AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don't know what's been going on with her lately.” Eloise pressed her fingers to her eyes, trying to dull the headache that was building. She had been distracted lately because of Ethan, and she didn’t blame Sarah for being frustrated, but surely it didn’t warrant that level of vitriol. “With any of them, really.”
“She wanted you to go in and fix it today?” David was at least looking a little bit more sympathetic than Jackson, though he was hardly swimming in it.
“No,” Eloise admitted. “She didn’t ask me to, but I feel terrible, and I know I messed up. I should have been spending extra time at the office, too, and I would have been, except?—”
“Except you’ve been coming home on time because of Ethan,” David finished, and she nodded miserably.
“I don’t blame you.” Jackson winked at her. “We’ve all seen the way that man looks at you. I’d be leaving on time, too.”
“I guess I left them in more of a lurch at the office than I realized.”
“I doubt you have, or your own boss would have said something.” Jackson finished off his lemonade and stood up to walk his empty glass to the kitchen. “I think they might just be jealous.”
“Jealous? Of what?”
“Either jealous because you’ve fallen into bed with your very hot neighbor and they wish they had one, or jealous about the time you’re spending with him because it means you spend less time with them.”
“That’s silly,” Eloise said, the defense rising to her lips automatically. Those women were closer to her than her blood family had ever been. Still, she wondered, deep inside in a part of her she wasn’t proud of, if that might explain the strange way they’d been acting lately. It had started right after Ethan had been shot, when he’d come to her house and things had really started to change between them.
“Matters of the heart are often foolish,” Jackson replied. He kissed her on the cheek, and she held the door for them as they left. “If you make it home at a decent hour, come on over. We’ll have plenty of food if you’re hungry or coffee if you’ve already eaten.”
“We miss your face,” David agreed. “Our door is always open.”
“I know,” she hugged him fiercely, a sticky guilt worrying its way into her heart. “I’ll come around as soon as I can.”
She hated that feeling, the idea that maybe her mother had been right and she couldn’t balance work and friendships and all the other parts of her life that mattered to her if she let a man turn her head.
Or worse, a family.
She’d never spoken the desire for that out loud, certain she’d follow her mother’s plan and keep her eyes on the promotions and not on the distractions. If she couldn’t handle a boyfriend without hurting her friends’ feelings and dropping the ball at work, it was clear she’d never be able to handle a husband or motherhood.
It occupied her mind as she drove, oblivious to the sinking sun slipping away behind dark clouds that began spitting rain onto the pavement as soon as she’d gotten in the car. She cursed her lack of an umbrella as she parked, the slow drizzle having already turned to a steady downpour that pooled on the pavement and splashed up to soak her shoes. Wind whipped through the trees, and she crossed her fingers that the power lines would stay up, just this once, long enough for her to do what she’d come for.
The rain was inconvenient, but the hot summer air at least made the cooler weather a relief and she wasn’t freezing without her jacket. Lightning cracked across the sky, a rumble of thunder following almost immediately behind, and she scurried faster, eyes locked on the door and the safety of the building.
She didn’t see the body until she nearly tripped over it in her haste.
Bare feet, dirty at the bottoms. Sweatpants, dark blue. A gray T-shirt. Red hair, tangled and floating in a puddle of muddy water. Green eyes and the familiar slope of a nose. Kim’s face was gray and her eyes open and staring blankly at the sky. There were bruises on her throat, distorted blues and purples that would never heal.
Eloise turned her head and vomited in the grass before her mind had time to put together the pieces of what she was seeing. She clutched at her stomach, heaving until she could get control of herself enough to drop to her knees beside her friend. She pushed the wet hair back from Kim’s face, checking the coolness of her cheeks and leaning down to feel for breath, though she already knew what she’d find. There was no sign of life, just blue lips and waxy skin that made her shudder as a new, terrifying thought occurred to her.
Someone had done this.
Someone had killed her, snuffed her life out, and they might still be watching. Eloise looked around, taking in the rain-soaked sidewalk and the wind-swept trees. Nothing looked out of place, but her skin tingled, alive with terror. She needed to call 911 but it wasn’t safe for her to linger here. She had brought nothing but her phone with her. Nothing that could offer protection. She’d have to make a run for the safety of the building or the car, but doing so empty-handed was a terrifying thought.
Kim had dropped her purse, the contents scattered over the ground beside her, and Eloise lowered her eyes long enough to scan what was there. There was nothing useful, no hidden knives or pepper spray. Just some makeup, a tampon, and a pack of cigarettes with a matchbook tucked into the clear plastic lining.
An echo of Kim’s voice flitted across Eloise’s mind, “God forbid my mom ever finds out,” and she grabbed them on impulse as she stood, stuffing them into her pocket to protect her friend’s memory from the disapproval of her family. They already had to lose her. They didn’t need her memory tainted with habits that had embarrassed her.
She backed toward the building, hoping to take refuge behind a locked door, but found her fears about the electricity to the building going out had been well founded. This happened every time it rained, and the employees had been complaining about it since she’d been hired. She wondered, wildly, as the ID scanner remained lifeless and unresponsive to her panicked attempts to unlock the door, if this would be enough to get them to install some kind of backup system to work around the security door. Assuming she lived long enough to explain to management the way it had nearly killed her.
Left with no other choice, she ran back the way she’d come, each panicked step sending a spray of water flying. She kept her eyes moving as she ran, deliberately avoiding looking down at Kim’s body as she passed and trying not to think about anything other than getting to safety. She’d figure out what to do about Kim, when she knew for certain she wasn’t about to be next.
Her feet slapped against the pavement and echoed back to her, convincing her mind that there were others running behind her, that she might be grabbed at any moment, pulled off balance and thrown to the ground. She would take her last breath under a rainy summer sky, just like Kim.
It took precious seconds for her to fish the keys from her pocket once the car was in sight, then several more to hit the button needed to unlock the doors. She was shaking as she fumbled for the handle, even though there was still no one around when she looked over her shoulder.
It wasn’t until she was in the front seat, wet and shivering with the doors locked, that she was able to take a breath and think about what she needed to do next. Kim was dead, and the only people that knew that were Eloise and whoever had killed her.
