by Katie Ruggle
“Hey,” Otto objected mildly. “Fireman Steve’s okay. I appreciated that ladder.”
Stepping back so Hugh and Otto could go inside, Jules looked back and forth between the two. “I have to hear this story. All I got from Dee was something about superheroes and how strong Otto is and how we need to go buy cat supplies. Oh, and something about a tree falling over?”
Hugh laughed as Otto groaned. He already knew he was going to hear about this for years. Stepping into the crowded kitchen, he glanced around, wondering where the newest houseguest was. Jules’s three teenage brothers were sitting around the table showing Theo their homemade remote-controlled airplane that, to Otto, looked too much like a drone for comfort. Hugh had pulled out a chair and was lounging in it, trying to hide his sheer relief at sitting down and doing a crap job of it.
“Where’s your friend?” Hugh asked Jules, and the kitchen went quiet.
Jules’s mouth firmed into a straight line. “Nope.”
“Nope, what?” Hugh asked, widening his eyes innocently. No one who knew him believed that look for a second.
“Nope, you’re not going to do this again.”
“Do what?” Hugh widened his eyes more.
“Every time someone new shows up in town, you grill that person until she wants to run away and never come back.” Crossing her arms, she leaned against the counter. “It’s the worst welcome wagon I’ve ever seen, and you’re not doing that to Sarah.”
“Her name’s Sarah?” Theo asked, trying to sound offhand. “Sarah what?”
Otto resisted the urge to groan. Theo was worse than Hugh at playing innocent. Judging by the way Jules narrowed her eyes, she felt the same way.
“None of your business, Mr. Cop.”
Theo frowned at Jules, and she met him glare for glare. Even when he stood up and crossed the kitchen, crowding her against the counter, she held her ground. Theo’s mouth quirked up, and then he kissed her.
Otto did groan that time, as did every occupant of the kitchen, except for Theo and Jules. Although the kiss had ended, they were staring at each other in their sappy, only-two-people-in-the-room way.
“Are they at it again?” Grace said as she walked in from the hallway.
“Yes.” Ty, one of the twins, covered his eyes. “You guys shouldn’t do this in front of me and Tio. We’re still children.”
“You two kiss so often, I’m surprised your lips haven’t permanently fused together,” Grace said as Hugh grabbed her hand, reeling her toward him and pulling her into his lap.
“I’d like my lips to become permanently fused to yours.” Hugh teasingly nuzzled Grace’s neck, making her laugh.
Tio looked at Hugh, his forehead creased. “That’s not possible. Besides, it would be extremely inconvenient to be conjoined at the mouth. How would you eat?”
“I wouldn’t need to eat,” Hugh answered in a melodramatic tone. “Who needs food when I have Grace?”
Looking increasingly bothered, Tio said, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s Hugh.” Jules had managed to break out of her Theo trance, although he was still standing very close to her. “He never makes any sense.”
“Hey!” Hugh protested, sounding amused. “Occasionally, I make a lot of sense.”
Patting him on the head, Grace gave Jules a look. “Sure you do, sweetness.”
As Hugh pretended to bite Grace’s hand, Otto glanced away. Seeing his two partners so happy in their relationships was gratifying, but it also made him feel…odd. He unintentionally caught Sam’s gaze, and the two shared a look of mutual discomfort. Otto liked Sam, the oldest of Jules’s brothers. Although the teen was still jumpy and suspicious around people who weren’t his siblings, Sam had settled in a lot since the family had moved to town. He worked at the kennel where one of Otto’s projects was staying, and Sam was great with the dogs. Otto could sympathize with someone who found the company of animals easier than the company of people.
“So, my love, my beauty, my goddess,” Hugh was saying to Grace, catching Otto’s attention. That amount of flattery was guaranteed to lead to something big.
“Yes?” Grace sounded suspicious, and Otto had to hide his smile. She was starting to know Hugh as well as his partners did.
“Heard you have a new roommate.”
