Page 59 of Big Island Horizons
“I would miss you most of all.”
“You could come with me.”
“I have to get home and milk the goats.”
“I don’t like those stinkin goats.”
Lani laughed. “You like their milk, though.”
Rory sighed dramatically. “I guess.”
When Lani opened the gate at the bottom of the driveway, Dio ran through and jumped into the car. Instead of bouncing all over like he usually did, he just licked Rory’s face once and then settled down with his head in her lap. Cody must have taken him on a good long run.
After driving through and closing the gate behind them, she took Rory’s hand and walked her through the dark yard to their little‘ohana.
Usually, she felt a sense of peace and comfort when she walked through her front door.
Today, though, she felt a sudden anxiety.
There was something off. A smell in the air, something not quite right.
Quickly, she flipped on all of the lights. Her fairy lights were unplugged, though she could have sworn that she had left them on. She plugged them back in, her strange sense of apprehension growing.
Everything felt slightly out of place. The corner of the rug was kicked up, and the pile of drawings on the dining table was slanted to one side.
Happily oblivious, Rory curled up on the sofa with Zuko.
Dio, sensing Lani’s anxiety, followed her through the house.
She went through each of the rooms – a quick task in their little cottage – to reassure herself that there was no one else there. But the sense that someone had been there grew stronger. The closet door left ajar, the clothes in her drawers all out of place.
And then she saw them.
Two rings sitting on her nightstand. Two rings that she had left in Alaska months ago.
Her wedding ring. And a small antique diamond that had belonged to Zeke’s grandmother.
He had been here. In her house.
The thought made her physically nauseous.
Her heart raced as she did a final sweep, cortisol spiking as she looked behind the bathroom curtain and into the closet. But no, he wasn’t there. Dio would know if he were.
Wouldn’t he? How had he gotten past the dog?
It must have been when Cody took him on a run.
A sudden vertigo hit her, and she steadied herself with a hand on the wall.
How long had Zeke been watching the Kealoha place? How had he found it to begin with? She could only think of one possibility; at some point, he had seen her in town and followed her home. But when?
Her hands shook as she locked the front door. Then she went around to the windows, closing and locking them one by one.
Maybe someone had told him where she lived. He could have charmed some auntie in town with a seemingly innocent question, asking for directions.
She blew out a breath and shook her head. The how didn’t matter so much. He knew where she lived, and he had been here. He had invaded her home, her sanctuary. The tenuous sense of safety that she had cultivated there was gone.
Should she call the police?
