Page 62 of No Love Lost

As Addy reversed onto the road, she found herself smiling. One of the luckiest days of her life had been when she’d served Nimii a chai tea latte and become her friend. Without that chance meeting, she would have never moved to Phail. She would have never had the chance to meet Heath again.

She passed the farmhouse and almost detoured to meet Heath there, but she needed to hide evidence of his gift before he came into the house.

And the sooner she got home, the sooner they could have some alone time. Her body shivered in anticipation.

And then she realized Wabi had decided it wasn’t cold enough for the heater, and part of that shiver was from the cold.

Not too far now.

As she turned the corner from the main road onto the road that led to her house, Wabi coughed. She patted the dashboard. “It’s a windy day, isn’t it, Wabi? Cold too. Once we’re back home, you can have a rest in the driveway. The house will block a lot of the wind for you. Not long now.”

But Wabi coughed again, and Addy’s heart rate picked up. They’d just got the car back from Graham. He’d checked it over and Wabi should be working fine. “Is it the cold, Wabi? It’s not far now.”

But the coughing increased, and then Wabi lurched. She put on her blinker and pulled to the side of the road with a sigh.

Her knowledge of car maintenance was zilch, but the sounds were enough to tell her there wasn’t a thing she could do about it on her own.

Addy pulled her phone from her pocket and texted Heath. She waited, but in only a moment, a message showed her text couldn’t be delivered. She tried again with the same result.

When it failed again, her heart rate picked up. She checked that the car was locked and tried to call. Nothing. Her phone was charged, but there were no bars. Had the wind hit a tower or something?

Wabi gave a final cough, and his engine shuddered before moaning and dropping into silence. The wind filled the emptiness as she tried her phone again and again.

The cold was already leaking into the car’s interior. How far was she from home? Was it safer to wait in the car, or would she be smarter to walk?

If Wabi had died a natural death and the wind had taken down a tower, it would be smarter to wait inside. Even if it got cold, the wind would mostly stay on the outside of the car.

But what if the person who’d been messing with her was behind this? She was a complete sitting duck in the car.

Would waiting like prey make her the idiot in the horror movies? Or would walking in the frigid weather be the dumb choice?

She tried her phone again, but still no signal.

She tried calling 911 and Marcus, wondering if somehow the police had reception when other people didn’t. No luck.

She sent a text to both Heath and Marcus, explaining her situation in detail. When the signal was restored, they’d both get it.

It would be ten or fifteen minutes before Heath drove by, and he wouldn’t expect a message from her before then. If she was lucky, he would try to text her phone and then come to find her when he couldn’t get an answer.

Her home couldn’t be more than a ten-minute walk up the road. She was dressed properly and her inhaler rested in her pocket. With her asthma, she always bundled up before heading outside.

Would ten minutes of walking be the smart choice? She wouldn’t be as easy to find if the person had upped their game and planned to hurt her. Did she have a weapon in the car she could take with her?

Deciding moving was better than sitting, Addy texted her plan and the time to both Heath and Marcus. Then she slipped her cell phone into her mitten and tightened her scarf around her face. A quick look in the trunk showed one of those tools to take the lug nuts off a tire if you needed to change it. Far better than the nothing she’d had a moment before.

Gripping her weapon in her hand, she put her head down and headed for home, hoping she wasn’t about to star in her very own horror movie.

CHAPTER 20

Lost

Heath’s body hummed with anticipation. He and Addy had been very discreet when they’d made love in her house with Nina in the next room.

But Nina was working with Kimi for a few hours like she did every Saturday, and he wanted to spend at least one of those hours worshipping Addy’s body.

She was his everything, and he wanted her to never spend a moment doubting how much he loved her or how incredibly special she was.

He turned the corner onto her road and spotted the snow-covered car pulled over to the side. He put on his hazard lights and pulled up behind the vehicle. When he spotted the license plate, panic shuddered through him. Wabi. Addy’s car.

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