Grace hopped out of his lap, crossing the kitchen to get a glass from the cupboard. “We do, indeed. She’s very nice.”
“Yeah?” Hugh sounded hopeful that Grace was going to spill some details, but Otto had a feeling he was about to be disappointed.
“Yeah. Too bad you’re never going to meet her.”
Hugh, who’d sat forward in anticipation, flopped against the back of his chair. “What? Why? Do I embarrass you? Are you embarrassed for me to meet your friends?”
As she filled her glass from the tap, Grace gave a small shrug, shooting Hugh a sideways look. “Of course you do, and of course I am, but that’s not why you’re not meeting Sarah. You guys will pick on her.”
“Will not.”
“Will too.”
“Will not.”
Otto cleared his throat, knowing from experience that Hugh and Grace could go on like that for hours. “Can I meet her?”
The kitchen grew quiet again. Grace and Jules had a silent conversation involving meaningful stares and contorted eyebrows and a few scrunched noses.
“Fine,” Jules finally said, and Theo and Hugh made protesting sounds. “Otto only.”
“Why Otto and not us?” Hugh asked.
“Because Otto’s nice.” Putting her glass on the counter, Grace moved toward the doorway. “Come on, Otto.”
“Get her name,” Theo said, not looking pleased to be excluded.
“A driver’s license number would be nice,” Hugh added. “Maybe she could stop by the station sometime, and you could get a full set of prints.” He laughed as Grace raised a mock-threatening fist.
With a neutral grunt, Otto followed Grace out of the kitchen. If this houseguest was anything like Jules and Grace, she was running from something. Theo and Hugh were blinded by the need to protect Grace, Jules, and the whole horde, but Otto didn’t see the value in interrogating their newest arrival. He’d get an impression and trust his instincts to lead him well. If his gut told him the stranger was someone to worry about, then he’d worry. Until then, he’d ignore Hugh’s and Theo’s meddling.
“Pay no attention to them,” Grace muttered as they headed for the stairs. “Sarah is a sweetheart.”
“We’ll see.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Grace gave him a hard look and then snorted. “It’s good that you’ve had years of practice ignoring those two.”
Otto made a noncommittal sound. Even though she wasn’t wrong, he wasn’t about to say anything negative about his partners, even to Grace, who was head over heels for one of them. Having known Hugh since they were kids, Otto had rescued his friend from too many badly-thought-out plans to count. Theo was more even-headed, although the past year had been a rough one for him. The effort of keeping his partners and their new loved ones safe, especially over the past few months, had been exhausting, and Otto hoped that the upcoming season would be as boring and uneventful as winter in Monroe tended to be. The arrival of this new “old friend” of Jules’s wasn’t a good sign, however.
As they moved down the hall, Otto looked around with interest. He’d never been to this part of Jules’s house before. The floor groaned under his steps, but Otto was pretty sure it was solid enough to hold his weight. The doorways weren’t standard, smaller than in modern houses, and the knobs were many-faceted crystal. The walls had been recently painted. For as quaint and character-filled as Jules’s house was, Otto knew it was a rickety money pit. It didn’t help that Jules’s absentee landlord never seemed to fix a thing. Theo helped, but Jules and her siblings did most of the repai
rs…with mixed results. Otto had to smile at the sight of a hall light fixture held together with duct tape.
Grace stopped at the last door on the left and knocked.
The door swung open so suddenly that Grace jumped back, startled, as Dee darted out of the room.
“Sorry, Grace!” she yelled as she ran for the stairs. “I’m in a hurry. Jules and I have to go to the store for cat things. My new kitty must be starving.”
A soft laugh came from inside the room. “Hey, Grace. Did you need something? I hope it’s nothing that involves moving. I’ve been enlisted as a cat-sitter, and he—or she—has taken that very literally.”
Otto moved around Grace and pushed the door open all the way so he could see the mysterious new houseguest. As he took in the woman sitting cross-legged on the bed, the cat sprawled bonelessly across her lap, Otto suddenly found it hard to breathe.
