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“He made some valid points, all right? And I quickly realized he was being a dumb fuck anyway.” His smile tipped up toward his eyes. “Glad you remember that about me, though.”
I remember everything about you.
Instead, I said, “Duh, Matt. We’ve just been apart for a few years, not lost at sea for two decades.”
Matt chuckled and unlocked the back door. We stepped inside, ceasing any chitchat and laughter.
More silence. The darkness only lasted a moment before Matt flipped on the lights. We stood in his kitchen, an open-concept space that looked out into the airy living room, two huge windows stretching from floor to vaulted ceiling, looking out to the front of the house.
We didn’t need to speak. Matt motioned toward the left as he branched off to the right. We’d split up and conquer. If someone was still hiding in here, we were going to find the fucker, one way or another.
I walked down a tight hallway. The light switches were my main priority; finding them and turning them on, I followed the hall as it curved and entered into the foyer.
Nothing. No one. Everything seemed untouched, exactly how it had been left. Nothing was turned over or destroyed or even misplaced. Pillows were on the leather couch, magazines were in their basket, and the expensive-looking vases and decorations were untouched.
Matt entered the foyer from another door, shaking his head. His eyes turned upward, following the stairs that lead up into another shadowy darkness. I took the lead. Matt put a hand on my lower back as we climbed, a tactic to ensure I knew I had backup.
Although Matt’s touch always felt like more than that.
The hallway upstairs was empty, just like the one downstairs was. The bedroom door was shut, but warm orange light filtered from underneath the threshold, bathing the beige carpet and highlighting two indents in the rug.
Matt crouched down. “These aren’t my feet.” He stood up and put his foot next to one of the outlines. Sure enough, his was bigger by a noticeable amount.
He unholstered his gun, and I did the same. The bedroom door suddenly seemed like a portal about to send us straight to hell. We had no idea what was waiting for us behind it, but we were prepared.
Matt put three fingers in the air and dropped them one by one. On the last, he pushed the door open and stormed in. I was on his back, covering his blind spot, scanning the room with our pistols drawn.
“Nothing,” I said as it quickly became clear we were alone. The closet door was open, and the clothes were pushed aside. We checked under the bed and looked out the window. No one.
“My bag,” Matt said as he lifted a black book bag that was sitting next to the dresser. “I had left it on the other side of my bed this morning.”
“Someone moved it?”
“And didn’t zip it all the way. Left it half-open.”
“What was in there?” I moved to Matt’s side as he opened the bag.
“Nothing but some books and gym clothes. Whoever was in here was clearly hoping to find more.”
“Fuck.” There was no denying someone had gotten in here and rummaged around, trying to find something. “How’d they even get in?”
“Maybe they stayed here before me, made a copy of the key. I’m going to have to ask the mayor if she’s lent this place out to anyone else.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sat on the edge of the bed, neatly made with the white comforter tucked tight under the mattress.
He was always a stickler for detail.
“The Pegasus was in here,” Matt said. “He’s onto us.”
“And we’re onto him. We’ve already got video footage of the likely killer. It’s only a matter of time now. With both of us working on this, I’ve got hope that we can put this monster in a cage before the week is up.”
“You were always the more optimistic one.”
“And also the hotter one.”
Matt arched a brow, tilting his head toward me. “Says who?”
“You know better than that. I can never reveal my sources.”
He rolled his eyes and laughed. It felt strikingly odd, laughing in a room that had just been searched by our target. The mouse coming into the lion’s den and scrummaging around for a crumb of cheese.
Unless it was the other way around—us being the mice and him being the lion…
“You should go,” Matt said, standing back up. “I’ll search some more and see if I find anything.”
Leaving Matt behind, alone, without any backup, when there was a bloodthirsty serial killer prowling around in the shadows outside?
That sounded like a terrible idea to me.
I knew I had a choice. Did I let Matt sleep here in this spooky-as-fuck house where a serial killer was no doubt lurking around, or did I invite him over so he could spend the night at my place? Safety in numbers and all that.
