Page 16 of Drilled

“Stay out of my backyard,” I said, wagging a finger at her. “If you want to find playthings of your own, go look elsewhere.”

“Religious levels of greed, I swear,” Nancy said, clicking her tongue. “Good luck with the preliminary.”

*

I got back home just as Silas and Bear were getting into the truck. Dax was clearly already gone, his bike nowhere to be seen. A sharp, unexpected pang of disappointment bit into me, and I tried to pretend I couldn't recognize the feeling. When they saw me, Silas immediately gave a big wave, then jogged the rest of the way to meet me.

We made some small talk about the day's progress and he asked me about how court went and the entire time I just kept eyeing the truck in the background, feeling embarrassingly sad that they were planning on leaving so early.

Well, it wasn't exactly early. But with the storm-level weather we'd been dealing with lately, Bear had thought it necessary to make sure that there were no loose ends that could be wrecked by the wind or rain. Which meant that for the last week or so, I'd grown used to having the Cornerstone contractors around for a few hours after work.

Bear came up to join us, his hands buried in his pockets.

“So you guys are done for the night, then,” I said, testing the waters.

“Yeah,” Bear confirmed. My stomach sank. “We finished pretty early and everything's looking good.”

“It’s gonna be odd spending a night all by myself again,” I confessed, adding a laugh to the end of the sentence so it sweetened the bitterness. “It does make me a bit nervous. I've grown accustomed to having you guys around every time something breaks or bursts around the house.”

“You'll be fine,” Bear said, the point cartwheeling over his head. “The weather is holding up pretty nice so there shouldn't be any issues. If there's a problem with something else, we'll be here at the crack of dawn to sort it out.”

“Yeah,” I said weakly. “That's great.”

I was running out of ideas to try and get them to stay without sounding like an actual psycho, but nothing worked and it didn't take long until I was inside my house by myself, the Cornerstone truck long gone.

I went through my nightly routine like a zombie, barely paying attention to anything else even as my mind was buzzing with scattered thoughts.

It didn't get any better by the time I finally slunk into bed, still shivering beneath three blankets.

As I lay there, staring up at the ceiling with chattering teeth, I tried to wade through the mental clutter.

Why was I suddenly so apprehensive to stay by myself? I'd been doing it for most of my life by this point. The answer dawned on me, the reason instantly connecting with several other concerns.

It was because for the first time in forever, I was afraid.

I felt like the unit I was living in had been marked with a giant flashing sign. I had no idea that this house had been involved in illegal activities, used as only God knows what and that unknown variable alone ushered in more anxiety than I was willing to cope with.

That brought me to Uncle Ricky. I was desperate to know how he fit into all this and what his relationship had been to someone like Sandy. Because the Uncle Ricky I knew would never have gotten involved with a syndicate. He was the sort of man who never even earned a speeding ticket in his life.

Maybe there was a side to him that I just wasn't aware of. People were more complicated than what would be comfortable. Look at Dax.

Dax…

There was a prime example of a man I couldn't read. One minute he was full of snark and banter, and the next he treated me like something he stepped into the house and couldn't even stand having on his shoe.

Maybe I was foolish for even thinking I understood anything about him. Maybe I was foolish for thinking I knew Uncle Ricky or for even taking on this house. Maybe my mother was right.

Her text loomed at the epicenter of my mind's storm, the distillation of all the insecurities and fears I'd been running from now nesting in the most vulnerable of my thoughts.

That was probably why I wanted the guys to stay. It was the quiet that terrified me the most because it left me wide open and waiting for the worst of those fears to swallow me up.

Dax, Uncle Ricky, Sandy, the syndicate. What had I actually gotten myself into?

I rolled over to my side and pulled my limbs into the fetal position. I could already tell that I'd be getting very little sleep tonight.

6

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