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I bristled. “It’s not just that.”
He shot me a surprised look. “It’s not?”
“I mean—” I huffed and rubbed my face. “I guess right now it is, but I…”
When I trailed off, Vince stared at me in stunned silence, then let out an incredulous laugh.
“Holy shit.” He reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “Dan Ewen’s in love.”
“Shut up,” I muttered, slouching lower in my seat as my face heated.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see the day.” He chuckled, giving my shoulder a gentle shake. “Congrats, man.”
“I don’t know if I’m in love with him,” I mumbled self-consciously, but I wasn’t sure how true the statement was, and that was a little pants-shittingly terrifying. “But I… want him.”
So much. In a weirdly desperate kind of way I’d never experienced before.
“What the hell, man? Why didn’t you tell me you had a thing with the IT guy at work?” Vince asked with a laugh.
I huffed and admitted, “He’s also my neighbour.”
“What?” Vince cackled. “The guy you said would always complain to you about every little thing?”
A fond smile tilted my mouth. “Yeah, well, he doesn’t do that anymore. And I was a pretty terrible neighbour for a while.”
“Damn, that’s kind of hot.” Vince peered out the windshield at the dark house we were watching. “So we’re here to get vengeance for your man? Cool. I’m down with that.”
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” I admitted sheepishly. “He said it wasn’t a big deal, but it is. They pretended they had a gun. And Beans elbowed him in the face.”
“Fuckers.” Vince narrowed his eyes at the house, then exhaled and looked at me. “Okay. So what’s the plan?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” I rubbed my cheek. “I’m just so fucking angry about it.”
“Fair.” Vince nodded, then cocked his head. “Well, if you do want to go full unhinged dark romance boyfriend, I know a guy who could get rid of—”
“Is that them?” I straightened when I saw a tandem bicycle heading toward us down the street.
Vince peered out, then snorted. “Has to be. Who else is going to be riding that thing?”
We watched in silence as they cycled over their unkempt lawn to the front porch, then dismounted and carried the bike up the steps before disappearing inside. A few moments later, a light turned on in a downstairs window, blocked by what might have been a curtain but looked more like an old raggedy towel. Then Alpine folk music began to blare from the house, so loud I could feel it reverberating under my ass.
“Jesus, I’m so glad they don’t work at Goliaths anymore,” Vince muttered, rubbing his eyes, then chucked his cigarette butt out the window and looked at me as he cracked his knuckles. “Okay. Ready? I’ll just follow your lead.”
“Yes.” I was even more fired up after seeing those two assholes.
We climbed out of my car and crossed the street in silence, both of us glancing around to make sure no one was out here. It looked like the houses on either side were empty, which made complete sense. The hideously loud yodelling coming from inside muffled the sound of our boots on the front porch. Vince glanced around with a bewildered expression, because it was covered in creepy stick figures tied together with twine. There was a pile of hubcaps in the corner, and a gigantic bag of dog kibble.
“Jesus,” Vince muttered again, stretching his neck and shaking out his hands. “If they have a poor dog in there, I’m taking it with me.”
I had to hammer on the door in the hopes of being heard over the yodelling. After several long seconds, there was a click before it slowly swung inward with a loud, ominous creak.
Chapter Forty-Five
Dan and Vince Go on a Wild Journey in the Unspeakable Horror That Is Frank and Beans’ Home
Dan
Vince and I didn’t move at first, peering inside in confusion, because no one was standing on the other side of the door.
