Every part of me wanted to sayno, but only because the walls behind that door were my safe space. And yet, this was still part of the plan.
“Is he leaving?” I asked under my breath.
A second passed before the sound of a truck door shutting answered for me, but then Davis said, “He...I’m not sure. It doesn’t look like he plans to go anywhere.”
I tilted my head just enough to show Davis that I was fine, because I’d never shown Davis anything less. “I can handle myself.”
His head bobbed as he shuffled his weight. “Yeah. I, uh...I’ve been told.” He glanced briefly in the direction of Gray’s idling truck. “Still, if you want...” He cleared his throat and scratched nervously at his temple, hesitation tugging at his mouth.
This Davis really was good. I wondered if the others were too.
“I know I don’t look like it, but I can handle myself too,” he finally said. “And I know guys like that. They come back.” When I let one of my eyebrows tick up in question, Davis met my stare. “My mom didn’t make the best choices.”
From the chilling darkness that wove into his eyes, I believed him. I also knew in the calm, calculated look that briefly settled over him as he spoke about his mom that he truly wasn’t just my awkward, too-nice neighbor.
I made a show of glancing over my shoulder just enough to see Gray’s truck reversing out of the spot before studying my door.
“Hey, are you going to be okay?”
No, because I could still feel Gray’s true hesitation and worry clinging to me. I could still hear his plea in my ears.
I wasn’t going to be okay because I was—no!
Stop thinking about it. Stop—just . . . force it back, Mallory.
Funny. That had always been so much easier to do.
“Of course,” I finally muttered to Davis just as I managed to open the door. With another quick glance over my shoulder to make sure Gray’s truck was already out of sight, I added, “You can come in.”
We hadn’t been inside my condo for a full five seconds before I knew something was wrong.
It wasn’t the near-silent sound of my deadbolt sliding home as Davis shut the door, as if he hadn’t wanted me to know he was locking the door behind us. It wasn’t the way every part of me instinctively wanted to stop him from taking in the walls when he let out a low whistle and said, “Wow, did you do all this?” It was the feeling like I’d missed something.
Heavy. Suffocating. Wrong.
Lifting the hair on the back of my neck and sending an ominous chill down my spine that had me aching to reach for my loaded gun, but I forced my hands to remain at my sides and kept my steps casual.
Until I faltered over one as mine and Gray’s conversation that afternoon came rushing back to me.
“David home?” he asked softly, suspicion wrapping around the short question.
“Davis,” I shot back in frustration, sure he was trying to get a rise out of me. But even still, I looked around the parking lot for Davis’ car when I noticed his designated parking space was empty. “Why?”
A few beats of silence passed as Gray continued staring at the condo next to mine, as if expecting the man in question to appear. “Thought one of the slats on his blinds was lifted.”
Not something,I realized as the weighted silence pressed harder and harder against my chest. Someone.
We hadn’t known about theDavis Shawsat that time, but we’d known about the new, blended family. We’d known about the club. We’d known about Tessa...
It wasn’t a stretch to think they’d send an extra person to be lying in wait. And now I had a feeling that person was in my condo.
I tilted my head as I tried listening for anyone else, but Davis’ awkward and too-polite ramble about my walls was distracting me from focusing on anything other than him and the deafening silence filling my condo.
And I was supposed to be doing something.
Subdue Davis. Let Gray in. The other person...no, wait to let Gray in. Two pink lines?—
Mallory,focus!
