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“Clearly,” she said.
“Come on.”
“Do you have like a gun or anything?”
“In a lockbox in my truck, yes. But not in the house.”
“But it’s where you can get to. If you need to.”
“We won’t need it. Whatever’s going on, I’ll finish it hand to hand.”
He felt her relax.
“I’ll take care of you,” he said. “I always take care of you.”
And that was when he realized he didn’t want her coming toward the noise with him. “I want you to stay here,” he said.
And then he turned to face her and felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. She was looking up at him, those pale lashes all spiky, her green eyes searching.
And he couldn’t get their previous conversation out of his head.
Except over the top of that he felt a surge of protectiveness.
And without thinking, he reached up and touched her cheek. “Stay here.”
Her eyes fluttered closed, and she swayed toward him, just slightly. And everything in him went tight. He took a step back. “I’ll be right back.”
He went down the stairs and toward the kitchen. The noise was definitely coming from the kitchen. From the pantry.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned sharply. “I told you to wait upstairs,” he said.
“I didn’t want to,” she said.
“I didn’t ask what you wanted, Cara. I’m protecting you.”
“Well now whatever it is knows we’re here,” she said. “Because you’re being loud.”
“You’re being loud,” he said.
“It’s coming from the pantry,” she said.
“Yeah. I got that.”
He reached out and opened up the pantry door, quickly. And there, inside a flour sack, he saw a big fat ring tail. There was a movement, followed by a cloud of pale white dust, and then a small masked face and two spindly claws appeared over the edge of the bag.
“What the ever-loving hell?”
“It’s a raccoon,” she said, sounding charmed.
“Those fucking things will eat your face off,” he said.
“They’re adorable,” she said.
“They’re menaces,” he said. “All right, you little bandit, get out of there.”
He was not about to call animal control over one small ring-tailed menace. Hell no. And he didn’t think that was just the wine talking. He was going to be able to get it out of there.
“I hope you’re happy by the way,” he said. “Because I knew there was a very reasonable explanation for why people were hearing noises in the house.”