She was beautiful. Light-brown hair loosely curled over her shoulders, just a few shades darker than her olive complexion. Something about her slight, fine-boned frame and delicate features reminded Otto of a fairy, a woodland creature who would disappear if he looked at her too hard. He blinked several times, confused and a little alarmed at the unusually whimsical path his brain had taken. The stranger’s head was tipped down as she looked at the cat, but then she glanced up at Grace—and saw Otto.
Her sweet smile dropped away, and her already huge dark-brown eyes widened even more. Immediately all expression disappeared, and her face smoothed into a polite mask. Her gaze only wavered for a second, when she darted a look toward the window. With the door blocked, Otto assumed she was checking for another escape route.
Otto knew that look. That was the look of someone who was terrified. Worse, that was the look of someone who was so used to being terrified that she’d learned to hide it. This woman was obviously an expert at masking her fear. She tugged at her shirtsleeves, pulling the material so far over her wrists that half of her hands were covered. Otto had seen that gesture before. He’d be willing to bet money that those long sleeves hid bruises.
Damn it.
The sight of this beautiful, frightened woman kicked his protective instincts into high gear. The intensity of his reaction startled him. Although he was a sucker for animals in need, there weren’t many people he allowed into his life. This fist-to-the-gut attraction—this instant magnetic draw—was unfamiliar…and uncomfortable. He’d just met Monroe’s newest and most mysterious resident, and he already wanted to be near her, to help her. The longer he looked at her, the stronger the urge grew to protect her, to reassure her, until her fists unclenched and the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders relaxed.
He wanted to make her smile again.
Unwillingly fascinated, Otto took in every detail, from her clenched jaw to the tiny twitch of her left eyelid to the rogue strand of silky hair that had slid forward to frame her face. Her mouth was full and pink and completely distracting…and with a sinking feeling, Otto realized that he’d been staring much too long.
Grace cleared her throat, dragging his attention away from the house’s newest resident. Looking back and forth between the two of them, Grace said, “Sarah, this is Otto Gunnersen. He’s a cop. In his spare time, he rescues stray cats from windmills. Otto, this is Sarah. She’s an old friend who will be staying here for an indeterminate amount of time. You, Theo, and Hugh are not to bother her about insignificant details, including her full name, criminal history, date of birth, or anything else along that line.”
Otto couldn’t speak.
It wasn’t just that he couldn’t get the words out. The words were just…gone. In social situations, he tended to get quiet, but this was different. He’d never had this strong a reaction to anyone. This feeling was so intense that his brain had just given up. His thoughts had come to a screeching halt, and he had to concentrate on breathing. Words were simply not going to happen.
Sarah stared at him, quiet as well, her neutral expression not giving him any clues about what she was thinking. The longer the silence continued, the more frantically Otto tried to come up with something to say and the blanker his mind became. He had the terrible thought that something completely inappropriate would pop out, something about how pretty she was or how scared or how he wanted to keep her safe.
Otto stopped worrying about not saying something and started worrying that he would say something mortally embarrassing that would make her hate him forever. The seconds ticked by, the faint chatter coming from the kitchen and the low hum of the wind outside pressing against the house the only sounds. Neither looked away.
“Wow. This is awkward,” Grace said. “Otto, when I said you weren’t allowed to interrogate her, I didn’t mean to ban all polite conversation. You can, you know, tell her it’s nice to meet her or make some comment about the weather.”
She paused, and silence dropped over them again.
Otto tried to stop staring, but he couldn’t seem to pull his gaze away. He felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach, but not in a painful way, just hard enough to steal his breath—and apparently all higher brain function.
“That’s it.” Grace turned and headed for the stairs. “I’m getting Hugh. There are never any weird silences when he’s around.”
The mention of his partner finally knocked Otto’s brain back into gear. If Hugh saw him now, he’d never, ever, ever let it go. Hugh would tease him to the point of torture, and it would be Otto’s fault. He was acting like an idiot, all because he’d been introduced to an attractive, frightened, oddly fascinating woman.
