Page 144 of Hunt for You

It took minutes, but I got my breathing under control and muttered at myself thatIwasn’t the pussy, and I needed to work tomorrow. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was desperately wrong.

And then, just as I was about to pull the car into the street—I still hadn’t turned my lights on—I saw a car pass and realized it was the same one I’d seen glide past about fifteen minutes earlier. And this time it slowed right down outside her house.

Every instinct prickled and my mind went quiet as I went on the alert, watching.

It didn’t speed up, just eased around the corner.

I waited. Were they looking for a house number in the dark? Or was someone stalking her?

Already?

I turned the car back off and sat in the silence, every sense heightened and perked for any—

There. On the lawn. A shadow pulling away from the hedge andrunning across the lawn towards the back of the house where her bedroom was.

I was out of the car and sprinting after the fucker before I could blink.

45. Almost Done

~ BRIDGET ~

I was still laying on the bed, naked, and doing my breathing exercises. My heart had slowed finally, but the tightness in my chest was making me nervous, which was counter-productive. I felt fragile and emotional and… I felt too much. That was the problem.

Inhale… exhale…

Live.

For now.

I’d been so consumed with my racing thoughts and racing heart, that I didn’t even realize anything was going on until a shadow passed over my window. And the only reason I saw that was because it was an almost full moon. The hunched figure outside my house got silhouetted against my curtains for a second as they headed for the back.

I stopped breathing immediately as my heart roared painfully into top gear again.

Cain.It had to be. No one else had enough information. And the new guys probably weren’t even local.

He’d come. He’d fucking come. He must have already been close. ThankGod.

The relief slowed my heart a hair—but then I realized he was coming for me, which meant I was finally going to get to touch him, and that just turned my pulse into another tailspin thathurt.

I lay there, trying to breathe slowly andquietlyso I could hear.

There was a click and a very small creak—the back door being popped.

I didn’t have the security system on because I was home and moving around.

I smiled as I imagined if I’d had my phone. I would have turned it on and lay here unmoving until the sensors caught his movement in the hall and the alarms screeched to life. My neighbors would have the cops here in minutes.

I wondered how fast he would have movedthen.

I hadn’t put the security system sensors on the blueprints. I would have snorted, but my chest was aching and I was a little bit worried, so I kept breathing, ears perked, waiting for some indication about how deep he’d gotten into the house so far.

But there was nothing. He was silent as a cat.

Very impressive.

Then my bedroom door, which was only half open—not enough for those broad shoulders—began to slowly, silently slide open.

I watched it, my heart hammering harder and faster as I tried to imagine what his first word would be.

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