He swallowed hard. Even if she was right, he was still scared, which was a new emotion for him, because not much scared him. At least, not muchusedto scare him.
Indie leaned closer. “She makes you happy and she wants to support you…so let her.”
It was exactly what Dr. Burton had said. And hell, it was exactly what every part of him had been screaming to do.
So what the hell was he doinghere?
CHAPTER 25
The doorbell rang at exactly five-fifty p.m. Addie’s stomach grumbled. Pizza. Thank God. Although, she hadn’t heard the best things about Burt’s Pizza.
Ha. That was an understatement. She’d been flat-out warned against the place.
But there’d been nothing else that delivered around here on a Sunday night. She’d called half a dozen places and every one of them told her it was pickup only, and she was already comfy and warm with the heater on and wearing her best sweats. The last thing she wanted to do was change and tackle the wind and cold outside.
She grabbed some money from her purse and opened the door to a kid with shaggy bleach-blond hair who wore a name tag.
She smiled warmly. “Hi, Pete. You have one pepperoni and one cheese pizza for me?”
“Yeah. Here you go.” He didn’t smile. Not even a hint of a smile.
Okay, not the warmest delivery. Odd, considering he was the nephew of the infamous Burt, apparently both the friendliest and worst pizza maker in Amber Ridge.
“Thank you.” She took the pizzas and handed him payment with a tip. He didn’t even say thank you. Just turned and left.
Bad pizzaandpoor service? How was this place still in business?
She closed the door and moved to the kitchen, where she set the cheese pizza on the counter before heading back toward the door. The pepperoni was for Ellis. He finished his shift in less than ten minutes. Although, she might need to warn him about the quality before he took a bite. The pizza in Bozeman was good, so this might be a shock to his system.
The second she stepped outside, wind hit her in the face. Argh. Cold. She hated the cold.
She jogged across the lawn…only to frown when she got closer to the patrol car.
It was empty.
Where was he? Was he doing a perimeter check? He’d told her he did them hourly, so maybe.
She turned and scanned the street, then her house, but she saw no one.
Her pulse picked up speed, and suddenly the need to be back in her house with the door locked almost suffocated her. She was halfway up the drive when she spotted something.
An arm. It was poking out from the side of the house, not visible from the street because her car was parked in the drive.
Oh, God…had Ellis fallen?
Quickly, she ran to the side of the house—only to freeze, every inch of her skin turning to ice.
At first it didn’t seem real. His stillness. The red soaking the back of his shirt.
But itwasreal. Someone had stabbed him.
No.
She shot forward, closing the distance between them before tumbling to her knees, the pizza dropping to the side. “Ellis?”
Nothing. Not even a flicker of movement.
Oh, Jesus. Her fingers shook violently as she checked for a pulse.
