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He put his hand on his stomach. Then nodded and got to his feet. “You know, I think I will.”
By the time he came back, she’d managed two baby new potatoes and the rest of her chicken. The asparagus was a hard pass. Putting her knife and fork down, she was more than content to sit and watch Daniel shove food into his face like he hadn’t had anything to eat in years.
For a moment, she entertained her usual fantasy that he’d just had a really bad bout of pneumonia and was recovering.
“I love taking a shower with you,” she murmured.
“You know, I couldn’t agree more.” He wiped his mouth with a fancy white napkin. “What do they say, cleanliness is next to godliness? Although I feel like we got pretty dirty.”
“Yes, we did.”
He continued to eat some more, and then, between bites, he said, “Listen, I’m going to head down to the lab for a while.”
“Oh, okay. More of Gus’s magic sauce? Or is he finally letting you exercise some.”
“Yeah, something like that.” He moved a potato around with his silver fork. “Actually, I’m doing a little research for C.P.”
“About what?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she murmured, “Oh, that.”
“In a weird way, it feels good to do something productive.” He motioned back and forth with his fork. “I’m not going out into the field or anything. I’m just trying to make sense of some old files in a database. Trying to figure out who was knocking on our door last night.”
“Are we a target here?”
“Well, the dead man on the lawn suggests yes. The question is whether whoever it is will have the resources to get through all our defenses. The smartest thing C.P. ever did was move into this house. Blowing up something under a cornfield in a rural town is one thing. This estate? Sure, Walters has a population of a hundred, but the footprint of a mansion like this? It is as far from invisible as you can get.”
“Yet that’s what you were sent here to do.” Lydia put her hands forward. “I’m not accusing you of—”
“Oh, you’re right. That is what I came to do—but my focus was the lab. And the difference now is that she plugged up the entrances and tunnels on the mountain. Even if somebody were to blast the hatches—which would create a light show and set off some really big boom-booms—they’re just going to face concrete caps and an excavation job that will take days, if not weeks, to get through.” He pointed to the floor. “She’s centralized the access now, which means fewer entry points to defend. You need a lotof firepower and know-how to get into the lab now, and until I know otherwise, this house is still the safest place for us to be.”
“Are we prisoners here, then?”
“It’s safer that way. At least until we know what’s going on.”
Lydia thought about what Xhex had told her, about how she had to go to the mountain, and found herself standing up in a rush. “Well, I’m not going to live in fear. I’m still going to go out.”
“Lydia, be reasonable—”
“I’m not the target and neither are you.”
“Anybody associated with C.P. Phalen is a target.”
Crossing her arms, she tried to imagine not being able to run free, and the panic choked her so badly she had to pace around the table. As she circled, she stared out into the darkness, picturing the meadow, the forest, remembering the smell of the clean air and the feel of the grass under her feet, her paws.
“I’m going to keep living my life.”
Daniel put down his fork. “Be serious here. You don’t know what this type of killer is capable of.”
“I was out there last night by the car. They went after the guard, not me. I walked right out into the darkness. They don’t want us—”
“That is not a reasonable conclusion. Maybe whoever it was knew they’d gotten spotted and backed offin case defensive reinforcements were called. Which in fact they were. You’ve got to trust me on this. I understand you’re frustrated at the thought of—”
“I’m not like you, Daniel. I think you’re forgetting that.”
Daniel opened his mouth. Closed it.
Going around to her chair, she sat back down. “I have instincts and capabilities that humans don’t, and I’ve never hesitated to use them. I’m already living in terror of your disease, I’m not making space for that kind of fear anywhere else.”
“Lydia.” Except then he stared at his plate. As he pushed his half-eaten seconds away, he cursed. “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
