Swallowing the adrenaline racing around her veins, she slowly sat up enough to peer out the sliver between the end of the curtain and the back corner of the van. When she made out the dark outline of a person at the edge of the awning, she jerked away, instantly reaching for her phone where it was charging on the end of the bench. She wanted to cry, but that wouldn’t help her now.
Dimming the light, she smacked a few buttons before pressing the phone to her ear. The ringing was so loud. Her thumb found the volume button.
‘Hello?’
Piper wanted to cry at his familiar voice, not caring that she’d clearly woken him. She didn’t even care that this moment proved him right.
‘Emmett …’ she breathed as quietly as she could.
‘Piper?’ His tone turned alert. ‘Are you okay? What’s wrong?’
‘No.’
‘I’m coming.’
There was a rustling on the other end of the line, but Piper’s relief was short-lived as a louder noise came from outside. Whoever it was out there had just walked into her camping chair. She slid the phone down her neck, clutching the screen to her chest. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark and were fixed on the Kombi’s sliding door. She’d locked it, hadn’t she? Oh God, she couldn’t remember. How long was it going to take Emmett to drive from wherever he lived to here? Surely it was longer than it would take for whoever was outside to break in and kill her. She folded her knees up to her chest, gripping them with one arm while the other hand stayed clenched around her phone. She was going to die. This was it. The moment her life ended and—
There was a click. The door remained where it was. Shehadlocked it. Damn. She became dizzy. That meant someone really did want to come in here. More dull thudding and scuffling came from outside. Were they going to break a window? There wasn’t a shortage of them in this vehicle. How thick was the glass? Would the windows hold up enough to give Emmett time to get here? She glanced down at her phone. It was still connected to Emmett’s.
A bouncing light caught her attention through the curtain. Hurried footsteps hit her ears. What fresh hell was this? A running leap at the window?
‘Piper!’
Her body sagged. ‘There’s someone out there.’
‘Stay inside.’
She was too relieved he was here to say duh. The light moved with Emmett as he rounded the Kombi. A low growl raised her eyebrow.
‘What do you smell, Major? Hey, boy?’
Oh, the dog.Piper covered her mouth with her hand at the impulse to giggle hysterically. She cursed the adrenaline that came with thinking she was going to be ruthlessly murdered.
‘There’s no one out here, Piper.’
She threw the covers back and pulled the door open, flicking on her outside light as Emmett came back to the vehicle. Her mouth went dry as she took in the dark T-shirt pulled tight across his broad shoulders, loose running shorts hanging from his hips.
‘There was a man out here. Sneaking around. I saw him out the window.’ Why was she getting so defensive over it?
Emmett stepped closer. ‘I believe you, Piper. I could hear the fear in your voice on the phone, okay? You don’t have to convince me. You just need to tell me who it was.’
She slid down to sit on the floor, her feet touching the grass, and buried her face in her hands. ‘I don’t know. I only saw the shape. But there’s two other men camping here, and I don’t think it would be the married guy in the caravan. It had to be the one in the swag behind me.’
A hand cupped the back of her head briefly before taking her hand. She looked up, directly into Emmett’s eyes.
‘He was unzipping his swag and sitting up when I ran down the hill. It wasn’t him.’
‘The married guy? He seemed so lovely.’
Emmett tilted his head. ‘You do know there’s three other occupied campsites further up the track?’
Piper deflated like a tyre with a nail in it. ‘No, I forget how far back the campgrounds go.’ She studied her phone. The call list was up and Emmett’s name at the top. ‘You must live pretty close if it only took you a little over two minutes to get here.’ The longest hundred and twenty seconds of her life.
‘Ah …’ He let go of her hand and ran a hand over his jaw. ‘I live on the eastern side of town, probably about twenty minutes from here.’
Her eyes narrowed. Had he been at his girlfriend’s house? Shit, could this get more awkward? ‘Then how?’
‘Major and I were camping closer to the entry in the back of my ute. We were there last night as well.’