AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tess.” She turned in her chair and gave me a frank look, her blue eyes watery and pale but clear and lucid as ever. “It’s my house.”
“That’s low.”
“If you make some dinner, I promise to log off and eat with you. Especially if you bring me a Manhattan first.”
I sighed. So what if my grandmother had a teensy gaming addiction? And an affinity for rye whiskey? She was old. She’d earned it.
And it didn’t seem so bad, really. If I wasn’t going to be the marrying type, wasn’t going to raise a family, maybe I should look more closely at getting into gaming. I tried not to hear the little voice in my head that reminded me that Gran had gotten married and had her family long before she became a whiskey-drinking online-gaming old woman.
I went to the kitchen to find something quick for a late dinner and to make Gran’s drink, staring out the window over the water of the Potomac sparkling in the moonlight as I ran water into the pot for pasta.
I was definitely not expecting the doorbell to ring at this hour, and it pulled me from my late-night dinner prep ruminations.
“Gran did you order something?” I called back to the office as I dried my hands and went to the front door. Gran didn’t answer but a raucous bout of flapping and nasal-pitched bawking came from the parlor as Chessy went scrambling for the door.
“Chessy, back,” I told her, earning me a beady-eyed glare from the fat hen, who nevertheless took a claw-footed step away from the door.
I peered out the side pane of the door onto the porch, surprised to see two extremely large men in black shirts standing outside.
“Gran,” I called, taking a few steps back to where she was undoubtedly immersed in her raid by now. “Gran, did you order football players?”
“Can’t hear you,” she called, indicating clearly that she could hear me fine. “Gun’s in the hall table drawer,” she added.
I hated it when she got that thing out, but part of me thought it wasn’t the worst idea. We were two women living alone on an isolated piece of land in an old and probably not completely secure house. I pulled the handgun from the drawer with a shiver and went back to the door. It was almost ten PM. Not the time of day when I enjoyed meeting huge visitors.
“Can I help you?” I called through the door, still not opening it.
“Juliet Manchester’s security team. Here to check the property in preparation for her arrival.” The voice that came back was deep and resonant. And a little bit scary. And super serious.
Chessy made a strange noise in response, cocking her head to one side and letting out a “hmmmm?” Chessy stepped nearer to the door and peered out the side window, looking up at the hulking man who was speaking. She made an appreciative noise in her throat, the one usually reserved for sunflower seeds and anything dropped from the lunch table.
“Oh,” I said, unlocking the door and pulling it open. “Sure. Um, come in? Is she arriving tonight? She wasn’t totally clear about it.” I stepped back, and the two men stood for a moment in the open doorway, their eyes taking in everything.
The chicken.
The darkened house.
Gran’s screeched curses coming from the back room as her raid got underway.
And me, holding a handgun.
Chessy interrupted the silence with a loud squawk and tiptoed close to the black boots of one of the men, clucking and circling his feet in a strange kind of examination.
The bigger of the two men frowned at me, his dark skin creasing as his eyes landed on the weapon in my hand.
“Oh, sorry,” I said. “It’s just…you know, it’s late, and… so is Juliet coming tonight?” I shoved the gun into the back of my pants like I’d seen guys do on television. It was extremely uncomfortable and made the waist of my jeans very tight.
“An hour behind us,” the other guard said. “Is this a chicken?” He peered down at Chessy, who glared up at him, indignant to be questioned.
“Yeah,” I affirmed. “So, how can I help you?”
The first guard, Chessy’s guy, finally seemed to relax a bit. He held out a hand. “I’m Jack. This is Christian.”
“I’m Tess,” I told them.
“Thanks Tess. We’ll just check the house and the property line, if that’s okay. Just getting a sense for points of potential entry to the property. What’s security like here?”
“Um...” I tried not to reveal that me, my gun, and my attack chicken were the extent of it. We didn’t worry too much about security.
