Page 27

CHAPTER 27

T hat night, we went back to the cottage. There was some plumbing run in the kitchen now, and somebody had delivered cabinets and a sink still in their boxes, so it was still a construction zone, but there was progress. Rose and I unboxed stuff while Rose enthused over her farmhouse sink, now on the floor. Then we went upstairs, still no shower, and went to bed early, and now I was watching Rose sleep in the glow from the embers of the bedroom fireplace. The comforter was pulled up to her chin and her dark hair was splayed out on the pillow.

She was naked under that comforter.

I knew that because I’d been next to her for the past couple of hours. Five minutes ago, I’d slid out away from that warmth. My clothes had conveniently been on the floor on my side of the bed, and I’d gotten dressed. Now I was sitting in an old rocking chair that Rose had found somewhere and fixed up. I had it angled toward the stairs and the bed so I could keep watch. And also see what I was watching over.

Something was off.

Not a very specific something. More a vague sense of uneasiness that had brought me out of my slumber. I was perfectly still, my pistol in my lap, a round in the chamber, the safety off. The windows were shuttered and the door locked so I’d have plenty of warning if someone tried to break in. An intruder could try sliding in the chimney, but they’d get fried in the process.

So we were safe.

But we weren’t. I didn’t want to admit it, but Rose and I were fooling ourselves escaping Rocky Start by coming out here into the forest across the Little Melvin. As if we were leaving all the problems behind.

What had awakened me? That realization oozing up from my subconscious or something else, something tangible outside? I realized I could deal with anyone coming in, but a potential killer didn’t have to come inside to take us out. There were bombs and fire and nerve gas and, really, when you’ve survived as long as I have, the number of ways you can get killed seem infinite.

Reluctantly, but inevitably, I got up and crept down the stairs in my socks. I put on my boots and jacket. I wished Maggs was with us, but she was serving a higher cause protecting Poppy—and Marley—upstairs at Oddities.

Leaving all the lights off, I went to the door and unlocked it. Then cracked it open, sliding outside, weapon at the ready. The snow had finally stopped. But it was bitterly cold. I moved away from the door. My eyes were already adjusted to the dark. The lights of Rocky Start glittered across the Little Melvin through the leafless trees. There were several Christmas displays up, blinking colorfully.

It looked like one of those pretty postcards of the way a small-town Christmas should be. Except it was Rocky Start. For the first time I wondered if Rocky Start could really be like that. And then I wondered if it should be. If maybe it should be just what it was, weird and dangerous and full of people who looked out for each other. So not that different from other towns after all. And then I stopped wondering and paid attention to my immediate surroundings.

I turned away from Rocky Start and scanned the darkness on this side of the river. I waited, feeling the cold seep into my body. A hard lesson I’d learned many years ago was to do nothing. To be still. So few people were capable of that, especially when the environment was unfavorable. If there was someone out there, they were going to have to outwait me.

It was only when my teeth began chattering uncontrollably that I decided to give it up. If there was someone from the Cauldron out there, they were earning their money. Which, based on my experience, they did with the least expenditure of time and energy as possible. So I felt reasonably confident there wasn’t.

I put my hand on the door, then paused as I heard something. Very faint. Almost completely masked by the sound of the Little Melvin. A low buzz that I couldn’t place. I looked again, focusing on the off-center part of my vision, which worked better in the darkness. Nothing moving.

Then I realized the sound was coming from above me. I scanned the sky through the bare branches. The night was partly overcast. The buzz grew louder and then I saw a small dark blur shoot by about two hundred feet up and then it was gone.

A drone.

I was both relieved—something had actually alerted me—and concerned. Who the hell was operating that thing? And why? It’s not that drones were illegal, but why was one flying over the forest this late at night?

I waited a while longer, losing all feeling in my fingers and toes, but it didn’t come back.

I slid back inside and went upstairs and sat down in the rocking chair, gun in lap, in front of the dying fire. It took ten minutes to stop shivering and regain feeling. Much too cold to crawl into bed and chill Rose awake.

There most likely wasn’t a real threat right now. This was more like what it felt like when I’d gotten tasked with a mission but had to wait for the actual mission packet to let me know exactly what it was. Something was looming. I just didn’t know the specifics.

And then I waited for dawn, watching over Rose.