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The messages distracted me from my show, and the yawn that took over let me know I should try to sleep. I had the afternoon shift the next day, which was always lots of work. Plus, I planned to start cleaning the basement tomorrow morning.
I’ll get some shut-eye. Have a good shift!
Thanks, sweetie!
I put the phone down on the coffee table and decided I’d give myself another five minutes of Dean to make sure I’ll have sweet dreams after.
My eyes burned, and I kept them half closed when the storm became much stronger, roaring in the night. The blanket covered me and Spike. I was about to drift off. A new, loud thunder made me pull the cat closer to me. This is ridiculous. I’m a grown woman. I should not be afraid of thunder.
“Dean,” I whispered and kept watching him. This time he was biting into a cheeseburger. The sexual energy he had about him made me drool.
“Yum” was the only thing that crossed my sleep-deprived brain as I saw him.
There is a possibility that I fell asleep. My eyes were closed, and I lay on my side as a new episode glowed and sent rays of warmth from the screen.
A roll of thunder made all the windows shake. I found myself wide awake.
“Ugh.” I was not willing to get up and go to bed. But the TV was off. The power fuse had blown.
“I’ll fix that tomorrow,” I whispered to the cat, who was snuggled by my side and didn’t give a damn about the storm and my fears.
Just as I was about to fall asleep again, I heard a loud knock on the back door.
Fear made me want to melt into the darkness. This was the first time in my life that I lived alone. If a serial killer took my life, no one would miss me.
Then I recalled that Mrs. Smith, my elderly neighbor, used to be Granny’s best friend. She was bad with technology. Maybe she was scared or feeling bad and didn’t know how to work her phone. I was the one who told her she could stop by, no matter when, after I moved back here.
Grabbing my phone to use as a flashlight, and with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, I made my way toward the small hallway behind the kitchen. This was the space that hosted my washer and drier, and not much else.
The darkness showed the outline of a body. I was too sleepy to make out who that could be. Prudence was not a town with a high crime rate. There was no crime, except the occasional speeding or the college kids from the nearby campuses who would go to the local bar with fake IDs and try to get drunk. That was all.
“Coming, Mrs. Smith. I hope you didn’t get wet,” I said, not looking forward to seeing my neighbor who would ask me why I didn’t get married and remind me that, at my age, I was an old maid. How could I be an old maid after being married so long and divorced? That was above me.
Everything happened so fast.
2
YANA
First, I opened the door. The next thing I knew, I was looking down the barrel of a pistol pointing toward my face. The barrel was cold and wet and almost pressed against my mouth. My eyes moved up and down frantically trying to gather information.
His scent was overwhelming. The man wore a leather jacket that smelled like heaven. The fear and shock I felt as I looked down his gun made me forget about everything that could feel good.
“I… I don’t have much , but you’re welcome to take what you need.”
Fear bit at my heart and soul. The rush of my blood made it hard to focus on something specific. As a former ER nurse in Chicago, I was used to troubled people, like crackheads and aggressive drunks, who made helping them difficult. Even gangsters who arrived shot and bleeding with that hint of violence gleaming in their eyes. That used to happen at the hospital. This was my home, my sanctuary.
“Ruby?” he called out and pushed himself against me, using his large body to make me step back. As my hands touched him, they became covered in blood. His blood. The gun was pointed towards my chest, but he was burning with fever and shaking.
How did he know my Granny’s name?
“I’m her granddaughter. Ruby is dead.”
My mind tried to solve the puzzle. What was a wounded man doing in the middle of the night in my kitchen looking for my grandma?
“Help me!”
“Please, put the gun down. I’ll call an ambulance.”
