Page 34 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“Are you—oh my God—are you blushing right now?” Oz had no idea if he should be pleased or terrified. And who said it couldn’t be both? David and Annette hadn’t been a couple very long; apparently declarations of love out of nowhere were still novel. “It’s cute!”
“I am not blushing!” she snapped. “Or if I am, it’s with thwarted rage. To return to my tale of woe, at that point I decided to take a quick look at some personal items, and…” She wiggled her fingers, now wrapped in clean bandages. “Zing.”
“Can you describe the zing? And also more of her bedroom?”
“Spring-loaded barbs, rigged to pop out just under the knob. And I think she treated them with something. It wasn’t just the shock of being cut—I immediately began to feel nauseated and light-headed. It was at that point,” she admitted, “that I came to the vague realization that I might be in over my head.”
“Oh, fuck me.” David seized Annette (gently) by the elbow and began steering her toward the kitchen door. “On top of everything else, that scary-prepared bitch coated the blades with poison.”
“Hey! Lila didn’t do anything wrong. And don’t call her scary. Only I can do that. But never to her face. Isn’t she awesome? I think we should get married.”
David ignored Oz’s babble, thank God. He hadn’t meant to blurt out the bit about getting married. “Hospital.Now. And next time, lead with ‘she poisoned me.’ Don’t save it for the end!”
“David.” Annette extricated herself. “Stop. Look at me. It was over an hour ago, and I’m fine. Because it wasn’t a lethal poison. It was much more clever than that, since whatever-it-was made me immediately stop what I was doing, exit her house, and text you guys.”
“Which tipped Lila off,” Oz realized. “Damn.”
“Damn,” Annette agreed.
“Damn!” David fumed.
“But ten minutes later, I felt fine and the bleeding had significantly slowed. And now, I’ll…” She raised her wounded hand. “Well, you know. By month’s end, you’d never know I was cut.”
“Would, too,” he muttered, then bent his head and kissed her palm.
“Something else about her bedroom,” Annette added. “No pictures. Anywhere. Of any kind: no casual shots, no paintings, no posters, no family photos. We could chalk it up to her having just moved, but it looks like she’s unpacked just about all of it. Her bedroom is very like a cell.”
“That’s a little weird,” Oz admitted.
“And believe it or not, my clandestine visit wasn’t the strangest part of my day,” she added. But before she could elaborate, they all heard it.
“Helloooooooo? Ox? Garsea? Are you in there?”
“Let me guess,” David growled. “That’s the scary-prepared bitch on Mama Mac’s front porch. Yeah, that’s right! I said it.”
“What could she want?” Mama Mac asked. She’d begun packing up the first aid kit but stopped and then laid it all out again.
“To finish me off?” Annette asked.
“Is anyone else worried about the fact that instead of calling the cops, she came over? Anyone?” David demanded. “She didn’t call the cops on Sally, either. That’s not just being easygoing. That’s someone who doesn’t want to talk to the police under any circumstance.”
“Gal after my own heart,” Mama murmured.
“Helloooo? Can you hear me in there? Sorry you had to rush away from our lunch so fast, Ox. I hope everything’s okay!”
Annette snickered. “Ox?”
Unperturbed by the lack of response, Lila elaborated in a singsong tone, “I brought your leftovers…”
“GoodGod, don’t let her in. This is clearly a trap.”
“Christ, this is ridiculous,” David muttered. “We’re cowering in here like cubs in a thunderstorm. She’soneStable. Dev could take her.”
“I also brought Garsea an order of the profiteroles …”
“Open the door,” Annette said at once.
“And have one of you misplaced a fox?” Lila called. “Because there’s a nice little fox out here.”
