Chapter Fifteen

Lincoln

Sienna was right. I can’t help but watch her through the open bathroom window. Holding a pine branch back, steam drifts out in ghostly waves and I’m mesmerized by the way she washes her hair. The light glistens off her body which is as smooth as porcelain, yet soft and warm to the touch. I want to be the water running down the middle of her back and when this is over, I’m going to show her just what I mean. Then we’re getting the hell out of here. Together. She doesn’t know it yet, but this time, I’m not taking no for an answer. I either act with confidence or let it haunt me the rest of my life. There is no other option. If she slips through my fingers again, I will see her face in every crowd. Smell her perfume when no one is there. I’ve never felt anything like this before and will require more. Much more. She’s the one drug I cannot quit.

Letting the branch slip back into place, I rip my gaze from her naked body to scour the backyard. Crickets chirp off in the bushes and, outside of some strategically positioned solar lights, it’s dark as hell. But my night vision is coming in nicely. I can see every angle someone could take to come and add to the cigarette pile outside the brightly lit bathroom window. Thanks to this overgrown Christmas tree, no one can sneak past me. If he comes tonight, and something tells me he will, I’ve got a big surprise waiting for him.

Like a moth to a flame, my gaze draws back to the window. As if she knows I’m watching, Sienna turns and stares right at me, showing me her gleaming breasts. They’re perky and firm, but not as firm as the bulge in my pants. Goddamn, I want her again and I can’t imagine a life without her. I won’t. This time, I stand and fight for what’s mine. I’ve never fought for anything in my entire life but that changes today. Right here in this dark-ass backyard.

Unzipping a black leather jacket, I watch Sienna tip her head back and rinse shampoo from her hair in bubbly rivers. She’s so fucking beautiful, I have to adjust the boner in my jeans to a more comfortable position. Movement off to the right tugs at my attention, sending a streak of panic slashing through me. Sinking into the pine tree, soft needles tickle my cheeks as I watch a dark figure emerge from the shadows collecting around the back of the fence. Though my pulse skyrockets, I calmly pull Jack’s nine-millimeter from the holster in the small of my back. I’ve never shot anyone before and don’t intend to start tonight. But if this gun doesn’t scare tall, dark, and creepy into submission, I’ll shoot him in the leg if I have to and that’s as far as this shit will go. Despite the pure adrenaline fueling my pounding heart, I stay calm and remind myself to breathe. I’ve shot enough guns over the years to know that improper breathing will give the perp sneaking across the grass the upper hand.

Whoever it is, they are quiet and dressed in black to blend with the night. As predicted, the shadowy figure pushes through the burning bushes and stops outside the bathroom window. Light steals across a man’s face and I know he can see Sienna naked. I know he’s studying her slippery breasts and the chocolate strip running down below. Quietly slipping out from the pine tree’s soft embrace, I sneak closer with the gun wrapped in one hand and a darkened LED flashlight in the other. Bravely, or foolishly, the intruder lights a cigarette and I stop a few yards behind him. He’s not jerking off or shooting video. He’s just standing there watching Sienna shower while taking long drags off the cigarette. Using my thumb, I click the hammer back and he freezes mid-drag. Swallowing dryly, I didn’t expect him to be so fucking tall. His suit coat and bowler hat of some kind are black as night and creepy as shit. When he slowly turns to face me, my heart drops but my aim doesn’t. Clicking the flashlight on, I feel a frown slide down my face. The guy’s way too old to be one of Jack’s students. Hell, he’s older than Jack! Not to mention, the dark hair curling from beneath his round hat doesn’t match a blond in the least.

“You’re getting predictable,” I say through clenched teeth, tightening my grip on the weapon.

Dropping the cigarette to the ground, the man barely raises a pair of long, bony hands into the air, staring down at me like I’m a frightened child. Slowly, he grinds the toe of a black wingtip into the burning smoke, crushing it into the grass. “Now, please take it easy, sir. I’m just out looking for my dog. Okay?”

“She’s not your dog,” I growl, tightening my lips. I could shoot him right here, on Sienna’s property, and Stand Your Ground would cover my ass. I want to. This sonofabitch has crazy eyes and I know that if I don’t kill him, he’ll come back. There is no fucking doubt in my mind. But I’m no killer so I hold off…for now. “Sienna!” I call through the window, making the man flinch. The shower stops and the man and I continue a silent stare off. A dog starts barking three doors down, punctuating the quiet night with its incessant warning.

“Get your hands up higher,” I command, watching him obey.

The bathroom window darkens with Sienna’s silhouette. “What is it?” she whispers, wrapping a towel around her.

“I got him.” The window clears, giving way to the light inside, and I gesture with the gun. “Over to the patio.” The tall man bows slightly before lumbering stilt-like legs across the yard with his hands raised halfway to the moon. “Sit.”

He drops onto the couch I took Sienna on earlier this afternoon, pulling his suitcoat out from beneath him. “Listen, I can explain,” he says.

“Shut up,” I snap, keeping both the light and gun trained on him.

Grudgingly, he closes his mouth and leans back into the couch, squinting against the glow. He crosses his long legs and moonlight glistens off the shiny wingtip swinging through the air. The dog stops barking and the ensuing quiet hums in my ears. Exhaling, the tall man examines his fingernails as if he’s waiting to see the dentist, sparking my irritation. When Sienna comes out dressed in tight yoga pants, a Madonna cut-off, and bare feet, my heart swells with something I’ve never felt before. Moonlight winks off the butcher’s knife wrapped in her hand, tugging at my heartstrings. She’s so beautiful and innocent, I hate to see this fear in her eyes. She’s suffered enough for one lifetime and I make a silent promise to never let anyone hurt her again. Not Jack and certainly not this bag of bones. Cautiously, she comes around the couch, and I can tell by the wrinkles jutting from the corners of her eyes that the man’s age is registering in her mind. That she’s putting him somewhere between fifty-five and sixty, and has never seen his gaunt face before in her life.

“Take off the hat,” I say, gesturing with the handgun.

Staring confusedly at me for a second or two, the home invader removes the bowler, exposing dark curls leading to a receding hairline. Setting the hat on the cushion next to him, high cheekbones stretch his face. Dark circles pull on his sad eyes and, like his suit, his skin hangs from his bones.

“Who-Who the hell are you?” Sienna stammers, keeping her distance with one hand holding in her heart, and one clutching the knife.

Lifting his chin, he straightens the knot on a golden necktie. “Surely, you remember, Mrs. McConnel.”

Frowning, I jerk my gaze to Sienna, searching for understanding.

“No, I…” Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she wags the knife at him. “The hospital,” she barely whispers, blood turning cold in her veins. “Down in the morgue.”

An Adam’s apple bobs along his slender neck. “That is correct.”

“What’re you doing here?” She swaps a puzzled look with me I don’t like.

“I think you know,” the man simply responds, smiling tightly with his hands folded neatly in his lap.

“Sienna!” My eyes flick between them. “What’s he talking about?”

“I…” She takes a small step backwards. “I don’t know.”

The man uncrosses his legs and leans forward, painting a concerned expression across his face. “Oh, but that’s not quite true, is it? I think you have a very good idea what I’m talking about.”

“Get out,” Sienna says through her teeth, pointing the knife at the gate hiding around the side of the house. Even in the dark, I can see the red rising in her cheeks and I don’t like that either.

“Sienna!” I shout. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Are you going to tell him?” The man spreads a toothy grin. “Or shall I?”