Yet most of the South-Central enforcers treated Kaci like she had theplague.
Brian shrugged. “She’s a man-eater.”
Vic stood, and his barstool fell onto the tile floor. “Faythe fired the last guy who said that. Should I tell her to start writing another want-ad?”
“No, man.” Brian paused his game again. “I mean no disrespect. I don’t hang out with her or anything, so for all I know, she turned out perfectly nice. And psychologically sound. But…it’s true.” He turned back to me. “She literally ate a human being. If anyone else had done that, they’d have been executed. Cannibalism is unnatural, and it’s fucking creepy ashell.”
“Brian…” Vicwarned.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Taylor continued, hands held in front of him in a defensive gesture. “IwishI didn’t know what I know about Kaci, becausesomeone’sgotta make a mom out of her. But it would take me a while to get past the thought of her eating human flesh in order to…rise to the occasion. Even if she is hot enough to make a mansweat.”
“Fortunately, no one’s askingyouto rise to shit, so get over it, or get out.” Vic wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, then wadded it up and dropped it on the counter. “She was a starving, traumatized kid who had no idea what she was doing. And she’s more of a survivor than you’ll ever be, so if I hear one more word from you about Kaci, I’ll kick your assmyself.”
“Sorry, man.” Brian turned back to hisgame.
“And turn that shit down.” Vic picked up his bar stool as I pulled a carton of laundry detergent from beneath the kitchen cabinet. “Where are yougoing?”
“Will’s using the washer,” I told him. “Faythe said I could use the one in the mainhouse.”
“Don’t forget to clean out the lint filter, or she’ll take your head right off.” He sank onto his stool again and took another bite of hissub.
“Thanks, man.” I clapped one hand on his shoulder. “I really appreciatethat.”
Vic gave me a strange look, and I pretended not to notice as I dropped the detergent on top of my laundry and picked up the basket. He had no way of knowing my gratitude was for more than just the lint filter advice. Or that I would be gone for much longer than the duration of a spincycle.
“Okay. I’ll be back,” I said as I opened the door, half-convinced someone would see through my lie and try to stopme.
But neither Brian nor Vic lookedup.
I crossed the lawn and headed into the main house through the back door, to see who was still awake and might catch me sneaking off. Andmaybeto run into Kaci one lasttime.
Former cannibal or not, she’d never been anything but nice to me. And she was the only girl I’d ever met who liked The Twilight Zone. As in, the original black and whiteepisodes.
The door to the nursery was closed, but that didn’t mean much. Little Greg was usually a sound sleeper, but babies were unpredictable, and either of my new Alphas could be found plodding between the nursery and the master suite at any time of the day ornight.
Faythe’s mom was in her sixties and suffered from occasional bouts insomnia, and Kaci hadn’t gone to sleep before midnight once in the four months I’d been on theranch.
Not that I was stalking her. The light from her bedroom was visible through the front window of the guest house, where I slept on the couch. How could I not notice when it wason?
Still focusing to control my pulse, I headed into the utility room. My plan was to hang out and pretend to do laundry until I was sure no one in the main house was awake to hear the car engine when Ileft.
As I listened for voices from the house around me, I removed an armful of baby…things from the dryer and set them on the counter for folding, then I transferred a load of wet towels into the dryer, hoping that helping with the laundry might somehow karmically balance out the escape I was planning. Though my real hope was that if I actually started a load of my clothes, when they discovered me missing they might think I’d just gone for a walk on the property to pass the time until the cycle finished. Maybe that would at least delay the discovery of the missingcar.
Marc’s distinctive footsteps crossed the hall into his bedroom as I pulled my backpack from the basket and dumped my laundry into the washer. While I set the cycle on the machine, I mentally catalogued all the other sounds from the mainhouse.
Karen was snoring from herroom.
Faythe and Kaci were talking in the office, but the door was closed, so I couldn’t tell what they were saying. With any luck, I could sneak right past. As soon asI—
Shit. Too late, I realized I’d hidden the keys in the basket—then dumped them in with myclothes.
Grumbling beneath my breath, I dug into the washer, trying to keep the keys from falling against the metal drum, which would be like ringing a gong for the rest of the house tohear.
It had taken me forever to find a set of unattended keys, and if I wasn’t long gone before Chris noticed that he’d left them in his jeans pocket, I would lose my chance. And I’d never get another one, once they knew I was a flightrisk.
Hell, they’d probably lock me in one of the jail cells in thebasement.
Finally, my fingers grazed something hard and jagged. I pulled the keys out, and with them, the pair of pants they’d snagged on. As I was disentangling the lock fob from the belt loop of my jeans, the door behind me squeaked softly open. The key ring finally released my pants, which fell back into the washer, and I turned, keys in hand, to find Kaci Dillon staring right atme.
