Right?
Then he’d asked her…to buy him a coffee. Which wasn’t a date. He would beon duty. It was just…
Oh, she didn’t know.
And since she didn’t know—what to do about Royal, Albennie, Feds and cops alike, she figured she’d focus in on the one thing shedidknow.
Her book. So she made herself a decently healthy dinner, then settled down at herdesklike a grown-up, and got to work.
And work she did. The words were flowing. She didn’t even pay attention to the time. She wanted to ride this wave of everything makingsense. And being within her control. No outside world allowed to invade.
But eventually…the words petered out, and she was yawning more than she was getting words down. She noted the time—well after midnight. The entire room around her was darkexcept for the light of her computer. Man, she hadn’t been that in the zone in a while. It feltgood.
But if she was going to get up early enough to meet Royal for coffee, she was actually going to need to set an alarm. And she needed to getsomesleep so she didn’t look like a total zombie in the morning.
Not that it mattered if she did or not, since it wasn’t a date. He was working a case. The end.
She picked up her phone and started to head to the kitchen to get a drink of water, but that’s about when she noted the odd noise.
It sounded like…scratching? At the door? She frowned. Had someone’s cat gotten loose and was trying to get in?
You might as well throw a grenade in her apartment as allergic as she was to cats. Did she even know where her antihistamine was? She did have an inhaler in the bathroom, and one in her purse, so that was good.
And she wasn’t going to let a cat in anyway, so what was she worrying about? She shook her head.
But something wasdefinitelyscratching at her door.
Just a cat, she assured herself, but… Why would a cat climb the stairs and scratch at her door? She crept closer to the door, put her eye to the peephole.
She couldn’t see anything.Probably because it’s dark, Franny. But usually there was a little hint of the security light over by the antique store when she looked through the peephole at night.
Maybe it was out. She almost never looked out the peephole, so maybe she’d been imagining a light before. Thinking it was anything sinister was overreacting.
Except a woman was kidnapped from this exact place just a few days ago.
Still… She looked down at her phone. 911 was over-the-top for somescratching at her doorwhen she couldn’t tell what it was. And she wasn’t about to open the door and find out.
Maybe there was some sort of nonemergency line at the sheriff’s department she could call. Ask for…advice? Or…
She opened the contact and pulled up Royal’s number. She could just text him. Or even call him and just ask him to glance over at her place from his window and see what was making that noise at her door.
She’d almost talked herself out of it when the doorknob seemed to…creak, like it had moved…ever so slightly.
Her heart leaped into her throat, and she backpedaled into her room—closing the door and locking it too. She leaned against the door, fear making her feel numb. She managed to hit Call on Royal’s number.
It rang four times and she was about to hang up and call 911, embarrassment be damned, when a rough, sleepy voice answered.
“’lo.”
She’d clearly woken him up and felt like a complete ass. “Hi, sorry. It’s late. Sorry.”
There was a beat of silence, then two. “Franny?” he asked, like he wasn’t quite sure.
And why would he be sure? She’d woken him up. It was the middle of the damn night. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just, I think… I think someone is like…at my door, or something.” Her heart was beating triple time, and she could hardly hear him over the sound of it so loud in her ears.
“What?”
“I almost called 911, but I’m not sure. It could be a cat. A dog. The wind? But it just…won’t stop and I thought well… I have your number and you can look over and see. And if no one isthere, I can just…curl up in a ball and only be embarrassed in front of you.”
