is a real-estate office right down the street.” She pointed in the direction he should go.
He had such a wonderful earthy smell, something she could almost place. What was it? Cedar? Cinnamon? Apple? All of the above mixed together in a cornucopia of goodness.
“Thanks, was hoping not to have to deal with leases and finder’s fees and all that, since I won’t be here for very long.”
“Right.” What was he talking about? An apartment? Maybe she should...? No. She couldn’t. She wasn’t used to being around men who made her feel so jittery and tongue-tied. Or like a complete idiot. No, she was better off keeping to herself. And she knew it. Just like she knew she was a complete and utter chicken.
Keep your head down, Shay. You never know when they’ll find you. Her father’s warnings rushed through her mind. Not that she ever knew who they were, why they were looking or even what they wanted.
But for this man, she could easily forget her daddy’s warning. Mercy! With his dark hair streaked with a rebellious red, high cheekbones and wide, promising lips... She sighed. Not to mention strong shoulders that stretched from here to eternity. He was built and looked as if he could easily carry her and the world, and fight off whoever they might be.
And then she noticed his hands—large, strong hands. How she loved hands. Some girls liked chests and others liked butts. She loved hands. And his looked solid and capable. A warrior’s hands. She sighed again.
“Well, hope to see you around,” he said, after the long awkward pause she just realized had happened.
“Um, yeah. Right,” she murmured, but too late. He was already gone. Yep. Way to make a lasting impression, Shay. Not!
She glanced around the small store once more before walking toward the cash register. Her handsome warrior must have slipped out. Feeling foolish and distracted, she paid for her groceries, loaded up her tote bag, then walked out the door and collided into someone walking in.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, looking up into a black fathomless gaze.
Shay’s heart slammed against her rib cage. She’d been foolish enough to walk out the door without putting her glasses back on or her earbuds back in her ears. An angry buzz filled her head, growing louder by the second. She shook her head, trying to dispel the distracting noise. Color—or the lack of color, more like a muddy darkness—surrounded him. Head down, she pushed past him. Gooseflesh raising her skin where she’d touched him.
Just go in the store, she thought. Go in and leave me alone.
She should have known that would be too much to hope for.
The man turned and followed her. Fear twisted and turned in her stomach as bile rose in her throat. They are coming, Daddy. They’ve found me. She quickened her step, trying to put distance between her and the man. It didn’t work. He kept after her. What did he want?
She hesitated at the mouth of the alley between the two buildings that led into the parking lot and the quickest way back to her house. To Buddy. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to go in there. And worse, beyond the alley, beyond the parking lot, she would be at the highway and once crossed, there was nothing but woods. She’d be alone. Where no one would be able to see her. Or hear her.
She screwed up her courage and spun around on the sidewalk to face her pursuer. Hoping he wouldn’t be there.
But he was.
“Excuse me,” she said in what she hoped was a strong, steady voice.
His clean-shaven face held no expression. With his dress pants and polo shirt, he looked like any other tourist up from San Francisco. He certainly didn’t look like something evil. But he was. She could tell by the dark shadows circling around his head and the slightly bitter, metallic way he smelled.
His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air around her, then he moved closer, his eyes a black void of nothingness.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked, a slight quaver shaking her voice as she took a step back from him.
He didn’t answer. Just moved closer, uncomfortably close. She stepped back again and found herself at the mouth of the alley. She squared herself, planting her feet in a wide stance. All those years with her paranoid father teaching her everything from judo to how to shoot a revolver came rushing back. She dropped her tote bag, raised her hands, leaned her body weight slightly forward and loosened her knees.
“Turn around and get away from me,” she demanded. “Now.”
He stared at her with those obsidian black eyes that held no soul, and smiled. It was that smile, dripping with evil, that scared her more than anything he could have said.
What was he?
“What do you want from me?” her voice squeaked. She tried to stop looking at him. She didn’t want to see the dark, shifting shadows encircling his head or what was moving within them. What was that? She could have sworn she’d seen teeth. And claws.
A violent shudder shook her.
He grabbed her arm. “This way,” he snarled through a clenched jaw, and pushed her into the alley.
Fear, white-hot and molten, surged through her. She forgot her fighting stance, forgot every move she’d ever learned as her brain flooded with adrenaline. “Let me go!” She screamed, pulling and twisting, trying to break free from his grasp. But he was too strong.
He continued to push her forward, toward the large black van parked at the end of the alley. And she knew once they reached that van, once he got her inside, no one would ever see her again.
“Please,” she cried and pried at his fingers, trying to loosen his grip on her arm.
“You heard the lady. Let her go.”
The calm voice surprised and confused her. She looked up and saw the man from the store. Her knight in shining armor with the warrior hands stood not four feet away, watching them. Relief filled her, weakening her knees to the point she wasn’t sure she could continue to stand. She tried to pull free once more, but the crazy loon still wouldn’t loosen his grip.
What was wrong with him? There was a witness. Someone to help her.
Her rescuer set down his bag, took off his brown leather jacket and laid it neatly across the bag so it didn’t touch the ground.
As if in a dream, she watched him, unable to comprehend what was happening. All she knew was that she no longer felt so afraid.
“You should do as she says,” he said, walking toward them, and planting one of his hands on her attacker’s shoulder and squeezing.
She looked up at the man still holding her arm and could see the fear and anger surrounding him; it puffed up as a red cloud within the muddy darkness. Without looking at her, he dropped her arm, shrugged out of her savior’s grasp, turned and walked away. As if he’d never stopped, as if he’d never touched her.
Shay stared after him, astonished.
“Does that happen to you often?”
She turned back to the man from the store, blinking. “No,
