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I felt the twitch of his smile beneath my palm. “Preferably naked.”
I laughed, fumbling out of the truck and onto the sidewalk. “Go.”
He idled there while I hurried to the door, and he didn’t leave until I’d made it safely inside. I flicked on the interior light, and the engine roared as he made a U and headed back the direction we’d come.
Silence echoed back.
So still.
It was weird, being in this house by myself, and I ran my hands up my arms to chase away the chill. I decided to go to the guest house and grab a couple things to keep myself occupied until Ezra returned.
Unlocking the back door, I stepped out, and I ran under the cover of night to the guest house. The chill had lapsed into cold, the month spinning away and nearing November.
I let myself in, and I flicked on the lights.
It felt like a week had passed since I’d been in here, even though it’d just been this morning when I’d fled to the room and grabbed my duffle thinking running was the only thing I could do.
I moved through the guest house and down the short hall to the bedroom, turning on lights as I went.
The duffle was still in the middle of the bed where I’d left it.
I went to the dresser and dug through my pajamas, and I pulled out a pair of lace panties and a matching camisole. Desire buzzed in my belly as I thought of him finding me that way, ready and waiting for him.
I went into the bathroom and tossed my toothbrush and face creams into a toiletry bag. I fought the errant thought that I was being a fool, taking some of my things into Ezra’s house like I belonged.
But I did.
I belonged.
My spirit whispered that it couldn’t be wrong.
I tossed everything into the duffle, slung it over my shoulder, and headed back into the main room where I went to the cabinet that sat beneath the TV that hung on the wall. I hesitated for only a second before I opened the drawer to dig out the journal where I’d hidden it after I’d had it out the last time.
Ready to share it.
To give it all.
Only my fingers fell against nothing.
Because it wasn’t there.
Two hours passed before the sound of Ezra’s truck approaching filled the night. I sat on the edge of his bed, my knees drawn to my chest as I rocked.
Tears wouldn’t help, so I’d battled them the entire time, trying not to succumb to the panic that bubbled from the depths. It was difficult though, since the dread was so thick I felt like I was being strangled.
Oxygen missing from my lungs, every breath haggard and harsh as I tried to inhale.
I listened to the garage door open then close, the opening of the hallway door and thudding of Ezra’s heavy feet. I wondered if he could feel the disorder clamor through the air, the fission of desperation and fear that crackled through the quiet stillness of the house.
Because his approach was slow. Cautious before he stood in the doorway, his jaw locked tight.
“Did you find anything out?” I forced the question up my throat, though the words came out like they’d gotten flayed on the way up. Cut into shards.
“By the looks of you, I don’t think the city council building is what I need to be concerned with right now. What happened?”
I blinked, and a tear fell, like it was free to fall into the safety of who Ezra was.
“Baby,” he whispered, and he was in front of me, my face in the surety of his hands. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I gulped around the razors, hating the weakness. The way I felt like I was falling apart. But it was my one link. My one hope. And someone had stolen it. Just like everything was stolen from me. And if someone wanted it, knew about it, and had come to take it? Then that meant my sister was truly in the trouble I’d feared she’d been in all along.
“The journal…I went to get it so I could show it to you, and it was gone.”
Every muscle in his body went rigid. Wired in protection. I could see his mind so clearly spinning through the possibilities.
And I knew we both were there, thinking about the near break-in at the motel and then about the person who’d been lurking outside the guest house—someone who’d been so desperate that they’d stabbed him.
Both of us had knitted the incidents together as if they were one.
“Where was it?”
“In the middle drawer in the cabinet below the TV. Hidden under a couple magazines.”
“Stay right here.”
Ezra stormed from the room, leaving a wake of rage behind him. The back door slammed, and I slipped off the side of the bed. I paced the room as I waited for him to return, part of me wanting to go help him, but the other already knew it wasn’t any use. I’d already searched every inch of the guest house before I’d finally retreated in here.
