Read Intrusion: A Novel for Free Online

said, leaning up on an elbow and looking at her. “It’s not me. The beast has a will of its own.”
    She tried to smile, pulled him down to hug him so that he could not see her face. Her body felt frozen into solid ice, impenetrable; icy fear surrounded her.
    “Scott, I love you. You know that.”
    “I know,” he said. “When you’re ready, tell me.”
    “Yes. Yes, of course I will.”
    He moved onto his back. His arm was still around her but she felt a distance between them, and after a time she heard his breathing become even as he fell asleep. Kat watched a narrow ray of moonlight as slowly through the hours it moved across the room. When it lit on Scott’s face she feared it might wake him, so very slowly, quietly, she crept to the window, closed the drapes, then returned to the bed. Scott stirred beside her.
    “Go to sleep, Kat,” he whispered. As dawn began to break, she did.

SIX
    K at woke to see Scott and Maggie at the small table in the corner of the room, sipping coffee and reading newspapers.
    “Oh, damn,” she said. “Maggie, I’m so sorry. Did I miss our breakfast?”
    “Missed the breakfast and the light lunch, too,” Maggie said. “Not to worry, darling. I’m barely out of bed myself.”
    Kat struggled to see the bedside clock.
    “You’re done with the meeting, Scott?” she asked.
    “Yep. It was short and sweet. Ted Lafitte thanked us. Sarah Harrison thanked us. Said it will be a pleasure working with us—she’s quite certain we’ll do an excellent job for her consortium et cetera, et cetera. And that was that. The associates all grabbed doughnuts and left. So did I.”
    “So they decided to take you on?” Kat asked.
    “I guess she’s decided. I think she has to present it to her board, but I kind of got the impression that if she said yes, it’s pretty much a done deal. Miyamoto seemed to think so anyway. He was mighty pleased. Grinning like a fool.”
    Maggie made a slight huffing sound.
    “Were they all bowing to her and kissing her ring and everything?”
    Scott stared at his sister-in-law with amused bewilderment.
    “Maggie, what on earth did this woman do to you to make you dislike her so much?”
    “How long have you got?”
    “Maggie. Please. Leave it alone,” Kat said, wanting to halt what she knew would be a long and detailed diatribe. “Sarah is Scott’s new client. It was a long time ago. Forgotten.”
    Maggie gave Kat a long look, appeared to register the pleading tone in her sister’s voice.
    “O- kay ,” she said slowly. “One thing, Scott—the very first time I met her, she booted me out of my own room in my own house.”
    Scott grinned.
    “You’re not serious?”
    “Yep. You remember that , don’t you, Kat?”
    “Yes. Of course.”
    Sarah’s first visit to the Watt home occurred on a day toward the end of the semester at the convent school. Kat’s mother studied this girl, with her long braided hair and her upper-class voice, knowing a stranger, and set out a proper tea with the best tablecloth used only for special visitors.
    “Why don’t we go to your room?” Sarah had whispered afterward. Kat stared at her, astounded: in her working-class world, kids did not use their bedrooms for anything other than sleeping and homework. When Kat and Sarah opened the door to the shared bedroom, Maggie was sitting at the small desk, her books open in front of her.
    “Oh,” said Sarah. “I didn’t realize you—Do you mind if we have some privacy?” she asked.
    Maggie’s cheeks were crimson and she trembled slightly.
    “I’ve got all my homework out,” she said.
    “I’m not going to touch your homework, silly,” Sarah said. “Golly, look how red you are. Do you always blush like that?”
    Maggie stood at once and hurried from the room, leaving her books still open.
    “So that’s why you dislike her so much?” asked Scott, bemused.
    “Oh no. There’s a lot more.”
    “Leave it, Mags,” Kat said.
    But Maggie took a sip of her coffee,