Sexy.
Trouble.
âAre you going to tell me why you spent the night in my driveway?â She focused on Costello, whoâd slowed down and was backing up to do his morning business on her neighborâs lawn. Hannah snatched a small bag out of her pocket and waited for the dog to finish, and the man to answer.
Zach scanned the street in front of them with hawk-eye precision. âSomeone was following you yesterday. Last night your house was being watched.â
Worry zinged through her brain until she shook herself free of the useless emotion. Had someone been following her, or had Zach invented it as a convenient excuse to scare her into retaining his services? She opted to believe the second, if only because the alternative was too terrifying.
She turned to him and forced a smile. âThank you for staying, but I did make it clear your services arenât required.â
âIâm not kidding, Hannah.â
âNeither am I.â
His fingers gripped her arm, forcing her to turn and look at him. âYou could be in real danger. Let me help you.â
âHow do you know my house was being watched?â Costello hauled on the leash, demanding to be walked, so she gave in and hoped Zach would follow. âDid you actually see someone? What did they look like?â
He ran a hand through his hair as he casually matched her pace. His jaw clenched. âI didnât see anyone. I felt it.â
âLike a psychic thing?â
He shook his head. âCall it a gut reaction. Iâve been doing this a long time. Trust me, I know when my instincts are dead on, and I know when Iâm being watched.â
Hannah had no idea how his psychic abilities workedâor if he was even psychic, for that matterâbut she could hear the sincerity in his voice.
His fingers gripped her upper arm tight again, bringing her to another stop. His wide-eyed expression was seriousâand a little alarming. âWhoâs watching the cat?â
âNo one,â she admitted. âIââ She stopped her words when Zach yanked the lanyard from her hand and sprinted back the way they came. Costello bounded after him, jerking her arm almost out of its socket and nearly dragging her to the ground. âWait a minute!â
Then she remembered Zachâs question, and she ran like hell to catch up to him, too.
His gut churned in a familiar way that told Zach something bad was about to happen. He might not be psychic, but he hadnât been lying when he told Hannah his instincts rarely led him wrong.
A few minutes ago, the thought to trigger that gut churning had been,
the damn cat is a sitting duck right now
.
He didnât see anything suspicious as he hurried up the steps to Hannahâs house, but he still opened the front door carefully.
The house was eerily quiet. He scanned the room and saw nothing unusualânot even the cat. He took a step inside, and thatâs when it hit him. The pungent smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the air, as if someone who smoked often had been in the room.
âWhat on earth?â Hannah said, coming up behind him fast.
The dogâs paws shoved against the back of his knees, and Zach almost fell face-first into the carpet. He stumbled forward and caught himself against the wall as Costello raced around him and bounced into the room.
He was gonna kill that damn dog.
He held out an arm to prevent Hannah from moving further inside and asked in a whisper, âDo you smoke?â But he already knew the answer.
âNo.â
The look of distaste on her face turned to something else as her nostrils flared and caught the same scent his had. She paled, and her fingers gripped the leather jacket covering his arm.
âGrab your cell phone and call the police. Go to a neighborâs house and wait on their porch.â He pulled away from her and inched forward, wishing like hell he was carrying his gun or some other weapon. A single
John Freely, Hilary Sumner-Boyd