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A creak registered from the floor.
But she hadn’t moved.
Leigh lowered the photo. Listening.
A thud followed.
She shot to her feet. Two steps. She drove her hand into her laptop bag and pulled her personal firearm free. The dual-colored 9mm pistol fit perfectly in her hand. Pressing the magazine release, she gauged the five rounds she’d loaded the night she’d arrived.
No other movement. No sounds of a break-in. Still, she pulled the slide back to load a bullet into the gun’s chamber. The plywood she’d installed in Troy’s bedroom had most likely come loose. She’d only ever watched her father handle power tools as a kid. Never brave enough to get the job done herself until a couple nights ago. She probably hadn’t tightened the screws as much as she should have.
Leigh heel-toed as quietly as a house this old and her boots allowed. There wouldn’t be any element of surprise. Maybe a critter had worked its way into the crawl space under the house as so many had done in the past. Without modern insulation, every sound the house made could be heard from any room.
The overhead dome light flickered then cut out. She tested the nearest light switch, gaze up. Not the right time for the breaker to overload. “Damn it.”
A shadow crossed in front of the large picture window.
Air stalled in her chest. Someone was outside. Big, too. Or distorted by the streetlights—she didn’t know. Her heart rate picked up. “Whoever you are, you’re trespassing, and I am not in the mood to shoot someone tonight.”
No answer. But had she really expected one? Intruders didn’t usually announce themselves before breaking in. She had to get a grip. This house had been abandoned for so long, whoever it was most likely thought they could loot what was left. She could call Boucher, but if it ended up being nothing, she’d only add to the annoyance she saw in his expression anytime he actually looked at her. She needed to stay on his good side. She needed his help to solve this case.
Leigh ducked to get a better view through the two plywood panels blocking the large picture window. Tree branches rolled on invisible waves. That same wind howled through the cracks, and a bite of panic flicked long fingers through her stomach.
The sensation of being watched—trapped—cut through her. She was a target.
Another shadow raced past the window. Too fast.
Leigh flinched back, almost off-balance. A high-pitched hiss drowned out the sound of her breathing. She used her hands against the wall as a guide to shove through the front door and out onto the covered porch. “This is your last chance! Leave, or I’m calling the police.”
The wind slammed the screen door against the house as she pushed outside. Her hair whipped into her face and blocked her view, but she didn’t need to see to get to the electrical panel.
A metallic ping bounced off the driveway and rocketed her nervous system into overdrive. Too late to call Boucher. Heavy footsteps echoed off the aluminum garage door. The distinct outline of a man vanished into darkness.
“Hey!” Leigh pumped her legs as hard as they allowed in pursuit. Tree branches and pine needles scraped at the sensitive skin along her neck and hands. The forest closed in around her and pulled at her hair until there was nothing left but the sound of her own breathing. Trees seemed to exhale and shift around her. Alive. Knowing. Deadly. She hadn’t been out here in years. Everything was different, overgrown. Foreign. Wind made it impossible to distinguish natural movements from man-made, but she pushed deeper.
“You don’t belong here.” The words were nearly lost in the leaves. Ghostly.
Leigh faced the direction she thought they’d come from. Only doubt crept in. No. It’d been from her other side. She raised her weapon, but it was no use. She couldn’t see anything out here. Her boots caught on a rock and launched her forward. The ground rushed up to meet her and knocked the air straight out of her lungs.
“Go back to where you came from, Brody.” The voice was clearer now. Closer.
“I’m from here, asshole.” The smell of damp, rotting wood assaulted her nose when her lungs finally gasped for air. It was cold. Well below freezing already. Snow clung to her front and worked into her boots. This part of the world had gone into winter hibernation, but there were still plenty of unseen predators in these woods. Not to mention the chance of hypothermia. She took a careful step forward, gauging her footfall before leaning into her weight. “Is this the part where I turn around and run? You’re going to have to do better than that.”
A shadow solidified directly in front of her. “You’ve been warned.”
A wall of muscle shoved against her.
Leigh fell back, throwing her hands back to brace herself.
There was nothing there.
The ground slipped out from beneath her. She pummeled down the incline. Pain spiked across her face as she rolled over a section of what she thought was dead shrubbery. The gun ripped free of her hand a split second before searing cold soaked through her. Ice sliced into her palms as she landed face-down in a few inches of water. Leigh ripped her head back in a slap of shock.
Her head hurt. Hot liquid spread across her hand. Blood? Leigh forced herself onto her back, successfully drenching her entire upper body in freezing creek water. A shift in the trees let moonlight slip through and outlined the top of the hill she’d fallen from. Not fallen. Was pushed. Someone had lured her out of the house, had threatened her. “Shit.”
She felt for solid ground and grabbed on to a root to help her sit up. Hell, she had no idea how long she’d walked through the woods or where she was now. She’d left her phone in the house. She was on her own to get back. Anger expanded like a hot balloon inside her as the pain built. Clawing both hands into the frozen ground, she climbed onto all fours and lost everything in her stomach. Her head didn’t feel right. Too thick. Dizzy. Shadows danced all around her. Or was that her imagination?
She had to get back to the house.
