Page 80 of Walking in Darkness

We peeked around the corner, watching Pax carefully edge across the floor, keeping his boots silent as he moved toward the French doors. He leaned his back against the wall to the side of them, and he shifted to peer out into the sunlight that poured in through the panes through a break in the clouds.

“Don’t see anyone,” he rumbled, turning back to us. “Dani, need you to shut off the alarm so I can go check it out.”

“I’m coming with you,” I said, getting to my feet, though staying low.

Part of me had expected him to argue, but instead he muttered, “Ah, baby, like I’d go anywhere without you.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Pax

Dani hurried over to the keypad and turned off the alarm, and the second it beeped, I turned the top lock on the French doors. My attention darted all over the backyard, searching for whoever was out there.

There was no question in my mind that someone was lurking.

Hiding.

Lying in wait.

I just hoped they had no fuckin’ clue what was coming for them. Had no idea that Dani was no longer here by herself.

There was no movement, just that awareness floating through the atmosphere. I slowly pulled down on the latch, and the hinges whined as I inched the doors open, then slipped through the crack and out onto the porch.

Gun drawn and swiveling from left to right, ready for any piece of shit to come charging toward me. Not sure what was going to happen if that beast turned out to be Ambrose. If he’d lured us here for this exact purpose.

Funny how we needed to get in front of him—fight him—if there was any chance of stopping him, but the thought of it was always wrought with terror.

Never knowing if he might prevail. If the only thing we were doing was setting Aria up for certain death.

Either way, it’d become clear that death could get at her no matter where she was, so the location didn’t matter.

Unless the whole issue with the location was that he didn’t want her someplace in particular.

It was a thought that had kept creeping into my head all day.

The distraction factor.

I kept thinking that maybe if he couldn’t end her as easily as he’d assumed he’d be able to, he needed to keep her out of the way.

Still, my heart rate notched up by a thousand as I crept across the porch, which was maybe ten feet wide. The wooden planks creaked beneath my weight. I could feel Aria emerge behind me, that energy fierce and unrelenting, though she kept back, sticking close to Dani as I slowly glided down the three stairs to the damp grass below.

The backyard wasn’t huge, but there was a fucking massive tree in the middle of it. The base of its trunk was at least five feet wide, branches stocky and substantial where they twisted out to create a canopy over the entire yard.

Plenty of cover to hide.

There was also a shed at the back of the yard near the fence on the left with a gap behind it.

But I was drawn to the right, where we’d heard the clanking. The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention as I inclined my focus in that direction.

Gut told me there was a presence concealed on that side.

I wound around the porch and pressed up close to the back wall of the house. Slowly, I slunk in that direction with my back against the paneling, doing my best to control the breaths that pelted from my lungs.

I was two feet from the corner when I heard a twig snap.

Adrenaline jumped into my bloodstream.

No question, someone was there.