ran off, sniffing every few moments. For some reason, she didn’t think he was going to find anything. Had she been seeing things? No, someone had definitely been there.

‘I swear, Brookes, there was someone here. I saw a pair of eyes staring at me.’

‘A deer maybe. We get them this time of year. Or a kangaroo.’

She shook her head. She was certain that she saw human eyes. It was something in the way they looked at her, menacing almost.

‘Do you mind if I move your car?’ he said.

‘Go for it. I’ll just grab the keys.’

A few moments later, she came back with the keys.

‘What were you doing out here, anyway?’

‘Getting some fresh air, then I was going to grab a bottle of wine from the cellar door.’

‘You should have taken Rover with you. It’s dark out.’

‘Yeah, well, normally this isn’t the sort of place that would have intruders.’

‘Not usually, no. Still, better be safe than sorry.’

She followed him back towards the car. He got into the driver's seat and pressed the ignition simultaneously with the accelerator.

Nothing happened. He tried again.

‘What is it?’

He pushed the button for the front of the car, then got out and reached into his car to start the ignition and switch on the headlights. Immediately, they illuminated the area, providing a small level of comfort.

Brookes opened the hood and looked around, his hands roaming the area before pulling out the battery.

‘The battery got unhooked.’

‘Unhooked? I didn’t think it could do that on its own.’

‘Not in this car.’

The air caught in her chest. There was no way the battery would have unplugged itself, and she hadn’t touched anything. Other than getting the window fixed, she hadn’t had the car serviced and they wouldn’t have needed to open the hood of the car to fix the window in the back. No, she was being paranoid. Then again, was she? There was the slashed tire, the broken window and now this.

‘Someone came out here and messed with your car,’ he said. ‘I can’t even plug it back in. Shit, you are leaking oil too. Whoever did this didn’t want you to leave.’

She raised an eyebrow.

‘Seriously?’ As if she was accusing him.

‘Of course, I know it wasn’t you,’ Harper said.

---