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“8:45.”

Then she folds her arms across her chest and asks point-blank, “Can I have a hundred dollars?”

Instead of saying no, I answer her question with a question. “Why?”

“Because I need it.”

“How do I know you’ll pay me back?”

“I never said I plan to pay you back,” she volleys in return, not missing a beat.

Laughter rumbles in my chest and I shake my head.

Little by little, a smirk flirts with her lips, leading me to believe the question was just a test. A test for what? I don’t know. But then she looks around, noting the graveyard is submerged in hazy darkness now and slowly backs away from me, creating a chasm after standing close for so long we were almost breathing the same air.

“Bye. I’ll see you around.”

She doesn’t give me time to respond to her abrupt departure.

Unable to tear my eyes away, I watch until she turns into a wobbly dot in the fog, frowning when she walks right up to the closed iron gates of the community and veers slightly left.

Bending, she slips her feet out of her sandals and pitches them over the stone wall beside the gate. Then,with more ease and agility than I expect, she hoists herself over the narrow, flat surface of the wall and disappears into the night.

“What the hell?”

As much as I try to write it off as a fluke, I can’t shake the encounter.

Not when I finally make it to my grandfather’s tombstone and not when I get back behind the wheel to drive to the back of the neighborhood.

I drive until I reach the top of the hill, slowing to a crawl when my tires hit the paved driveway. I can’t help but snicker lowly at the stranger’s words.

Creepy. Everybody’s scared of him. Mean as a snake.

Never before has a stranger’s opinion of me fazed me, but hearing those words fall from her mouth was pure comedy.

As I press the button to open my garage, I mumble lowly, “Odd woman.”

That night, her departing words tumble around in my mind as I go through the motions of eating dinner and getting ready for bed.

Bye. I’ll see you around.

I don’t see her around.

In fact, a whole year passes before I see her again.

Chapter 2

The Least You Could Do

DELILAH ROSE

JUNE 2026

“You need to be at the house by seven tonight.”

“What?” The question scratches my throat while my brain scrambles to process his command.

“I’m ready to cash in my favor.”