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He did, and I got back into the seat I’d vacated only a few minutes before.
He pulled out into the street once again, and I pulled up Sara’s messages.
She’d sent me Greer’s address last week for me to drop by and take care of her car, but upon staring at it in her driveway, I’d decided that it needed more than just tires.
Hence why I’d had it taken in. It needed a tune-up yesterday. I had no clue what the fuck had happened to her car, but my secret worry was that she’d sold it because she couldn’t afford to pay her bills or something.
Which had me being a hell of a lot more interested in her well-being than I was comfortable being.
So…I fixed what I could so my conscience would be appeased.
Mostly.
“This is her place.”
I looked up, having not realized that we’d driven as far as we had.
Greer didn’t live far from me. In fact, I knew she lived four blocks away from me, in an older and more run-down part of town, but again, it’d been only last week that I’d been to her place for the first time.
And I’d forced myself not to study the house or the surrounding area because if I did, I would have to admit to myself that it could use a lot of work.
Hell, the lawn looked like it needed mowed months ago. The long pathway leading to her house looked like it’d needed replaced two hurricanes ago. And the fuckin’ house itself? It looked like The Munster’s house. All Gothic and dark and well in need of a tune-up.
It didn’t fit the beach vibe of the neighborhood, or hell, even the entire damn town.
The place was in serious need of a fix-up.
Just like her fucking car.
“This place is creepy,” Silvy said.
I grunted and got out, reaching for Greer’s purse as I did.
The chain and loop handle caught on her foot, and I accidentally pulled her off balance from where she was propped up in the corner of the car. It caused her to slip down even farther into the seat, slightly bang her head on the window, and her head to fall deeply to the side.
“Whoops,” I said.
Still, she didn’t wake.
“Sara wasn’t kidding when she said she slept like the dead,” he murmured.
I pulled out her keys and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Using her keys, I unlocked her house and turned on the front porch light as well as the entranceway light, then left the door open to go back for her.
Silvy already had her half propped up in the back seat, ready to pick her up, but I waved him off.
“I got her,” I said. “She’s really off about being touched by anyone that’s not someone she knows.”
She’d been that way since I’d known her.
“One time,” I said as I maneuvered her into my arms and carefully moved her out of the back seat. “When I’d first met her, I’d offered her my hand. She took it, then immediately threw up after.”
He chuckled as he stepped back. “I would’ve never known. She interacted just fine at the station.”
She had. She was very good at covering up her weakness.
I hadn’t cared enough about her to ask why she had that particular phobia, though.
I’d thought about asking Sara once or twice—okay, a million times—but I’d never gone and done it.
“Be back,” I muttered as I maneuvered myself down the long walk.
Luckily, how Silvy was parked, it illuminated the well-worn path and the dips and divots in the worn concrete. Meaning I didn’t trip and fall on top of her, smashing her with my body.
When I got to the stairs, I swore.
One sagged considerably underneath my and Greer’s weight, and I froze. Moving my foot to the step higher, I breathed a sigh of relief when it held.
Jesus Christ.
How was she living like this?
Even when I got inside, I could tell that there was no heating or cooling inside. There was also a weird smell, as if the ventilation was off somehow.
I’d just stepped into the house, ready to swing the door closed with my foot, when I heard it.
“What would Jesus do?” I heard and froze.
My eyes swept the dark house, taking in all the nooks and crannies that the shadows concealed, and I felt my heart start to pound.
I was a goddamn bodyguard, and I hadn’t taken a fucking second to go through the house and make sure that it was safe.
What in the…
A gray bird with his top feathers ruffled up walked out of the kitchen, doing the death march that zombies do in the movies.
He walked right up to where I was standing with his owner in my arms and said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
I pinched my lips between my teeth to keep the burst of laughter from escaping.
