Текст книги "Dark reckoning"
Автор книги: J. E. Taylor
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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 17 страниц)
“What about the thing in my closet?”
“It’s only a vision or nightmare. It can’t hurt you like those men can,” he said, bringing his point home. “Now I’m going to let you finish your fries and drink with me on the porch, I’m going to walk you to your car and kiss you goodnight. You are going to drive back to the apartment and call me when you get there. Understand?”
“Fine,” she said, causing him to look over at her. “You can be a royal S.O.B.”
Steve half smiled. “Love me anyway?” he asked as he pulled into the parking lot and slid next to her car.
“Yes,” Jennifer said, grabbing her shake and the remaining fries.
Steve took the seat next to her on the porch. “I’ve got some homework to do,” he said.
Jennifer slurped up the last of her drink and smiled. “Do you really have to do homework right now?”
Steve smiled back at her. “Yes, I do.” He grabbed her empty containers and brought them in the house, coming back empty-handed. “I’ll walk you to your car,” he said, taking her hand. At the driver’s side of the car, he took her face in his hands. “I love you Jennifer Ann Curtis.” He looked into her green eyes before he kissed her, running one of his hands down her arm and around her waist, pulling her against him.
Jennifer started to laugh under his lips.
Steve broke the kiss. “What’s so funny?”
“My initials if we ever get married,” she said, grinning like a fool. “I’m keeping my middle name.”
Steve smiled. “JAW.” He kissed her gently and stepped away with the same smile on his face. “If?”
She rolled her eyes. “Is when better?”
“What do you think?” he tossed back, although her little clarification just made his day.
He watched her pull out and waved, turning to climb up the steps.
“Is she strictly a pussy fuck or does she like it up her ass?” Adam asked. He leaned against the post, his gaze following Jennifer’s car.
Like a light switch, Steve’s mood changed. He barreled up the steps, stopping when he was toe to toe with Adam. “You want to lose your front teeth?” He tightened his fist, flexing his arm and Adam flinched. “I didn’t think so.” Steve stepped toward the door.
“I’ve always wanted to bend her over this rail and fuck that pristine cunt until she screamed. Is she a screamer, Steve? ” Adam asked, pushing beyond Steve’s limits.
He stopped in his tracks.
* * * *
Joe saw Steve’s face flush red from inside the house. He moved quickly, running outside in time to catch Steve’s arm as he threw it back in a punch. Joe slammed Steve against the house. “You don’t want to do that,” he said. “I know Adam can be crude, rude, and obnoxious, but you don’t want to hit him.”
“The hell I don’t!” Steve roared, and pushed Joe off. He swung and connected with Adam’s jaw, sending him flying off the porch and onto the lawn on his back. He turned on Joe. “I don’t want to hear anyone talk about my girlfriend like that,” he growled and stormed into the house.
Joe waited until he heard the slam of a door and he turned a glare in Adam’s direction. “You stupid fuck,” he said, and turned, heading up to Steve’s room, softly knocking on the door.
“What?” Steve snapped.
“It’s Joe, can I come in?”
His question was met with silence. A moment later, the door opened and Steve went back to lying on his bed with his law book opened. “I’ve got studying to do.”
“Adam doesn’t mean any harm,” Joe began, but the look on Steve’s face cut him off. “He’s had a thing for Jenny ever since he met her.”
Steve rolled toward Joe. “That doesn’t make it right.” He looked back at his book.
“He’s pissed that you got the brass ring and you’ve only known her for what, four days?”
Steve sat up, glancing at Joe and biting his lip like he was debating whether or not to admit a secret. “I was Jen’s neighbor until she was eleven,” Steve revealed. “She and my kid sister were best friends before we moved out of town.”
“You’re kidding?” When Steve shook his head, Joe let a little laugh escape. “Really, wow, I didn’t know that.” He shifted and glanced down the hall before returning his attention back to Steve. “I didn’t even know you had a sister?” He wondered what else about this guy they didn’t know – not that it would matter when all was said and done.
Steve shook his head. “She died,” he said and stretched back down, staring blankly into his book.
“I’m sorry man.” Joe wondered if Bill knew any of this.
* * * *
Steve nodded and looked back at Joe. “Shit happens,” he said, and went back to studying. He heard the door close as Joe left.
The phone rang and he flipped it open.
“I’m home,” Jennifer said. “Still no sign of Bill and Tracy.”
“Thanks for calling,” Steve closed his book. He had to get on the computer and do some more research into the town history and any lore he could find about the lake and Paradise Cove. If Jennifer was right and this thing wasn’t human, he needed to know what it was and how to stop it.
“I’m sorry about earlier.”
“You know how hard that was for me?”
“Yes. As hard as it was for me to drive away. I almost turned around a couple times.”
