Page 54 of Silent Threat
Still, Cole could have missed something.
He looked behind him. If Milo was passing on information, who was passing information to him? Maybe Milo was here waiting for the guy right now. But the hallway was dark and empty in both directions.
Cole moved forward with as much stealth as he could muster, knowing that if he made any noise, he wouldn’t be able to hear it, but Milo might.
When he was at the door, he stopped. Was Milo alone? If there were people in there, if they were talking, Cole couldn’t hear.
He silently cursed his CO for putting him on the job. Cole had to be the worst person for it. What gave anyone the idea that he’d make a good spy? Stupidest idea he’d ever heard. No pun intended.
He shrugged off the tension in his shoulders. The mission had been entrusted to him, so he would do the best he could.
He figured the gap at the bottom of the door to be about an inch wide. He eased his large body down onto the carpet and lined up his eye with that gap.
Having his full body on the floor was good. He hoped if someone was coming, he’d feel the vibrations from their steps. Because he sure wasn’t going to be able to hear them.
The man walked the hallways, anger making his hands clench and unclench at his sides.
He’d come every night when Annie was at Hope Hill, instead of going to her house to look through her windows. He couldn’t do that here. At her house, since her bedroom looked to the back, she didn’t draw her curtains. Here, she always closed the blinds.
He couldn’t get into her room either. That made him furious with frustration. He’d gotten into her house. Prying off a sheet of plywood had been pretty easy. Yet the memory of walking into her bedroom was less than satisfying.
He’d just wanted to watch her, to softly touch her hair.
Then he had planned to go back to the garage and butcher that damn potbelly pig. Ugly piece of shit.
He’d actually stopped by the garage before going into her house, wanting to stomp a couple of her little skunks and leave the small bodies in her bed as a warning of what would happen if she continued to defy him. But he hadn’t been able to find the skunks.
And Annie hadn’t been in her bed. She’d hidden from him.
And then the police came.
Then Cole Makani Hunter.
Bad, bad Annie.She had entirely too many men around her.
She was alone now, once again.
The man slowed in front of her door. Light came through the cracks. She was awake.
He hesitated. If he knocked ... But how would he explain why he was here? He had no excuse for a visit.
Soon, but not tonight,the man promised himself as he kept walking down the hallway. Very soon, Annie Murray would understand just how seriously she needed to take him.
If he had to take out one of her animals, so be it. He’d begun his game with roadkill for the sole purpose of scaring her, but he found he liked killing. There was a primal satisfaction to ending a life and being able to watch as it happened, as the victim’s eyes dimmed.
Chapter Twelve
ANNIE’S FIRST TASKfor the morning was to reconnect with her inner peace. She needed to be in the right frame of mind for her morning session with Trevor. And she would need a strong dose of tranquility later, when she stopped by her grandfather’s house to drop off some groceries.
Annie drew a deep breath. She had twenty minutes and an empty pool complex to get herself ready for the day.
She wasn’t the best swimmer, but she liked the pool complex at the rehab center. The township had contributed significantly to the cost of the building, and it maintained a shared-use arrangement with Hope Hill. The high school swim team used the complex Monday through Friday from three to seven o’clock. The rest of the time, the water belonged to the recovering vets.
The Olympic-size pool, the hot tub, the sauna, and the steam room were used both by the vets and the high school athletes. The diving pool had been put in at the high school coach’s request and saw most of its use from the BHS dive team.
Water had always calmed Annie. She often came to the pools when it rained too hard outside to go on her morning walk through the woods. The pool complex was a large, open space that usually stood empty during the breakfast hour.
Up on the highest diving board, Annie felt like a bird in her nest. Since the wall she faced was all windows, she overlooked the forest, still with her trees.
