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A pause stretched before she grumbled, “This an’ that.”
Ah. She lived off someone else’s money. So, really, which of us had room to judge?
“Do you like dogs?” she asked out of the blue.
Hmm. The sharpness of her tone pinged a soft internal alarm inside me.Caution, caution. Where was she going with this? “I guess. They’re cute and all, but I’m allergic. Why?”
“You’ll love my darling Thora. You can’t not love her. She’s a tiny black and white Pomeranian everyone adores.” Isobel drained her new drink with a single gulp. “One last question. How do you handle emotionally unavailable males?”
And I’d thought the dog query was weird. Wait. Was she trying to set me up with someone?
No, what a silly idea. I was mere minutes from my departure home. Did she seek advice about someone in her life? The one she wasn’t “quite yet” married to, perhaps. Should I put a stop to this? Interfering in a stranger’s relationship wasn’t wise.
But I didn’t stop. “I put them in time out.” A method I’d used with August, too. Because it worked.
“Time out? Oh, I bet he’ll love that.” She brightened and gave a clipped nod, as if she’d just made a major decision. “Aye, I believe you’ll do nicely indeed. Iron sharpens iron, and you, my dear, are a butter knife. Meaning, perfect.”
Butter knife? I’d do? What, for a nanny position? Was this an interview? Who was “he?”
Goodness gracious. “Well. It was very nice to meet you, Isobel, but it looks like the rain has let up. I’m heading out.”
I pushed to my feet, ready to surge outside, but I wobbled, struck by a wave of dizziness. What the?—?
“Sit,” Isobel commanded. “I said there’d be no more questions. I didn’t say our discussion had ended.”
“I’m sick or something,” I told her, slurring my words. The world around me expanded and contracted. My heart slammed against my ribs, and a clammy sweat beaded on my brow. “Take me…hospital…hurry.”Please!
“You aren’t sick,” she stated, merciless. “You’re drugged.”
Drugged? Panic shot off inside me like a rocket. Everything I’d imagined earlier, when the leather-clad snack cake had followed me, replayed through my brain. Kidnapping. Ransom. Some kind of sacrifice. Or worse!
My vision blurred, and my knees buckled. I plopped into the chair.
“Better.” She drummed her nails against the table. At least, I thought her nails caused theclick, click, clickexploding inside my spinning head. “We’re going to trade, you and I.”
I tried to respond, to demand answers and help, but the lights in my mind dimmed one by one until…
Darkness swallowed me.
Chapter
Two
Epic Entrances: When Love Collides…Literally
FromA Beginner’s Guide to Berserker Bliss
Author Unknown
Adull throb in my temples yanked me from a sea of gloom. Moaning, I blinked open my eyes. Sunlight filled my room, searing my corneas. Too bright! I squeezed my lids tightly closed.
Had I contracted some sort of virus on my flight home?
Wait. Did I fly home? Or board a plane? Or drive to the airport? Or leave the hotel? I scoured my brain for the last available memory.
We’re going to trade, you and I.
A woman’s smug voice filled my head, confusing me further. Out of habit, I reached up to stroke my dad’s necklace and stiffened. The coin. It was gone.
