Quin rubbed his thumb over his knuckles.Indecision fought inside him.He couldn’t forcefully take Frasier to the police station, not when he didn’t have enough evidence.Doing so might derail the case he was building.
“Are we done here, or...?”
Quin forced down a frustrated growl.Keep your friends close and all that.“Don’t creep around Josie’s place anymore.She’s got enough on her plate without having to worry about being stalked.”
Frasier hung his head.“Fuck, I feel bad about that.I saw red when I watched you enter my house.I wish I’d have gone about things a different way.No hard feelings?”Frasier stuck out his hand, his gregarious manner suspicious as fuck.
Quin shook it.
“My car’s over here,” Frasier said, nodding in the direction of the field.Please tell Josie I didn’t mean to scare her.”He lifted his hand in a wave and marched through the field.
The need to chase him down, to force more answers from him, coursed through Quin’s veins.But what could he do?He couldn’t kill him, like he wanted to.Couldn’t hold him against his will.And going to the police with the evidence he had wasn’t going to do a thing.
He stormed through the forest.He was soaked through the skin and the trees offered little shelter.He couldn’t fix all of Josie’s problems, but there was one thing he could do.He could hold her.Make love to her.And make sure she kept him around long after tonight.
He emerged into the clearing, stepped through the line of trees, and trampled over the wet grass of her backyard.He approached the side of the house, heading toward the front door so he could double-check the area before going inside, and tucked the gun beneath his shirt at the small of his back.He needed a long, hot shower after this.The image of taking Josie into the shower with him flashed through his mind.Yeah, that’d be fun.Even if they only had a bit of hot water left.
He passed the line of bushes that separated Josie’s house from the east side of the woods.A shadow moved and he stopped.
Jesus, he thought,please don’t let me encounter a wild animal.
Smack
Something hard cracked against his skull.He fell forward in the mud, and his face bounced off the ground.Pain exploded between his ears and a ringing sound screeched like a siren.
No.Josie!
He had to get up and fight.Get her out of the house before the man got to her.Gravity pulled his cheek to the earth, and the sucking sound of boots in mud reached his ears.The world tilted around him.
He watched the man skulk toward Josie’s house as numbness paralyzed his limbs.
***
Josie blinked inthe darkness.The light from her phone, the incense, and the candle she’d lit allowed her to see a little better.The noise had come from the bedroom—again.The moisture evaporated from her tongue as fear replaced her saliva with acid.Quin wouldn’t let someone get to the house, unless...
Oh, god.Was Quin hurt?He could be dead, lying outside, facedown in the ground.
Her heart beat erratically, making her chest spasm.
Please, God.Let him be okay.
She couldn’t handle another person close to her dying a gruesome death.She inched her fingers toward her phone.She needed to try to reach the police station again, but she didn’t dare dial and make noise.The sharp sound of wind whipping through the cabin made the muscles in her body turn to stone.
A window was open.She sure as heck hadn’t done it.
She scanned the altar for something to use as a weapon.Her large smoky quartz sat nestled behind her incense burner.She scooped the rock in her hand and gripped its weight, holding the rough stone at the height of her shoulder.It wasn’t a gun—why hadn’t she thought to pull out Liam’s other gun from the safe?—but it would do some damage.
She swept her feet slowly over the cool hardwood floor.The slight sticking from moisture on her feet made her wince.Her breath spiraled in her lungs and she kept it clamped inside.She stayed close to the wall as she moved down the hallway.Stretching her fingers along the drywall, she touched the doorframe and tried to focus her vision.If someone was waiting in her room, she couldn’t screw up.Couldn’t hesitate.She had to take them down.
Whirling into the room she let out a scream.
Lightning flashed, brightening the room.Empty.She exhaled as her pulse raced viciously.The window next to her dresser was open a good twelve inches.She moved closer.The floor was wet.Rain blew in to kiss her cheeks.She scanned the grounds outside and the scent of wet pine reached her nostrils.
Grabbing the glass, she slammed it shut.Quin should have been back by now.
Something’s not right.
She had to go outside and check.He was going to kill her, but he’d been gone long enough.She’d get the shotgun from the safe in the loft.Holding the crystal at her side, she turned away from the window and breezed to the bedroom door.
