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Would Church know who Loïc Leduc was? Finding out had seemed important to Severin, but if he and Rodrigo didn’t know, chances were Church wouldn’t either. And as much as Church was on Severin’s side, she didn’t want to talk loosely about Severin’s legal affairs, and yet felt bad that Severin had pushed him completely out of the loop.
“Anyway, I have to go help Ilse. Thanks for letting me vent, Minnow. Kick my brother for me, okay? Just in the shin. Tell him he’s an ass.”
“I like you, Church, but have you seen the man? Kicking him seems like a bad idea.”
“Nah. He’s a pussycat.”
They both laughed.
“Call anytime. If he won’t talk to you, I will. This place is making me stir crazy.”
“Yeah. You have to find some hobbies that send you into town regularly. If you don’t, civilization will seem unnaturally loud and busy in no time. You can’t help him adapt if you let yourself become a hermit too.”
“Point taken.”
“Make it so.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
“Oooh...I knew I liked you.”
They hung up, and Minnow went looking for Severin again. No luck.
She had a quiet dinner, putting aside a plate for him. How long before she should start to worry?
With Sutton coming home tomorrow, she’d sort of expected to spend the evening together fooling around, or at least being sexily and pointedly ignored, but maybe Sutton’s imminent return didn’t mean much to him. As much as she was excited to have the woman back – it got lonely at the house sometimes when Severin was in a solitary mood – she was also going to miss the lack of privacy for the relationship she and Severin seemed to be starting.
At eleven she put on her flannel pajamas and walked down to the car garage. Although she’d looked for him there earlier, and none of the cars seemed to be gone, she couldn’t remember if she’d counted the bikes. She flipped on the lights and counted. All accounted for, and the garage didn’t even smell faintly like exhaust.
Where the hell was he? Did someone pick him up to take him out somewhere? Had he gone out walking and broken his leg? Had he gone swimming in the lake and frozen?
Alone, in an old silent mansion, in the middle of nowhere, she suddenly didn’t feel so safe. She lay in bed for a few minutes. There was a loud bang somewhere in the house, and she sat bolt upright again. Severin? Or was it a serial killer?
Fearful, she tiptoed through the entire house, finding no sign of what could have made the noise, scaring herself more with each passing minute, imagining dangerous criminals lying in wait for her.
Maybe Severin was back at the forge by now. What was better? Getting killed alone in the house, or getting killed alone in the yard? At least in the yard maybe Severin would find her before she bled out.
Why didn’t she have his fucking cell number? Because the man never went anywhere, that’s why! She should have asked Church for the number when he’d called, but she hadn’t wanted to admit she didn’t have it.
Fine. She’d go looking for him yet again. She pulled on her jacket and boots, grabbed a flashlight, and crept through the barely lit house, feeling the chill before she even got to the door. Usually Severin laid fires in the fireplaces in the rooms they were using at night because he preferred them over the electric heaters, so she had no idea where the controls were, or if she was even allowed to touch them. She was afraid to set up a fire herself in case she did it wrong and burned the house to the ground.
At the main door to the back of the grounds she hesitated. She squinted into the darkness, expecting a creepily masked man or a dead body to appear any minute. Adrenaline coursed through her, and she had the urge to run back up to her room and hide in the back of the closet until morning. The house was so big no one would think to look for her in there, right?
A light flickered in the yard, but it was off to the far right of the forge, mostly concealed by trees. Her heart leaped. But then, maybe it wasn’t Severin. Maybe it was her imagination. Maybe there was a brush fire.
Maybe he was regularly abducted by UFOs.
That would explain a lot.
Fuck. She wasn’t leaving the house unarmed. She went back to the kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife, half afraid she’d panic and fall on the stupid thing, but carrying the whole knife block with her was an even dumber idea. She stared at the knife for a few minutes, imagined having it grabbed out of her hand and used on her, and put it away. Besides, if she nicked the blade, Sutton would use it to skin her alive.
Holding her breath, she opened the door and slipped outside, her heart hammering so loudly in her ears she couldn’t hear anything else. She paused, waiting for her eyes to adjust, and turned on the flashlight before breathing again.
The grounds were silent other than the sound of wind in the branches. The chill seeped through the fabric of her pajamas, numbing her legs as she moved toward the flickering light. She passed the pool area and kept going, dry grass crunching under the soles of her boots no matter how quietly she tried to move. Her heartbeat tripped over itself as she neared the edge of the trees and attempted to peer around their obscuring wall. Fire crackled, and the scent of wood smoke drifted to her on the breeze.
“What are you doing?” a deep voice boomed from behind her.
Minnow shrieked. Her flashlight tumbled out of her fingers and she ran like hell.
