She’d had a feeling that once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
As she blinked away the unwanted moisture, a shadow moved between the light from the streetlamp and her front windows. A chill began in the middle of her chest and then dropped like a rock into her stomach. Hardly daring to breathe, she laid the anthology down carefully on the coffee table and eased up off the couch, intending to call the police.
As she started toward the foyer, she realized that her cell was closer since, like her bag, she’d laid her purse on the hall table in preparation for tomorrow. She tiptoed across the room, bare feet making no sound. She slipped her phone out and flipped open the case. Her finger hovered for a few seconds over the nine before she lowered the cell.
She was calling the cops because she’d seen a shadow?
Something that could have been nothing more than a play of light? Or a tree moving in the wind? A bird or bat flying directly in front of the streetlamp?
All she needed right now was to be sending up false alarms for help. That would make the police less likely to respond quickly in case of a real emergency.
Phone in hand, she tiptoed over to the front door and put her eye against the peephole. A human shape was silhouetted against the glow from the street.
She reached out and located the switch for the porch fixture. If she turned it on, she knew whoever was out there would run—a result she wasn’t exactly opposed to. If she could get a glimpse of him before he did, all the better. Even size and build would give her something to work with. Decision made, she pushed the switch, flooding the porch with light.
Her recognition was instantaneous; her relief so great that she didn’t even stop to wonder what Jace was doing outside her door in the middle of the night. Fingers trembling from the flood of adrenaline, she undid the chain and then the other locks, throwing open the door.
“You okay?”
She nodded automatically, although she didn’t understand the question. Or why his gun was in his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I saw a flashlight moving around inside.”
“A flashlight?”
“Something dim. Maybe in the back hall.”
Where her office, the bedroom and the bath were located. The hall she’d walked down not five minutes ago. “When?”
Jace shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe…four or five minutes ago.”
“I was back there—”
Jace didn’t give her time to finish. He brushed by her, gun still drawn, and headed toward the back of the house. Not sure what she was supposed to do, Lindsey followed.
She stood at the end of the hallway and watched as he turned on lights and searched each room. In the heavy silence of the sleeping neighborhood, she could hear him opening the cabinets under the bathroom lavatory and then the closet door in her bedroom. It was not until he started down the hall toward her that she realized what he had seen from outside.
“The night light has a motion sensor. It must have come on when I got up. When I moved far enough past it, the light went out again.”
He glanced down at the small bulb attached to the wall plug, which was still burning. He took a few steps toward where she was standing. Just as she’d said, the light went out.
“Sorry. False alarm.” He shoved his gun back into the holster under his arm. “At least I didn’t wake you.”
“I was in the living room. I saw something move in front of the windows and thought…” The burn was again at the back of her eyes, and she hated it. She strengthened her voice to go on. “I thought they’d come back.”
“Yeah. So did I.”
“I looked out through the peephole and saw a shape. I thought maybe if I turned on the porch light, I’d be able to see enough to identify them.”
“Sorry.”
“For what? Looking out for me? That is what you were doing, wasn’t it? Watching my house.”
He looked almost embarrassed by her realization. Despite that, he nodded.
She knew by gauging the density of the stubble on his cheeks, something she was becoming adept at, that he hadn’t gotten up early to stand watch. He had been there all night.
“Something didn’t feel right,” he added.
Maybe Jace hadn’t been able to sleep, either. In spite of their obviously overdeveloped sense of impending danger, nothing had happened. And in another couple of hours, it would be morning.
“I can make coffee,” she offered tentatively.
Did that sound like an invitation to something else? Even if it did, she didn’t regret having made it. She wanted company. And she wasn’t opposed to that company being in the form of an armed detective.
“Or I could make it while you go back to bed,” he offered.
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t sleep. Everything keeps running through my mind like some kind of endless looping.”
“You have an internist? Somebody who could write you a prescription for sleeping pills?”
She had a family doctor. The one who had delivered her, actually. And she didn’t intend to ask him for drugs to help her cope with this. “I’ll get over it.”
“There’s no shame in taking medication to help you deal with trauma.”
“I didn’t say there was. I just…” She shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest.
For the first time she was conscious of how thin and short her nightshirt was. Maybe that’s why Jace had suggested she go back to bed. Maybe she was embarrassing him.
“It also wouldn’t hurt to talk to somebody about what happened. A psychologist. Someone to help you deal with the possibility of PTSD.”
It took her a second. “Post Traumatic Stress? You think I’m going to get PTSD from finding a snake in my house?” Despite the fact that she hadn’t slept since that had happened, she managed a short laugh. “This is snake country. Every time I went into the woods as a child there was the threat of running into one.”
“Which you knew and accepted. That’s not the same as having someone put a rattlesnake into your laundry hamper.”
It wasn’t. Still, she didn’t really want to hear his analysis of how poorly she was dealing with this.
“I don’t need medication. And I don’t need counseling. I do need coffee. You’re welcome to stay if you want some.”
She was acting like an idiot. She hadn’t slept in two nights, other than in snatches interrupted by nightmares. So, yeah, she was coping just fine, thank you very much.
They were still standing face-to-face in the hall, with every light in the back of the house blazing. She watched his