Steve inhaled, letting the last of the aggravation go. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ve got that public relations class again, then we can go back to your place and I’ll make you lunch.”
“You sure you don’t want me to cook?”
“No, you live in such a nice place. I’d hate to see you burn it down.”
“I can boil noodles.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure you can. Goodnight, angel.”
* * * *
“Good night,” she said, and hung up. She smiled and held the phone to her chest when Bill and Tracy came stumbling in.
“What’r you doin’ here?” Tracy slurred and stumbled forward. Bill caught her before she crashed into the wall.
Jennifer shrugged and waved toward the television. “Watching a movie.”
Bill leered at her with the same expression as the guys at the fraternity.
“Where’s Steve?” he asked, looking around.
“At the frat house. He had some homework to do.” She shrugged.
“Ah,” Tracy said, and stumbled again. Bill caught her with ease. He picked her up and disappeared down the hall.
Jennifer could hear Tracy giggling, which led to other noises she didn’t want to hear. She turned up the television volume and curled up on the couch. She had a tough time keeping her eyes open, drifting to sleep before the next commercial.
Chapter 28
Bill finished screwing Tracy and headed into the bathroom. He came back a few minutes later to find Tracy passed out and snoring. The television still blared down the hall, so he weaved his way to the living room and lowered the volume.
He stood watching Jennifer sleep for a while. Curled on her side with her top leg folded over the edge of the cushion, her dress slipped up her thigh revealing a glimpse of her underwear. With one hand under her cheek and the other arm draped behind her back, her position gave him a full view of her ample cleavage.
The small smile on her lips drove him mad.
He wanted to take her there on the couch. He wanted to feel her skin under his hands, under his body. He wanted to fuck her until she screamed. He crouched next to her and reached for her exposed thigh. Warmth radiated from her, stopping his hand less than a centimeter from her skin. He didn’t touch her thigh, but pushed the dress up a little and reached between her legs, lightly stroking the fabric of her underwear with his index finger.
Her body responded and she moved her leg higher, leaning into the couch and whispering Steve’s name.
Bill continued the gentle stroking, his heart pounding in his chest. He sped up, stroking her to the beat of his heart. If she woke, he would have to silence her a couple days earlier than planned. He continued anyway, despite the consequences, and when she came in her sleep, he moved the edge of her underwear away, sliding his finger inside the wetness. He pulled his hand away. Sucking his finger, tasting her sweetness, he headed back to Tracy’s room, closing the door behind him.
He fucked Tracy’s unconscious body hard and fast, ridding himself of the built up need.
Chapter 29
Jennifer woke up and stretched, smiling at the wetness between her legs and the gratified ache in her muscles. Her wet dream still colored her mind. Steve can even satisfy me in a dream. She turned the television off and headed to bed.
* * * *
When Jennifer came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her, Bill stopped halfway through the dressing room. He stared at her, the feel of her body still with him.
“Oh, hey, Bill,” Jennifer said, brushing her long locks. “How’s Tracy this morning?”
“Hangover from hell. I’m not far behind either.” He scurried out of the room.
Bill drained a glass of orange juice in the kitchen as Jennifer walked in. He smiled at the exceptionally hot combination of the white mini-skirt and blue shirt she wore with her wet hair flowing over her shoulders. “Steve’s a lucky guy,” he said, and he put the glass in the sink.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
Bill raised his eyebrows. “Huh?”
“I don’t like it when you check me out.”
“Since when?”
“What do you mean since when?”
“I’ve always checked you out. You didn’t seem to mind it for all these years.” He walked over to her and lifted her chin so she looked at his face. “Why does it bother you now?”
Jennifer floundered and stepped away from him. “Because the way you look at me is different now. It’s no longer just appreciation.”
“Then what exactly is it you see?” he asked curious to hear her answer.
“Anticipation,” she spat.
Bill let out a laugh. “Your little episode yesterday must have messed with your mind more than you realize,” he said, but his eyes betrayed him as they grazed her again.
“It’s never going to happen.” She stepped away and walked out of the apartment, leaving him watching after her.
“That’s what you think,” he whispered as he slipped on his shoes by the door. He let himself out and entered the lobby as she drove by in her car. “In less than thirty-six hours, to be exact.” He stepped out of the building and into the warm September sunshine. “Anticipation,” he laughed.
She’d hit that one dead on.
Chapter 30
Steve rolled out of bed, grumpy without Jennifer next to him. It seemed unnatural, and he marveled at how quickly the need stirred in him. He missed her and vowed this would be the last time he ever woke up without her by his side.
He scoured the internet for most of the night and came up with some interesting lore but it didn’t enlighten him as to how to stop the horrors happening in Brooksfield.
