Page 6 of Harvest Maze

An alarm beeped on my phone. I’d already been in here thirty minutes, and it was time to go. Passing through the kitchen, I peeked at the bowl covered with a cloth on the stove. It was some kind of dough. I poked it with my finger, watching the white cloud spring back to its original shape.

It was probably going to be some delicious concoction.

My mouth watered.

Bubbly and cute, my neighbor was pure. She was everything I wasn’t. Watching her the past week had made that obvious. A sinking feeling weighed my chest down. I didn’t do soft emotions, so it was hard to pinpoint this one. But the thought of taking this gorgeous woman away from her surroundings bothered me.

Leaving this home would make her sad.

I didn’t want to be the reason she felt that.

“I’ll make it up to you,” I promised, pulling the thin towel back over the dough.

She would never have to work another day in her life. I could provide—much better than the pittance she made serving coffee. As I looked around, it dawned on me. She probably had dirty money from the Italian mob. There was no way a barista afforded a house like this in today’s economy. But I didn’t mind that the mob paid her.

If the don was in the habit of whisking her away on a whim, he’d better be paying her.

I ground my teeth, slammed my feet back into my boots, and ripped the door open. The lacy curtains fluttered over the window with the force. I was a brute. I didn’t belong here. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to breathe if I walked away from this job without taking this shining ray of sunshine with me.

Chapter 4 – Ivry

Drizzling caramel syrup over candied apple popcorn was a sure recipe to make cavities. But one clawful of the treat was blissful enough to banish my dental worries. I would floss and brush well.

The inflatable kiddie pool was already set on my back patio, filled with pillows and blankets. I took my treat out there. This was the perfect ending to my birthday. Since half the day had been stolen from me, I was determined to make the final note a good one. Lucian didn’t know who’d left the body, but after I reminded him, he begrudgingly promised to get to the bottom of it. Did the Killer King have a lot on his plate? Unfortunately, yes, but that was no excuse to let the world’s most horrible birthday gift go unresolved.

After flopping into the nest of pillows, I pulled the show up on my phone to cast to the projector. Before the soft strains of “Where you lead, I will follow” could play through the speaker, a clanky, bangy metal thump sent my heart shooting to my throat. I sat up straighter, swiveling my gaze around the deep dark of the yard, past where the twinkly show of my fairy lights reached.

A shape moved on the back patio of the adjacent house.

I’d smelt the coals of the grill when I’d been out here setting up, but I hadn’t seen him. There was no missing that towering, lumbering shape now as he bent over the grill. The Calhoons had moved south but kept their house as a vacation rental property. I occasionally checked in on the place, because they wanted to make sure the property management company was doing their job.

I hadn’t realized there was currently a tenant.

Then again, I had the bad habit of being oblivious.

Snuggling deeper into the nest of pillows, I grabbed another fistful of the sticky sweet popcorn. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. This wasn’t the usual vacationer, come to enjoy the charm of our small town.

A shiver rattled down my spine.

Something about the energy of the man flipping the slab of meat to grill on the other side felt…familiar. I blinked hard. He felt like one of Lucian’s men. But there was a stoney quality about him. He seemed colder somehow, in a way that the laughing Made Men couldn’t ever achieve.

An old maid caught in the back of my throat, and I jolted forward, hacking and coughing.

The monstrous shape shifted in my peripheral. His head snapped in my direction.

Busted.

I lifted a hand and croaked out, “Hi! I’m okay.”

He didn’t move.

I plucked the thermos of hot cider, took a long sip, and burnt my tongue. I forced myself to swallow the scalding liquid, cursing my forgetfulness.

“I’m just going to watch a show,” I wheezed, feeling the need to fill the silence with chatter. “Um, do you want to join?”

His gaze pierced me. It was hard in the dim lighting to tell the color. But the way they trained on me sent shivers prickling over my skin.

“No.”