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EIGHTEEN
Virginia Anderson pushed back from the desk with a sigh, rubbing her tired eyes with a thumb and index finger. If she had to spend another hour in Rhoads, Pennsylvania’s Gwyn Ponth College library without seeing the fading October sunlight, she’d go stark raving mad. Of course, she thought, I have at least three more hours of documents to pore through, so what will that make me?
Taking the work home? Not an option. The combination of futon, fleece blanket, tea and heavy reading would put her right to sleep. Better to sit on a hard chair in a cool, quiet library and actually get her reading done.
“See you tomorrow, Ginny?”
Virginia—Ginny, to most everyone save her parents—waved at Donna, Gwyn Ponth College’s head librarian. “I’ll stick around until Roger comes in to start cleaning.”
Donna tut-tutted and shook her head. “You work too much, my dear. You part-timers aren’t paid nearly enough for the amount of hours you put in each and every day. If you’re not teaching, here you are. Don’t you ever sleep? You have a big meeting tomorrow, yes?”
“I only sleep if I have to.” Ginny laughed, waving Donna out the door. “Plus, it’s a meeting with a stuffy old grump from the museum. If I play it right, by this time next year I’ll have a tenure-track position and have made the historical discovery of a lifetime, and the lack of sleep will have been worth it.”
Donna swept out the door with a sympathetic smile. “I certainly hope so. Tell Roger I said hello.”
A smile crept into the corners of Ginny’s mouth. Since mid-September, Donna and one of the custodians had been leaving brief, affectionate notes and messages for each other through Ginny, though she’d never actually seen the head librarian and Roger meet in person. If only she could arrange it somehow, but Roger wasn’t a very chatty guy. He was a little on the shy side, and had a hard time making eye contact with others. It explained his hesitance to court the librarian in person, but Ginny was happy to be the go-between for them. It was sweet, and she thought Donna and Roger would make a cute couple.
As Ginny focused once more on the journal article in front of her, the lights in the room turned off with an audible click. Had Donna turned them off by accident, out of habit? “Not again, Dee,” she called. No response. The librarian must have left in a hurry. “Never mind, I’ll get it.”
This section of the library book stacks was dim enough to cause eye strain when all the lights were on, let alone having only the light from the emergency exit signs and the intruding outside light from streetlamps to navigate by. As she approached the light switch, a thump came from somewhere behind her. It sounded close. Had she left one of her books too close to the edge of the table?
“Hello?” Ginny squinted into the darkness of the book stacks behind her. “Is someone there?”
The sound of a pen hitting the floor sent her flying in the direction of the light switch. She felt a looming presence behind her just as a hand tapped her shoulder.
“Hey, kid,” said a gruff voice behind her. “Think you’re smart, hiding in here? Don’t make another move.”
Don’t move? Ginny knew there were still other people in the building, few as they might be, so she made the obvious choice. She shouted and twisted away as the hand slid off her shoulder, flailing her palms against the wall, fingers groping for the light switch.
With a click, the lights flickered on and relief flooded into Ginny’s limbs. She shot forward, bracing herself against the end of the nearest bookshelf. Her fingers brushed the spine of a hardcover book. She yanked it off the shelf and whirled around, swinging the book at what she assumed was her attacker’s head.
“Hey, stop!” He covered his head with his arms as the book made contact, then reached out and snatched the book away from her. He tossed it aside and held his hands up. “I’m not after you—I thought you were a student trying to sneak around in here off-hours. I can see now you’re not a student.”
Ginny grabbed another book and held it aloft, ready to throw it and run if he took another step closer. “I don’t believe you. Who are you? Why did you creep up on me in the dark instead of talking like a normal person?” His shirt bore the college crest and he looked too old to be an undergraduate—early thirties, maybe—but his coal-dark hair and razor stubble said troublemaker.
He raised one obsidian eyebrow as the sound of another book hitting the floor echoed from somewhere deep inside the library stacks. “Instinct due to training, plus I didn’t want to give you a chance to run off and disappear elsewhere. Earlier today, I heard we’re having some issues with students trying to hide in the archival area overnight. Something about accessing the controlled documents for their projects without the hassle of being monitored by a librarian. But we can discuss that later. Get down.”
“Why should I?”
“Trust me, please.” He reached for her arm and pulled her down into a crouch.
She drew back from his grip and scooted a few feet away from him, ready to demand he tell her what was going on, but his attention had fixated elsewhere and off of her. He had one finger to his lips. Stay quiet, really? After all that?
“Is there another way out of here?” He kept his voice low. “A back door?”
Ginny frowned, the words spilling out before she could help herself. “Haven’t you been in the library before at all?”
“I’m new,” he growled. “So, is there?”
Ginny swallowed, hoping she didn’t say anything else that could be construed as careless. Clearly, the man thought they were in danger, but he’d been the one waiting in the dark, hadn’t he? What if he had used this moment to divert her attention and was planning something horrible? What if he had a partner waiting in the book stacks to abduct her the moment she let her guard down? He hadn’t given her a good enough reason to trust him. As much as she hated to leave her wallet and research notes in the library, she might lose precious escape seconds by taking the time to grab either one.
Taking a deep breath, Ginny visualized the back door that led to the library’s administrative offices, said a quick prayer and silently counted down from three.
When she reached zero, she pushed off the floor and bolted toward freedom.
* * *
Seriously? Colin Tapping groaned as the woman sprinted away from him. She had no idea what kind of danger she might be putting herself in. The best-case scenario was that a student had, in fact, shut the lights off and hidden in the
