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She took a beat. “And secondly, he wouldn’t take kindly to you approaching me in a public place with your unfounded accusations.”
It gave her a measure of satisfaction in the way Bella paled.
“I suppose you’re going to run to him now,” Bella said. “Make me the bad guy.”
Felicity let out a soft, incredulous laugh. “You’re the one who can’t keep her nose out of other people’s business.”
“Deputy Graham, your order is ready,” Niles called.
Never had she been more grateful for an interruption. “Excuse me.”
Felicity turned her back on the floundering Bella and placed the paper-wrapped meat in her cart. She deserved an award for the calm she projected as she walked down the aisle, aware of the audience openly staring.
To think Bella and her sister had once been friends.
All she wanted to do was shake the woman and scream a few truths in her face. After all, Bella was one of the people Felicity had been tasked to protect. The way she felt right now, the woman was one bad move away from being offered up as a sacrifice.
26
Perfect storm
The April storm arrived with savage intensity. Felicity was grateful to be off duty, but if it kept up, tomorrow was going to be a bitch of a day. Assuming she wasn’t called in before sunrise.
Thunder rolled hard enough to rattle the walls, lightning splitting the sky in blinding flashes that turned night into stark, violent day. The dogs were in her room before the second crack — pacing, whining, claws clicking frantic patterns across the floor.
“All right,” Felicity muttered, reaching down to pick them up onto the bed.
They burrowed against her, bodies trembling, pressing close. She dragged the quilt over them, her hand moving automatically — steady strokes, firm, grounding. “It’s just noise,” she murmured in Russian. “You’re fine.”
Lightning split the sky — even she jumped — the ceiling blazing white in a brief, ghostly flash, thunder crashing a heartbeat later.
Another crack.
And the window blew inward.
Glass shattered.
The alarm blared.
Wind howled through the room, rain slamming in sideways, soaking the floor in seconds.
The dogs lost it.
“Shit.” Felicity shoved upright, heart thundering in time to the rumbling of the elements. “Okay. Okay. Let’s move.”
She bundled them in the quilt and staggered for the door, cold wind lashing at her back. Stumbling into the spare room, she dumped them on the narrow bed. “You gotta stay here. It’s safe. The wind’s coming from the other side of the house.”
First — deal with the alarm.
The shrill wail echoed through the house, grating against her nerves. She punched in the code. The noise cut out instantly.
But not the storm.
Thunder crashed overhead, wind tearing down the hallway through the open bedroom door.
Her cellphone rang.
Damn. The monitoring company.