The urban legends provided the most interesting information. According to some obscure sources, the curse spewed forth from a dying Palawion called a dark demon from the depths of hell to ravage any white man found on the sacred land. For years following his death, the area became a much bigger legend than the Bermuda Triangle, no white man dared to step onto Abinaqui territory.
Decades later, settlers came into the area with a witch doctor who swindled a deal with the demon, promising an annual sacrifice in return for reprieve in the attacks. When the demon took the deal, the lore said he was bound to the contract, which chained him to a small area of the forest as long as the sacrificial rites continued.
If the ritual was not performed to the demon’s satisfaction, he would be free of the bonds that kept him contained, allowing him to wreak havoc on the white man’s territory.
His mind wandered to the notebook and the implied meaning in relation to what he read and he shook his head. “No way. The girl is mine,” he whispered, yanking clothes out of his drawer. He headed toward the shower.
He made it to his eight o’clock class on time. Murphy looked like hell with dark bags under his eyes. Even his short military haircut looked disheveled. Steve wondered if they found any of the missing parts.
He didn’t pay much attention to class. His mind kept returning to two things—the way the frat boys looked at Jennifer, and the words in the notebook. The initiation ceremony gnawed on his conscience. What did it really entail?
Visions of Jennifer falling prey to satanic rituals preyed on his mind—teeth tearing at her in cannibalistic sacrament, rape, torture, and blood sacrifices to a dark god.
He shivered, shaking his head slightly to lose the morbid nightmare rolling behind his eyes. He doodled on the page of his notebook, prompting more questions than answers. Bloody letters soaked into the fabric of the paper again.
Stay away, she is mine!
“Bullshit,” Steve said aloud.
“Mr. Williams, do you have something to share with the class?” Murphy asked.
Steve stared at the paper, and then up at the classroom and shook his head. He exchanged a glance with Murphy and then lowered his eyes to the page. “No. Sorry for the interruption.”
“Please see me after class,” Murphy said and continued the lecture.
* * * *
Murphy climbed the steps and sat on the edge of the table in front of Steve. “What the hell is the matter with you?” he snapped as the door closed behind the last student.
Steve slowly turned the notebook. “Remember that leap I asked you to take yesterday? Try again and look at the center of the page.”
Murphy did. He saw a blank page. As he started to turn the notebook, red caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his attention back to the paper in awe as the words appeared in his peripheral view. When he moved his gaze directly to the page, it was still blank. “What the…,” he trailed off and unfocused his eyes. He saw the fuzzy letters.
“Should have seen my reaction the first time they appeared.”
“I must be overtired.” Murphy rubbed his eyes.
“Tell me what you see.”
“Stay away, she is mine,” Murphy replied. “Looks like it’s written in blood with the way the letters seep into the page.”
“Bingo.” Steve closed the notebook. “Still think its human?” He stood.
Murphy looked at him, dumbfounded.
“It wants Jennifer.” Steve pointed to the unassuming composition book lying on the desk. His lips pursed. “It isn’t going to get her.” He swept the notebook off the desk and spun towards the door.
“It still could be a person. There are such rare things as projecting thoughts onto paper.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’ve never seen it, but others in the bureau studying psychic activity have.”
“There’s a part of the bureau that studies paranormal events?” Steve asked. It was his turn to be dumbfounded and he fell back into his chair.
“A small unit.” Murphy pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Like the X Files?”
Murphy laughed. “No, not like the X Files.”
Steve shook his head, chuckling. “Well I’ll be damned.” He traded a glance from the notebook back to Murphy, shaking his head. “You need to be clear of the woods before tomorrow afternoon.” Steve stood again. “The initiation ceremony is supposedly taking place tomorrow night and it’s under the cover of a camping trip.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Murphy said. “Don’t forget, lunch tomorrow. I want to meet her and if she doesn’t show, I’m hauling you both in.”
“I know. We’ll be there.” Steve left the room. He trotted to his next class, slipping through the door a few minutes late again.
The professor turned, staring at him. “Mr. Williams, you are late yet again,” he said, drawing attention of the room to Steve.
“My professor wanted a word with me after my eight o’clock class.”
“I don’t care. I thought I was clear on Tuesday—I give one and only one chance to be late. As of right now, the highest grade you can get in this class is a B.” He turned back toward the board.
“I disagree,” Steve replied. An argumentative mood scraped over his skin like rough sandpaper. He stood and trotted down the steps to the floor near the professor, gazing in the open lesson book. “I could teach this class more accurately than you and be entertaining in the process instead of making everyone fall asleep.”
The professor’s entire face went red and he didn’t speak.
“Don’t have a coronary,” Steve said, picking up the lesson book. “If I can accurately teach the class today, will you waive my being late?”
