I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then reopened them and examined the space again. Everything looked normal. It was just a garbage can, and nothing seemed to be out of place.
“Sam!” I hissed, wondering if maybe it was just him. Maybe he’d been over there.
Except, I knew there was no way he had gone from one side of the house to the other in that short amount of time. Nor would he slink away if he knew I was watching.
Heart pounding, I took a step closer, then another, hoping no one popped out to scare me. It sounded like an ocean was swooshing in my ears as dizziness washed over me from how hard I was holding my breath.
With the slowest of movements, I reached out for the edge of the can, grasping the handle. My heart pounded in my chest, each thump growing louder in my ears, but I gave a solid yank before I lost my courage and found…
Absolutely nothing.
Sagging, I nearly collapsed as all the air rushed out of my lungs. I was going insane. I had to be.
A hand clasped on my shoulder, and I screamed, spinning around as I threw my wine right into Sam’s face.
“What the fuck?”
“What are you doing?” I screamed at him, still terrified as my heart galloped even faster than it had been. “Are you insane?”
With his sleeve, he wiped off the remnants of the wine. “No, but you might be. What the hell are you doing?”
“I saw something moving over here,” I snapped.
“So, you decided to check it out?” he seethed. “Do you know how stupid that is?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do! But that doesn’t give you the right to sneak up on me and scare the shit out of me!”
“I wasn’t trying to,” he argued. “You were just standing there. I thought something was wrong.”
“Then use your words like a big boy,” I yelled.
Snatching my arm, he wrangled me back to the house as I yelled at him the whole way. As soon as he had me through the door, he grabbed the handle and slammed it in my face, glaring at me through the glass.
“Stay. Put.”
The added jab of his finger at the end of his sentence pissed me off the most, but I did as he said, slamming the glass down on the table. As I stared out into the night, I replayed the shadows moving along the side of the house and the fear that raced through me.
I had been stupid. Sam was right there. I should have asked him to check it out.
The door slid open moments later, and just for a second, I considered telling him I was sorry for wandering off.
“There’s no one there, but that doesn’t make what you did any less stupid.”
Then again, apologies were for pussies.
22
SAM
Sweat poureddown my face as Deke pushed me even harder today. My arms were killing me in the best possible way, and my body was exhausted. I hadn’t felt this exhilarated in over a year. Still, even as good as it felt, my mind was not entirely in the game.
I couldn’t get Cass out of my mind. She was permanently etched there. Her smile, her laugh, her tears when she cried at the end of Elf. There wasn’t a single thing about her that I couldn’t get out of my head.
And it was all my fault.
I used the excuse that Knight was borrowing my home on wheels for a lab for Kate, but in reality, I was enjoying staying with Cassidy just a little too much. I snuck in around the time she went to bed, but instead of going into her bedroom, we stayed up watching whatever Christmas movie she wanted.
I told myself I was there to protect her, to keep an eye on her until we figured out how Austin had poisoned Clara and got the proof we needed to lock his ass up. But that was taking time.