“If you don’t answer it, I’ll assume the answer is yes.”
“Assumptions are not the truth.”
I finished off the water and set the glass down. “I think we’re done here.”
He watched me stand, watched me walk toward the door. Just as my hand wrapped around the handle, he asked. “Do you trust me, Delaney?”
I swallowed hard. Wondered if I did trust him. Wondered if I was just trusting a man I’d known years ago, instead of the man I didn’t know now.
“Pass.”
I opened the door and walked out into the night.
Chapter 5
Someone was staring at me. Since I was sleeping, in my bed, in my house, the sudden knowledge that I was not alone was more than a little disconcerting.
My gun rested on the wooden stepladder I used as a night stand. I could grab for it, but whoever was staring at me would see that move coming from a mile away.
Unless they had already found the gun and were pointing it at me.
That thought pushed me right over into instantly awake, eyes open, adrenalin pumping, sitting up.
“Delaney, dear. It’s about time. I’ve been waiting.”
I blinked at the voice, and also at the face of Bertie, our town’s one and only Valkyrie who was sitting in the corner of my room, in a chair, sipping something that smelled like tea.
Bertie’s white hair was cut short and a little spiky, making her sharp green eyes too large in her heart-shaped face. She wore a pantsuit in a lovely red that might make other people think of roses, but made me think of blood, and a scarf with little red cherries printed on it tied at her neck.
The tea was in a china cup that must have come from her kitchen because I didn’t own anything that delicate. Her fingernails were sharp and painted gold.
I should really start locking my front door.
“Why are you in my bedroom?” I glanced at the clock. “At six-thirty in the morning?”
“Because I need to be at work by seven, of course.”
“Of course.” I echoed like that made any sense. “Bertie? Seriously?”
“I’m delivering your package.”
“Package?”
“The one your sister left with me yesterday.”
I pressed at my eyes with my fingertips and tried to get my brain working. “Crow. You brought Crow here.”
“Exactly. Now, since you’re awake, I’ll get my day started. The fundraiser is taking quite a lot of time to coordinate. I’m always so short on volunteers. I’m going to have to reach out into the community more vigorously if people don’t start stepping forward.”
Subtle, she was not. But then Bertie didn’t so much recruit volunteers as conscript people into service. “Coffee before blackmail,” I said.
“If you want breakfast alone, you should really start locking your front door.”
I shoved the heavy quilt off my legs and swung my feet down to the floor. I was wearing what I usually wore to bed: T-shirt and boy shorts. “Not a lot of people bother to climb the million steps to my house, and those who do aren’t usually criminals.”
“Yes. Still. Most people don’t have to be murderers to have ulterior motives.”
“Did you hear about Sven?” I asked.
