Page 11 of Deceiving Grier

Cold prickled the skin at the back of my neck. I’d assumed there’d been some sort of accelerant used when I read the fire had been intentionally set, but I hadn’t heard it had been used around the front door.

“You guys weren’t home, though, right?”

Jett shook his head. “We were at The Dunes. Bailey and Lana own the cafe across the street and live in the apartment above it. They saw the flames. Lana called 911, and Bailey came to find us at the bar.”

Had the arsonist known Grier, Jett and Alistair were out, and setting fire around the front door had been a way to prevent anyone from going inside? Or had the arsonist assumed they’d been home and tried to keep them from escaping?

My stomach shrivelled, killing my appetite. I added my plate to the stack on the table. “You guys were lucky no one was hurt.”

Grier’s gaze met mine. “Wewerelucky. Alistair almost died.”

“He went inside for his cat,” Jett said. “I don’t think he would have made it out if Daniel hadn’t been there to drag him out. The cat was okay, by the way.”

“Daniel… from the hotel?” This was the second time I’d heard his name connected with them. “Why was he there?”

“Everyone was there,” Grier said, as if I was a complete idiot. “It turns out a house burning down will attract quite a crowd.”

“Daniel knows us. Alistair works for him at the hotel restaurant,” Jett elaborated.

“Sounds as though everyone knows everyone around here.”

Jett chuckled. “We kind of do. You’re really going to like living in The Square. It’s a great community.”

I didn’t really give a shit about the community, and I wanted to bea partof a community even less. The idea of having to make small talk with people I barely knew every time I left the house sounded like a circle of hell. But I kept the thought to myself.

“I think I am going to enjoy living here,” I said, instead, letting my gaze meet Grier’s. His cheeks flushed, and he dropped his gaze to his beer. “In fact, I’m sure of it.”

###

I’d never slept easily in new places, even if they were a vast improvement from my previous digs. So, despite the late hour, I found myself staring up at the dark ceiling, mulling over everything I’d learned tonight.

I wouldn’t say the conversation was unproductive. I had a few leads to explore, but I hadn’t learned anything definitive about why Greyson turned over his father’s house to a bunch of students.

Now though, under this roof, I had nothing but time to get to the truth.

A thud sounded from outside my room, pulling me from my thoughts. What thehellwas that?

There were any number of reasonable explanations for what I’d heard. I did live with two other men after all, and either of them could have been awake. But after all that talk of arson earlier, I just wanted to be sure.

I got out of bed, opened the door and stepped out into the hall in time to see something, a shadow, duck around the corner into the dining room.

“What the fuck?” I whispered, and hurried down the hall. I would have turned on the lights as I went, but I had no idea where the switches were yet.

No one was in the dining room. I stood in the shadowy darkness, listening for any kind of sound.

Soft thumping like footsteps.

Cold washed over me. Was someone in the house?

I darted into the small galley kitchen, but couldn’t see anyone. After running my fingers over the wall, I found a light switch and flicked it on. I blinked against the sudden brightness, but my eyes adjusted quickly. There was no one there. I checked the back door. Still locked.

My heart thudded hard and fast against my chest as I moved through the first floor of the house, turning on lights as I went. But there was no one, and like the back door, the front was locked too.

What the hell had I seen and heard? The footsteps had sounded as if they’d come from the kitchen, but I still checked upstairs, in the bathroom and hall. Both Grier and Jett’s bedroom doors were closed, and I couldn’t bring myself to wake them. I didn’t want them to think they rented to a paranoid weirdo—at least not on my first night.

Back downstairs, I switched off all the lights again, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for what I’d seen and heard. Maybe I’d been closer to sleep than I realized and just hallucinated the whole thing. Or maybe it had been Jett’s ghost.

I rolled my eyes at my own foolishness and climbed back into bed, but sleep was a long time coming.

---