Page 103 of Traces Of You

She assured the back door was locked, then moved to the front, flipped the porch light and looked around.

Her head moved to the side when she thought she saw a shadow or a movement.

Oh my God. Was someone out there?

Taking a few deep breaths, she convinced herself it was her imagination. It had to be.

She grabbed the baseball bat she’d found in the closet and kept under her bed where she could reach it if she needed.

After moving the curtain out of the way again, she unlocked the front door and opened it a crack. “Hello. Anyone there?”

What a ridiculous thing to ask. As if they’d be like, “Sure, just going for a nighttime walk.”

But if it was anyone in Ford’s family, they’d tell her.

She opened the door wider and scanned the darkness. The rustling continued, her eyes darting in every direction. The sky was black, the moon the only light, casting eerie shadows through the trees that circled her.

There was no way she was going to jump at every sound for the rest of her life.

Fears had to be conquered.

Her flashlight was moving around the yard as best it could as she looked for signs of life.

She took a few steps off the tiny porch to see if she could see further onto the property, her fingers gripping the bat tighter.

The minute she turned to return inside, someone moved out from a bush, had her screaming loud enough to scare animals for miles.

And have Clay racing out with his gun drawn and pointed at her.

“Jesus!” she said. “What are you doing?”

She crouched to the ground so that if she fainted, she wouldn’t hit too hard. It sure the hell felt as if she was going to with the head rush chased by the adrenaline flowing through her extremities.

Clay dropped his arm by his side, the gun still in his hand. “I saw the light flashing in the front yard through the trees.”

“You were watching my house?”

“I’m always watching.” He moved closer to her. “But I was getting ready for bed and saw a flash out my bedroom window. It’s angled toward your place.”

“Oh,” she said. That made her feel oddly comforted.

“What are you doing out here at night? As if it wasn’t bad enough you didn’t tell me you left the property today, now this?”

Here they went again. “I heard a noise. Or I thought I did. I fell asleep on the couch and something woke me.”

His gun came up again. “Get inside and lock the doors.”

“What?”

“Go! Don’t open the door until I text you.”

She didn’t even realize she was still crouched until she stood up and bolted into the house. She slammed the door, locked it behind her only to stumble when the bat she hadn’t realized she was still gripping caught against her leg.

The ten minutes it took for her to get the text from Clay was enough to make sure she didn’t piss herself when he came out from the shadows.

She didn’t know if her heart could take anymore.

Let alone her nerves.