Turning instinctively to follow, Otto realized that he hadn’t said a word to Sarah. He twisted around, but he couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just raised a hand in an awkward, clumsy wave that embarrassed him even as he was doing it. Sarah blinked and then slowly, cautiously, lifted a hand in response.
Unsure whether she was returning his greeting or mocking him, Otto spun around and practically bolted after Grace.
“What in the holy hell was that?” she whispered once they were on the stairs, hopefully out of earshot of both Sarah and the group in the kitchen.
Otto gave a small shrug. He honestly had no idea. What he did know was that the new arrival had burned her image into his brain. His gut gave a twinge, telling him what he already knew—his life was going to change.
Chapter 5
Alice—no, she reminded herself, it’s Sarah now—stared at the ceiling of her new bedroom. She’d startled awake in the predawn darkness, her heart thumping and her body clammy with sweat from a forgotten nightmare. Falling back asleep wasn’t going to happen. Even though she’d been living in her new home for four days now, the bed felt strange and the night sounds were different. The wind never stopped blowing here, constantly groaning and whistling as it slipped around the old house. It should’ve been soothing, that constant noise, but it made Sarah nervous. It covered all other sounds, like possible footsteps on the stairs or the creak of her door or the squeak of the floorboard right next to her bed. If someone broke in, they could use the wind as cover. She might never even know they were there until they grabbed her.
Sitting up abruptly, Sarah fumbled for her bedside lamp. Her heart beat quickly as the bulb finally flickered on, and she peered around the room, checking all of the shadowy corners for any sign of danger.
The room was empty.
Gradually, her breathing slowed, but she was reluctant to turn off the light. She glanced at the stack of library books she’d checked out the day before, but she felt too twitchy and restless to read. She needed to move.
Sliding out of bed, she shivered as her bare feet made contact with the cold hardwood floor. She moved over to the window, looking out over the side yard and the trees that stretched beyond it. It was dark outside, though, the moon not bright enough to illuminate much of anything.
It was too easy to see frightening shapes in the blackness, so
she backed away from her window. Looking outside had made her feel more trapped, rather than less. She cast a longing look toward the closed bedroom door, wishing she could leave.
Why couldn’t she leave?
As the realization sank in—that she was free now, that she could walk out of her room if she wanted, that she could do pretty much anything—a flutter of excitement shot through her stomach, drowning out the lingering fear. She hurried to dress in jeans and a hoodie, pulling the clothes on over the leggings and long-sleeved shirt she was wearing as pajamas. After tugging on socks, she slid her feet into her athletic shoes.
Despite knowing that she wasn’t doing anything wrong, a bubbling, slightly anxious thrill warmed her blood as she reached for the doorknob. Ever since she could remember, she’d been locked in her bedroom at night. Sarah had never taken a nighttime stroll before, and her hand trembled as she pulled open the door.
More darkness awaited her, the gloom barely lifted by a couple of hallway night-lights. Although Jules had said that the small lights were for the kids, in case they needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, Sarah already knew that her new landlady had issues with the dark. Sarah understood. She had her own demons.
She made her way toward the stairs, walking as quietly as she could. The floor creaked and groaned with every step, making her grateful—for once—for the steady drone of the wind. She didn’t want to disturb any of her housemates, and she also didn’t want any company. Jules, Grace, and the kids were wonderful, and Sarah was grateful to Mr. Espina for sending her to them, but she needed to start doing things on her own. After all, this house and this town were just a temporary stopping place, somewhere to hide from Aaron and get her wobbly legs steady underneath her.
No one had popped out of their room as Sarah made her careful way down the stairs and to the coatrack by the front door. She hadn’t had a chance to shop for winter things yet, but Ty and Tio were happy to share their winter clothes with her. It was a little embarrassing to wear the same size as the thirteen-year-old boys, but she was grateful for the loan. It hadn’t snowed yet, but the wind was fierce, and it would have cut right through her hoodie.