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She wouldn’t be…but for some reason her brain just couldn’t compute that they weren’t there.

Maybe I should suggest she let Tara inside to see that there’s nobody there.

I immediately dismissed that thought, though.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Wheeler,” I apologized. “I wish that I could do something more than call the cops when she came.”

Mrs. Wheeler made a sound in her throat. “We’re thinking about going back out again anyway. Maybe she’ll be gone by the time we get back.”

One could only hope.

But I secretly wished they’d stay, and push Tara some more, hopefully get her arrested one of these times and force them to keep her for a while.

And maybe a miracle would happen such as they declare her clinically insane and put her into a mental hospital that she’d never come back out of.

“It’s okay, Liner,” Mrs. Wheeler sighed. “She’s not harming anybody just yet.”

Famous last words.

“Bye, Mrs. Wheeler,” I said and hung up.

I didn’t bother to call Castiel or Wade like I would’ve normally done. I had a feeling that one or both had already been informed of the shit swirling in my neighborhood, and one would already be on their way.

Instead I walked to the kitchen and sifted through my mail that I’d allowed to pile up.

It was a bunch of bills that I had on auto-draft, a shit ton of magazines, and quite a few little random pieces of mail. Such as the one from Publisher’s Clearing House that said I had a chance at winning a million dollars.

It all went directly into the trash but the one and only bill that didn’t get auto-drafted. My electric bill.

Due to some glitch in the system, it wouldn’t allow me to put the payment onto auto-pay because of some stupid reason, and I fought the damn thing tooth and nail each month.

A knock at my door a few minutes into the Gun magazine I’d dropped into the trash then immediately pulled back out had me reluctantly walking to the front entry.

I wasn’t surprised to see Wade standing there.

I was surprised, however, to see that Tara was already gone.

“Hey,” I said. “You got rid of her fast.”

Wade shook his head. “She wasn’t here when I pulled up. Mrs. Wheeler said that they spoke, and Tara decided to leave.”

I shook my head and wished that it was always that simple.

Mrs. Wheeler was a very nice person, though, and each time she was there she tried to convince Tara to leave.

“She say if Tara said anything?” I asked curiously.

Wade shrugged. “One of these days I want to bust her for something other than trespassing.”

I wanted that for Tara, too.

“Maybe next time she’ll do it at night and Mrs. Wheeler will shoot her,” I offered.

Wade snorted. “Anyway, I gotta go. Just wanted to let you know.”

I nodded my head and watched him walk down the path that led to his cruiser.

As I did, I wondered if this newfound seeing Tara everyday thing would continue.

Turns out, I needn’t have worried. Tara didn’t show back up on Mrs. Wheeler’s property.

She showed back up on mine.

***

I was lying in bed, contemplating getting back up and just heading into work a couple hours early seeing as I couldn’t think about anything but Theo when I heard it.

A thump-thump.

I sat up in bed, as did Monster, and listened harder. I wasn’t sure if Monster sat up because I did, or because he’d heard what I was thinking I’d imagined.

But then there was another foreign sound. A sound coming from an area that should be quiet.

This time, there wasn’t a thump. There was, however, a shuffle of a foot on the wood of my kitchen.

I strained to hear more but couldn’t.

Monster got off the bed and went to the door, a low, menacing growl leaving his throat the likes of which I’d never heard before.

That was when I realized that I wasn’t imagining things.

Oh, and there was someone in my house that was able to get past my security system…a security system I’d completely forgotten to set.

Son of a bitch.

My feet hit the floor just as I heard the shift of the floorboards that were right outside the kitchen.

Whoever was out there had come in the back door, otherwise I would’ve never heard them. The kitchen had some water damage that I hadn’t quite gotten fixed yet. Everything in there had to be replaced. The floorboards, the joists. It would cost a fortune and I hadn’t wanted to pay the money just yet since I hadn’t decided if I wanted to stay in the house or not.

But I found myself thankful that I hadn’t fixed them seeing as the sound of the intruder entering had alerted me that they were there in the first place.

Then a sudden thought occurred to me.

The doggy cam. The one that my father had jokingly gotten me for Christmas last year.