Chapter 14
fouRteeN
ACRID SMOKE STUNG MY nose as soon as I stepped outside. Haven.
I planted my feet and tried to think logically. It was probably someone burning leaves. The fire department would have been called already. There was no need for me to rush over there and ensure she was okay.
My brain might have been thinking it, but my body had other ideas. Adrenaline crashed through me as I spotted her neighbor's house burned to an unrecognizable charred chunk.
Her house looked fine, but she could be dying of smoke inhalation. Logic fled and emotion was driving the train. As soon as the firemen watching over the charred lump looked away, I ran to Haven's back door, let myself in, and went through every room in the house looking for her.
I looked in closets, under the bed, even in drawers too small for her to fit inside. I looked in all the kitchen cabinets, too. Ridiculous, but I couldn't stop myself.
Then I tried to relax. I hadn't found her, which means she got out safely. I slumped to the floor, then bounced right back up. It wasn't enough for my brain that she wasn't here.
What if she'd been injured and taken to the hospital? Nose in the air, I made another circuit through her house, this time smelling for any hint of blood or burned flesh.
Her car pulled up out front, and I tucked myself behind the door. As soon as it shut behind her, I tackled her. I spun us before we hit the floor to take the brunt of the fall.
She pushed herself up on my chest and scowled at me.
"Quin! What the hell? You scared me half to death!"
"I'm sorry." My ears drooped. "I was worried and my brain started thinking you were injured at the hospital and then I heard your car pull up and I was so relieved I couldn't think straight."
She sighed, blowing back hair that had fallen into her face. "I'm fine."
"No injuries?"
"Not even a papercut."
I squeezed her tighter and she let out an urk.
"Too tight."
I let go and we both scrambled to our feet. I shook my hands out at my sides and stared at a speck of dust on the wall. "That's good, then. I'll just ... go."
"Actually, I'm glad you came. I need your help."
An entire herd of gazelles leaped through my belly.
"Two police officers showed up here yesterday."
I nodded but stopped before I blurted out; I know.
"My neighbor is a retired lawyer and he asked some friends on the force to look them up."
"What did he find?"
"That they aren't police. Mr. Howard still thinks they are—or were—law enforcement of some kind, but they aren't local."
My growl was unbidden. I wasn't angry. I was just... mentally inventorying how many ways I could end someone without traumatizing her. Again. "What were they asking about?"
She tilted her head to where the neighbor's house used to be. I suppose it was still there, just not in the same condition it was before.
"The creepy neighbor. Wanted to know what happened to him."
"Do you know what happened to him?"
The corner of her mouth tilted up. "I suspect you sliced and diced him."
Oh shit. "That was your neighbor?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I suspect so."
"Well, he deserved it. He was creeping around your house."
"So were you."
I waved my hand. "That's different."
"I don't see how."
"He was creepy and I'm fluffy." Absolutely airtight logic. Time to change the subject. "So how can I help? I can't exactly walk into the police station and tell them more creepy dudes are making you uncomfortable."
Her lips flattened. "Of course not."
The you idiot was implied. Fair.
"I was hoping you and your friends would help me figure out what's going on. It has to be related, right? Creepy dude next door, the"—she flicked her hand between us—"us—um—thing, and now this house fire."
"Are you suggesting they really did send you here as some kind of lure to capture us?"
She shoved her fingers into her hair and paced. The sleeve of her shirt fell to her shoulder and the moth tattoo seemed to smirk at me. Of course, she was a plant. BioSynth would stop at nothing to recapture us.
"I don't know! Maybe? If I am, it makes sense they'd have me watched, and when that watcher disappeared, that they'd get rid of any evidence."
She turned and barreled toward me, looking up with big, round eyes.
"But I promise, I don't know anything about this. Whatever it is, I am as clueless and in the dark as you are."
Right then, she could have told me she knew exactly what they did to force an unnatural bond between us, how they planned to use that bond to recapture us, and what they were going to do to us when they got us back—all villain monologue style—and I wouldn't care.
In that moment, I would have happily thrown everything out the window. For her.
And it scared the crap out of me.
Instead of running out of the house screaming, I nodded. I wouldn't say I believed her, because I didn't. Not yet.
"My friends will help. We'll see this thing through to the end. We'll figure it out."
She slumped forward and buried her face in my chest. My arms wrapped around her and I tried to ignore how right she felt. My muzzle sank to the top of her head, cocooning her. I felt a deep breath being let out on a shudder, and I was a goner.
I just couldn't let her know. If she ended up being in on the plot, it would rip my heart out.