5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
Aria
That revelation was a welcome one and something I could hold on to. Better than the idea that I was back where I’d started this morning.
Brooks pulled into the short driveway in front of his house. In the light of day, it reminded me of a bungalow with its weathered wood and big windows facing the water. Memories of our night together that I’d held at bay came rushing back. The way he’d touched me. How he’d asked me if I liked it…
I shook my head, scattering them to the shadowed recesses of my mind.
“Inside,” he said, cutting the engine and jumping out.
He waited for me in front of the hood, using his body to block me as we moved quickly up the short walk.
Just a few short hours ago, I had thought he would just be another distant memory.
Never did I imagine being back here ever, much less so soon.
Once the door was shut and locked behind us, I took the time to really look around.
Last night, everything had been so dark, and afterward I had been desperate to get out before he woke up.
The only thing I’d noticed was the sofa because I’d almost tripped over it.
But the room also held a chair, a table, and a lamp.
My eyebrows dipped. No TV. I’d never met a guy that didn’t have a TV.
I moved deeper into the room, drawn to the windows that took up the entire wall beside the sliding glass doors.
A round table with four chairs sat in front of it, but there was room for me to pass.
Outside in the back, a deck spanned the length of the house.
Only a beach chair sat beside a small black metal table.
Most of the space was taken up with a rack full of surf boards.
They were arranged by size and color. A smile lifted the corner of my mouth. I wondered what he’d do if someone moved them around. Just for fun.
My mouth drooped. How could I be thinking of fun? What kind of person did that make me?
Brooks set his keys in a dish by the door, turning to face me as I walked back into the room.
“Want something to drink?” he asked.
I shook my head, then stopped and shrugged. “Water would be nice.” He went into the kitchen, and I followed. “I need to go back to her house.”
Brooks was quiet for a moment as he got a glass and filled it with water. “We’ll go together after we regroup.”
“Okay.” Relief rushed through me when he didn’t try to talk me out of it or stop me.
He handed me the glass and led me to the sofa. “Feel like answering some questions?”
“What kind of questions?” I asked, leaning away from him.
“What can you tell me about your sister? Like what does she do for work? Who are her friends? What are her hobbies? Anything you think might be helpful.”
“She moved here a year ago after her boyfriend died. They’d been together since high school.
” I took a sip of water. “She had started a pet-sitting business for travelers. She’d found a niche with the boating crowds, but we haven’t kept up as much.
She was…sad, and I was a horrible sister, too wrapped up in my own life to be there for her.
I know she was struggling with Heath’s death. ”
“What did she do before she moved here?”
“She was a nine-one-one operator. But after Heath died, she couldn’t do it anymore.
It gave her panic attacks trying to help people through the worst days of their lives after living through it herself.
” I set the water down and shrugged. “I don’t know if she has friends here.
I do know the ones she had before, she ghosted. ”
“Have you talked to her recently?”
I wrapped my arms around myself. “Maybe a month ago?”
“Okay.” Brooks sat back. “So probably not dating. Nothing that would make her a target that you know of.”
“So we have nothing.” I stood and started to pace.
“I wouldn’t say nothing,” he said. “We know that she was isolated, that it is possible a family member of someone she couldn’t help could have found her from her old job.
Not likely, but possible. You know that she was here a month ago.
And you know that she is out there somewhere, still alive.
I’d say that’s definitely something. One last thing.
Do you have a picture of her? A recent one? ”
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her since she visited me right after she moved here. But she looks almost identical to me. Or, rather, I look almost identical to her. She’s barely ten months older. We’re Irish twins.”
He stood, pulled his phone from the pocket of his board shorts, and walked out onto the back deck. Through the glass, I could see the water and the long stretch of beach. Normal. Peaceful. Completely at odds with the fact that someone had just tried to kidnap me in broad daylight.
I slumped back down onto the sofa, pulling my legs up and pressing my forehead to my knees. Allie was in danger, and by accident, so was I.