Page 65 of The Ruse

Had Asher come upstairs?

Or had someone been hiding in the cabin all along and was just coming out now that it was dark?

My heart pulsed faster, and heat flashed across my skin, but I tried to slow my breathing with hopes that it would help my heart calm down.

There was a creaking sound in the far wall, like the cabin was groaning against the storm outside and—

Was that a lumpy figure on the bed next to mine?

Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.

I closed my eyes and held my breath, hoping that whatever lay on the bed wouldn’t care about me. Had the lump been there before I got in bed? Or had it somehow just appeared?

I waited for a long moment, but then, I had to know what was there. If someone was truly planning to kill me, they’d kill in the light just as much as they would in the dark. So I reached over and flicked on the lamp again.

And yep, the lump I’d been freaking out about was actually just a pile of pillows that the girls who’d slept there last night had left behind.

Okay, so maybe I just have a really overactive imagination.

But sleeping up here on the loft with no one else was so much scarier than it had been last night. I was so exposed. There wasn’t a door up here to put a barrier between me or anything that might come inside the cabin. I could hear every little creak or tree branch that hit the cabin in the wind.

At least Asher could shut the door at the top of the stairs and hear it open as a warning that someone was coming.

There were those two bedrooms on the main floor that Miss Crawley and Mr. and Mrs. Simmons had used. Maybe I could sleep in one of those rooms.

It wasn’t like they’d be needing them tonight.

Those doors probably even locked.

I quickly gathered my pillow that I’d brought with me, grabbed my phone and the charger, and rushed down the stairs.

I was just locking the door to Miss Crawley’s room when there was a knock on the other side of the door.

I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle a scream.

Who is it? Did someone follow me?

I felt all the blood drain from my body and had to grip onto one of the posts of the four-poster bed.

The knock sounded again.

I’m going to die!

I looked around the small room, trying to figure out the best place to hide. The bed was high enough above the ground that I could probably crawl underneath it.

I was just bending down to slither under the bed when a deep voice called out, “Elyse, it’s me.”

Asher?

I stood up straight again and stepped closer to the door.

“Who is it?” I asked, just in case.

“It’s me, Asher.”

It sounded like it could be Asher, but you could never be too sure. “Tell me something that only you would know.”

“Seriously?” There was a hint of annoyance in his tone. “I’m the only other person in the cabin.”

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