Angela Campbell - Spirited Away

“Nope. Just pet-sitting.” She stroked the top of the cat’s head. “So… have you called the cops?”

His heart skipped a beat. “About what?”

“The mystery woman inside your house last night.”

Oh. Right. He shrugged. “Nothing was taken. They probably wouldn’t believe me.”

He’d used the so-called mystery woman as an excuse to come over and break the ice with her. Find out more about her and her relationship to Zachary and Hannah Collins.

Find out more about her .

Noah’s gaze strayed down the hall toward the bedroom she’d directed him to earlier. Her descriptions had been a little… spooky. That had been almost a play-by-play of what he’d experienced a couple of weeks ago when things had started happening at his new house.

He cleared his throat. “And you’re sure you didn’t see anyone earlier?”

She fidgeted with the squirming cat. “Well, I thought I saw—” She stopped herself. Shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”

“What did you think you saw?”

She reluctantly lowered the cat to the floor. “When the sheet was wafting through the air, I thought it was covering a person. You know, like I saw the form of a person underneath the sheet? But I was probably dreaming. It was only a second or two.”

The walls seemed to shift and move around him as he struggled to remain steady on his feet. Exact same thing had happened to him a week ago. “Did you have your house alarm on?”

“Yep.”

She probably had been dreaming, but…

Damn. What were the chances?

He noticed the laptop on the coffee table. “What time do you get off work?” Her eyes widened, so he clarified, “So, I can keep an eye out, make sure you get into the house okay.”

“I’m actually working from home while I’m here. I doubt I’ll be in and out very much.” Her eyes widened again. “Except, you know, my boyfriend comes over a lot. Yeah. And friends. I’m hardly ever here alone. Lots of people would miss me.”

“Miss you?” Hell, she had a boyfriend. That blew.

She flicked her hand and laughed. “You know. If I weren’t here.”

“And how long will you be house-sitting?”

“Why?”

“So I can keep an eye out. Maybe check in every so often and make sure everything is okay. I’m sure you were dreaming, but you can never be too careful these days.” He pushed back the urge to ask about her boyfriend and if it was the guy he’d seen stop by last night. He knew when to keep his cards close to his chest.

“Well, Zach and Hannah are taking a long honeymoon. Three weeks. That’s how long I’ll be here.” She winced and murmured “You idiot” so soft he almost didn’t catch it.

Interesting. She didn’t want him to know. Why?

“Three-week honeymoon? Must be nice.” He forced a smile. Three weeks was going to make his job very difficult. “You must be really good friends with them for them to trust you with their house and pets that long.”

“Zach is my boss, so he knows I’m dependable, I think.”

Her boss.

Noah tried not to grin. Maybe he had a legitimate excuse to get to know Emma better.

“I didn’t ask what Zach did for a living.” Of course he already knew, but she didn’t know that.

“Private security.” She gestured to her laptop. “My specialty is cyber security. Easy enough to do from home.”

“Sounds exciting.” He had dossiers on all of Collins’ employees, but he didn’t remember hers. Either he was getting rusty, or there hadn’t been anything in her file to interest him.

He was definitely interested now.

She shrugged and crossed her arms. “So what do you do, Noah?”

“Photography.” He pulled out his wallet and retrieved one of his new business cards. “I’m starting a job teaching part-time at the art institute for the summer semester. That’s why I moved here. Figure I can freelance from home, maybe set up a studio downstairs, teach at night.”

It was all true, and he was glad not to have to lie to her about it. He was beginning a new chapter of his life, one that wouldn’t involve shadowing people who faked disabilities to cash in on insurance companies. It hadn’t been fully explained to him why the attorney of a man who’d been rejected a worker’s compensation claim wanted so badly to prove Collins was a fraud, and quite frankly, Noah could care less. He couldn’t wrap up this investigation into Emma’s boss soon enough. It was his last case, and one he’d only taken after a great deal of coaxing.

His original plans after turning in his resignation had been to spend a month in Arizona trekking through the Grand Canyon and shooting landscapes to pad his portfolio. Instead, he was being paid a lot of money to spy on two so-called psychic detectives.

Resentment threatened to sour his mood again.

Glancing at Emma as she examined the card he’d given her, he reminded himself this job might not end up being so bad. Not if he played his cards right.

“A professor.” She stared at his business card and gnawed at her lip. “Cool. Thanks.”

“Guess I’d better run.” He edged toward the door. “My cell phone number is on there. Feel free to call if you need anything, Emma.”

“Spider.”

“Oh, right. I thought I heard that officer call you Emma.”

“Emma is my real name, but I prefer for people to call me Spider.”

“Why?” He preferred Emma. It was a pretty name. Feminine. He liked it.

She scrunched her face. “Because it’s an awesome nickname. Come on now.”

Stepping through the doorway, he processed what he’d learned about her. Cyber security. Internet. The web.

Spider. He got it.

“Emma suits you better.” Winking, he pulled the door shut behind him.

Spider waited for the Internet to connect and realized she’d been tapping her foot for – who knew how long?

“It hasn’t taken this long before. What the frack?”

Costello’s response was a cross between a whine and a grumble. The dog always insisted on lying as close to her feet as possible. Sooner or later, she was gonna step on him and then hello animal emergency room visit.

“And it’ll be your fault, you silly dog.” She nudged him with the toe of her Converse hi-tops as she rebooted the machine.

The plush sofa cushions tried to coax her into taking a nap, but her nerves were too on edge to cooperate. Her stomach churned with an urgent desire to find out more about Noah West. Even though her smart phone didn’t have the juice she needed to do a thorough Internet search, she tried it anyway while she waited for her laptop to restart.

She scrolled through the recommended websites a simple search returned, frowning. “This is useless.”

Tossing her phone aside, she hopped to her feet, sidestepped the dog, and began pacing. Noah could be everything he claimed to be, but serious doubt nibbled at that idea. Few people were all they claimed, and she still had the emotional scars to prove it.

Don’t think about the a-hole. He’s ancient history now.

Too late. Her mind reeled back to her ex and how horribly their relationship had ended.

After her mother had died when Spider was in the tenth grade, she’d relied upon her best friend Paul to be her rock, and he had been – that is, until he’d changed from her kind and supportive boyfriend into a cruel and domineering fiancé. She became so meek and shy, letting him dictate her every decision. He’d all but forced her to drop out of college because he wanted to take care of her. No job, he’d said, because she would be too busy being his wife and mother to the three kids he wanted. A proper little lady who wore dresses and never spoke out of turn. Practically a cardboard cutout.