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“No problem. Oh! Actually, I still have his watch. I offered to send it to his family, but maybe you could give it to them?”
The officers exchange a look, and I instantly regret opening my big mouth. “How did you come into possession of Mr. Emmons’s watch?” Smith asks.
“He must’ve dropped it on his way out. I found it on my porch the next day.”
Another look, and I want to scream that there’s no need for their silent conversation because I didn’t drug Austin before he left my house, if that’s what they’re thinking.
They nod and let me duck into the house. My cheeks burn as I grab the watch from the bowl by the door. Smith is already shaking open a plastic baggie when I return, dropping the watch inside like it’s some sort of evidence.
They’re clearly suspicious of me. All I got was a shitty first date and now I’m roped into a potential homicide investigation.
“Have a good day, Briar,” Rosario calls, while Smith doesn’t bother casting me a backward glance.
I wait until the cruiser is out of sight before letting out the breath I’ve been holding and heading inside to feed Cookie. That shouldn’t have felt like an interrogation, but it did. If they haven’t ruled Austin’s death accidental yet, maybe they’re just checking all the boxes.
I head for the pantry where I keep Cookie’s cat food, but she’s no longer in the window and already crunching. Either she still has food leftover from breakfast—unheard of—or she got into the trash again.
“Damn it, Cookie—” I round the corner into the kitchen only to find a tall man looming in the corner, arms folded casually and a sinister smile across his face.
A scream rips from my throat, sending Cookie darting out of the room as I lunge for a pan. I hold it up like a bat, all too aware of how terrible I was when we played baseball in P.E. and that I haven’t been to a gym in months. I’m pretty sure the last time I broke a sweat was when the elevator was out of order in theRamsey Center on campus and I had to climb the fifteen flights to the top floor.
But now I’m going to need to somehow fight off the intruder in my kitchen.
Saint de Haas.
The asshole played it off that first day of class like he wasn’t stalking me, and now here he is in my house.Definitelystalking me.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?” I screech.
He hasn’t budged an inch, not at all intimidated by the pan held above my head. His easygoing smile makes me want to rip his hair out. “I was wondering the same thing about Austin Emmons.”
“Wh—Austin?” My brain scrambles to put the pieces of this insane puzzle together. Two seconds ago, even I didn’t know Austin’s full name. “How do you know him?”
Maybe they’re friends. Relatives. Maybe he thinks I’m somehow responsible for Austin’s death, just like the cops. That I’m the one who gave Austin the drugs that killed him.
Saint shrugs. “He and I became acquainted after your...date.” The smile finally falls from his face, mouth souring.
My grip on the pan tightens. “Look, I didn’t have anything to do with him turning up dead, okay?”
Saint laughs, his entire face morphing with delight as his head tips back. Despite the fear churning in my gut, the musical sound makes my heart flutter. My stupid, stupid heart. “I know. Didn’t you get my gift?”
I freeze. “What gift?”
“The watch. On your porch.”
My blood runs cold. Austin’s watch didn’t fall off when he left my house.
Saint took it off Austin’s body and left it there. For me.
My stomach flips, nausea building. “Why did you leave that on my porch?”
He steps forward now, and I jerk the pan up higher, but he doesn’t cower in the slightest. “As a memento. To remind you of what I’m willing to do for you. The lengths I’ll go. The sacrifices I’ll make.”
My eyes sting at the raw terror consuming me. This man is nothing close to a saint. And far more dangerous than I thought. “Did you do something to Austin?”
Another step. And another. He’s in the middle of the room now, growing taller with every inch of distance he closes between us. He may be the tallest man I’ve ever seen. Well over six feet. His dark, wolfish eyes dance, glued to me like there’s nothing else in the room.
“I only gave him what he most desired,” Saint purrs. “In turn, he gave me what I desired—his nonexistence. His permanent severance from you.”
