Page 41 of Blood

The thought makes me chuckle.An angry hamster,I amend.

She glares at me. “How did you even get in?”

I point my thumb behind me. “The door.”

Shelby blinks at me. “I’m starting to see why Sam isn’t talking to you.”

I gasp, clutching my chest. “You get mean when you’re scared.”

Her body instantly deflates. “I’m sorry. That was mean,” she acknowledges. Her fingers move farther up toward her neck, fiddling with something under her shirt. “I locked the front door, is what I should have said.”

I frown. “It was unlocked.”

Something dark passes over her face, and I don’t miss the way her eyes flit about the room.

“I’ll check the house.”

“Kaleb . . .” she says, her voice sounding unsure.

“It’s okay. It’ll give me something to do while you finish getting ready.”

“Why do I have to be the buffer between you and Sam again?”

“Because you love me like a brother.” I smile, stepping out of the bedroom and into the other. “Did she tell you?” I ask from the spare bedroom, not wanting to see the judgment on her face.

But Shelby doesn’t answer. I peek into her room as I pass. She’s looking at something in her side drawer.

I do a quick sweep of the rest of the house. It’s clear, but something still doesn’t sit right, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s being back in town after what happened last week? I brush off my anxiety and go back to Shelby.

She’s still lost in a world of her own, staring into her bedside drawer as I approach.

“I didn’t realize that you were seeing someone,” I say, looking over her shoulder.

Startled, she slams the drawer shut with her right hand. Her hip whacks the table as she turns to me and stumbles.

I catch her by the arm. “Careful,” I chide.

Stretching past her, I tug on the drawer handle, but her hip keeps it closed.

I give her a pointed look.

“What?” she asks innocently.

I don’t reply.

“She told me,” Shelby says, answering my earlier question about Sam.

She really doesn’t want this drawer open.

Straightening, I tower over her.

Shelby cracks first. Side-stepping, she drops her eyes from mine.

Opening the drawer, I look inside. Condoms. The packets are scattered, but it’s impossible to miss the clean slit down the middle of each one.

I’d know a knife slice anywhere. Someone piled them high and stabbed right through them. It was small, maybe a scalpel.Holy shit!

My gaze snaps back to her, and Shelby flushes. Blush spreads from her cheeks and down her neck. Her hand raises and fiddles with the same object as before.