Page 11 of Wolf's Chance

I couldn’t relax. It was impossible. My mind kept drifting to him. The few words he had spoken to me had not been kind. But then, why would he be? I accused him of stalking. “Heisstalking you.” Pausing my show, I put the laptop aside. “Is he?” I thought about what he said. “It is a small town,” I reminded myself. “You do see everyone at least twice if you’re in town, and he seemed to be in town a lot.” Sitting up, drawing my legs to my chest, I rested my chin on my knees as I thought about it. “You have absolutely no way of knowing if he was in here. It could have been Alistair and one of his friends.”

There was a candy bar missing. One bar. I’d seen that kid eat candy; he wasn’t sharing his sugar snack with anyone else.

Restless, I got out of bed and took my empty cups to the kitchen. Using the cover of darkness, I peered out into the trees beyond my backyard. The trees were so dense that it was hard to see anything, which was slightly unnerving. However, they hadn’t bothered me for the last two years that I lived here, and I refused to let them bother me now.

I shouldn’t leave a key under a plant pot. That was the obvious answer. I didn’t feel safe in my home, and even before Mr. Mysterious, it bothered me that I left access to my home out in the open.

Alistair knew I did it, and utilized the fact, and if I was honest, it wasbecauseof him that I left it outside. His dad was gone mostly for work, and his mom didn’t hide her multiple affairs. I’d never snooped too closely into their relationship. Lily had told me that Alistair’s dad knew about his wife’s trysts, and what people did behind closed doors was their business.

But Alistair was just a kid. I’d been his age once, and I knew how it felt to feel like a stranger in the place you calledhome. Six months ago, I told him I was putting a key under the plant pot. I told him I was counting on him not to take advantage of my trust, but if he needed to step outside of his house once in a while, there was a space for him two doors down.

He’d never abused my trust. I left snacks in the house, and he thanked me by eating them and not making a mess. We didn’t talk about it, and I think he appreciated that more than the chips and candy.

Parents were hard.

I’d been lucky-ish. I had good folks who cared for me for a chunk of my life—this house proved that. When they passed, they left me a large portion of what wealth they had. Once the courts ruled that it was my inheritance, I had taken that money and invested it in this house. Still, there were days that I didn’t believe that it was mine. A part of me was still waiting for the lawyer to phone and tell me the decision had been overturned and this house didn’t belong to me.

It was probably why I kept everything neutral.Bland, Lily called it. Personality-free.

Movement in the shadows snapped me out of my daydream. The night air was still, and that was more than the wind. Standing still, I watched with wide eyes the shadows of the night. The trees didn’t move again, but the uneasiness grew. The soup I had earlier sat heavy in my belly.

The sense of being watched became so strong that it was almost unbearable, and I fought the urge to turn and run into the bathroom and lock the door.

Slowly, I backed away from the window, alarmed at how close I had moved to the front of the kitchen, clear to anyone who would be looking in, even under the cover of darkness. I didn’t dare blink, and when I reached the arch that led to the other rooms, I turned and sprinted to my bedroom.

Wedging a chair under the handle, I clambered into bed, pulling the covers over my head like a three-year-old child terrified of the monster in their closet, ears straining for the sound of the hunter looking for its prey.

“You look like death.”

Looking up, I watched as Lily approached, balancing a cup holder with two coffees and a bag of what I hoped was doughnuts.

“And you look disgustingly cheery.” Lily didn’t care that I was grouchy. Her sleek shoulder-length dark bob bounced as she walked, the lighter brown highlights catching the sunlight that streamed through the window, adding dimension to her fashionable hairstyle. “Tell me it’s doughnuts.”

“It’s doughnuts,” Lily confirmed, dropping the bag carelessly on the small counter. Peering at me, she grasped my chin, tilting my head to the left and right. “You look terrible. Did you sleep?”

Jerking my head free, I ignored her, choosing to pick up a coffee instead. “Zero percent?”

“No, full fat, I decided to fatten you up.”

I hesitated for a second before I took a welcome gulp. “You’d never do that to me.”

“Meh, depends if he was hot.”

Grinning, I accepted the offered sugary fried breakfast treat. “You most definitely would not do bodily harm to me for a guy.”

Lily sniffed before taking a bite of her doughnut. “True. Maybe a cat?”

“I don’t like cats,” I reminded her.

“Which is why you need me to knock some sense into you. Cats are awesome.”

“They’re arrogant.”

“They’re fluffy.”

“They have a superiority complex,” Icountered.

“They deserve it.”

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