Page 95 of Coach
It was imperative.
It was how I knew it was time to pack and run.
And, sometimes, just run. Leaving absolutely everything I had in the world—save for my go-bag in my car—and hit the road.
When I was on top of my game, I could spot him before he saw me seeing him. It allowed me to slip away casually, so he didn’t try to chase me.
The key was to get away as quickly as possible and go as far as I could.
I’d been disappearing for years.
He hadn’t gotten this close to me in ages.
I’d gotten distracted.
Sloppy.
And I was going to pay for that.
How much, though, was still up to me.
Because he didn’t have me.
Not yet.
I still had a chance.
If I could just scramble back, get out the back door, run through the yard, get out of the gate…
I could, what?
Run away from him?
Maybe that would have been an option when he was much heavier, a lot less fit. But now? He seemed like he’d been taking care of himself. And I hadn’t run in months.
“Go ahead,” he said as I sucked in a deep breath. Because I did have one thing. I had a neighbor who could hear me scream. Maybe they wouldn’t come running. But they could call the police. It was a small town with nothing going on. The station was close. It wouldn’t take long for help to arrive. “Scream all you want,” he added.
There was something cocky in his voice that had my blood running cold. First, because it wasn’t something I’d ever heard before. He’d been shy, unsure, stammering, quiet. Second, because he sounded very sure of something, like he knew something I didn’t know.
“The brownies were delicious, by the way. Not in my diet, but I made an exception.”
No.
Oh, God, no.
He was the neighbor? With all the hammering, sawing, sanding, nailing? Day in and day out?
Was it some sort of psychological torture? Was he trying to make me sleepless? Too slow and exhausted to run for my life when he finally decided to make his move?
And how,how, could I have missed it?
I hadn’t even been the least bit suspicious that I’d never laid eyes on my neighbor, never stopped to consider how weird that was.
What the hell was wrong with me?
How could I let this happen?
No.
