“What are you up to?” I asked.
He turned his laptop around and I moved closer to the bed to get a better look.
“Are those… security cameras?” There were six mini-screens displaying the front, sides, and back of the house, plus an area that looked like the orchard and the walkway leading to the gazebo.
“Had them installed while you were out today,” Dane said.
“Because of Harold?”
He hesitated. “We think someone was on the property a few days ago.”
“AfterI found Harold?” My heart started to pound.
He nodded. “We can’t be sure, but Noah thinks he saw a footprint. Wanted to be safe so I thought the cameras were a good idea.”
I thought about the day I’d walked around the property, the day Dane had surprised me outside.
“I thought it was you,” I murmured, sitting next to him on the bed.
“Thought what was me?”
“The day you found me out back I had this feeling that I was being watched. It had happened at the cemetery too, but I thought I was just being paranoid.” He shifted and his shoulder brushed against mine. I tried to ignore the zing that traveled through my body at the contact. “Then, when it happened in the garden, I thought it was you.”
He scowled. “I wasn’t following you.”
“I’m starting to figure that out.” Fresh worry nagged at my stomach. “Have you ever heard of corporate espionage?”
“The crazy shit businesses do to their competitors?”
“Not just their competitors. To anyone who gets in the way of their plans. Whistleblowers, activists, politicians.” I’d seen it in the city when big developers met with resistance. They employed all kinds of tactics to shut it down: threats to businesses and even families, blacklisting, violence.
“You think that’s what’s happening here?” Dane asked.
“I’m not sure. It’s confusing, because if Harold really was pro-Hearthstone, they wouldn’t have had a reason to kill him, but then…”
“But then who’s following you?” Dane asked.
“Exactly.” I’d just gotten to Blackwell Hollow. I hadn’t had a chance to register my feelings about Hearthstone one way or the other.
Dane scratched at his jaw. “You probably shouldn’t go out after dark anymore.”
I nodded. “You’re probably right.”
I was stubborn, not stupid.
Our gazes locked and I was suddenly aware of how close he was.
Close enough to touch. Close enough to kiss.
I leaned in without thinking, urged on by some primal instinct to be closer to him, and was surprised when he turned away with a groan.
“Wow… okay,” I said, flustered by the rejection.
He stood, pacing the room. “I’m not here to be your occasional mistake, Avery.”
I frowned, watching him move back and forth in the room. “That’s not how I think of you. At all.”
“Then why did you say it?”