The entire classroom watched with slack jaws.
“Get out of my classroom,” the professor sputtered when he found his voice.
“Law is all about negotiation, professor. I’m negotiating for an A. Aren’t you the least bit curious whether I can do this or not? Whether I know your material well enough?”
“You were late. I only give one warning.” The professor stood fast.
Steve closed the book, handed it to the professor, and walked out; grabbing his notebook on the way past his desk, leaving stunned silence in his wake.
Steve sat on the bench in the warm sun, frustrated.
He flipped open his phone and pressed speed dial.
“I just pissed off Professor Lang,” he said to Murphy.
“What happened?” Murphy sighed into the phone.
“I told him I could teach the material better than he did and he threw me out. I guess I’m dropping the class,” Steve said, looking out at the campus. He had less than an hour before his next class. “And by the way, what the hell am I doing in a public relations class?”
“You have to ask after what you just pulled?”
Steve started to laugh. “Okay, I guess I deserved that. I’ll check in later.”
“Don’t piss off any other faculty members today.”
“I’ll do my best.” Steve folded the phone up. He walked over to the building where his PR class was and stretched out on a stone bench, waiting for the hour to go by.
“What are you doing here so early?” Jennifer walked up to him.
“I got kicked out of class.” He tilted his head back so he could look at her.
“What?” She took a seat next to him when he sat up on the bench.
“I’m very good at pissing people off. And I think I pushed my last professor over the edge.” He relayed what he had done, including his exiting statements.
Jennifer sat with her hand over her mouth, eyes wide in surprise.
“That’s what everybody in the class looked like.” He laughed, pointing at her.
“Steve, that was just rude,” she said after the shock wore off.
“I didn’t wake up with you in my arms, so I’m a little pissy today. It won’t happen again.”
“What, you being pissy?”
“No, not waking with you in my arms,” he said, and the smile that graced her face made it worth it. “I missed you.” He didn’t tell her about the information he found online or the message in his notebook. He didn’t want to ruin the lighthearted mood.
“I dreamt about you,” Jennifer said and her cheeks budded into tiny rosy spots.
“Really?”
Jennifer nodded. “Really.”
“How was I?” he asked, perpetuating the humor.
“Almost as good as the real thing.” She looked at him sideways.
He laughed. “Well, after class, I’ll remind you just how good the real thing is.” He bumped her gently with his shoulder.
“I’d like that.” The blush took on a crimson tone.
“How would you like it today?” He grinned, prolonging the conversation just to see what color her cheeks would turn next.
“I don’t know.”
“Sure you do.” He bumped her with his shoulder again. “Do you want control or do you want me in control?”
Jennifer thought about it. “I’m not sure. Maybe a little of both.” She raised her eyebrow at him.
He grinned and looked around, then back at her. “Have I told you I loved you lately?”
Chapter 31
“Can I have a piece of paper?” Steve asked when they sat down in the classroom.
Jennifer looked at the notebook and back at Steve. The smile on her face faded away. She slowly ripped a page off her pad and hand it to him. “What’d it say today?” she asked, motioning toward his notebook.
He glanced at her sideways. “You know, I’d rather just forget it for today.”
Jennifer was curious. “What did it say?”
Steve sighed and opened the book.
I am going to kill him.
Jennifer gasped and looked at Steve, her eyes wide with fright. I’ll be damned if I let that happen, she thought.
He closed the notebook. “It said something different for you, didn’t it?” He scanned the filling classroom before returning his gaze to her. “For me it said Stay away, She’s mine. Like that’s going to happen.” He rolled his eyes.
Jennifer glanced toward the front of the class and saw nothing. Her heart raced, drumming a beat in her chest like the quick tempo stanzas in Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. “No, mine didn’t say that,” she whispered, willing her lungs to relax. A distinct wheeze emanated from her, despite her efforts to control her breathing, and she focused on the instructor tapping his pencil on the podium to gain the attention of the class.
“You should have let me just forget it today,” he grumbled.
Jennifer reached over and took his hand, giving it a squeeze and letting go. She turned her full attention to the instructor.
* * * *
Steve stared at his hand and then moved his eyes, taking her in. The gesture was simple, yet it moved him. He didn’t want to be in the classroom and fidgeted in his chair, tapping his pen on the desk until Jennifer shot him a warning. He doodled on the paper and kept stealing glances at her. So adorable, concentrating on what the teacher was saying and diligently taking notes, he wrote three words on the paper and slid it across the desk to her.
Jennifer glanced at the note and blushed. It was pretty crude but she nodded, grinning at him, handing it back.
Steve sat back in the chair and folded the paper, a smile still on his face. He glanced at the table in front of him and almost tumbled over in the chair when his legs involuntarily pushed away from the counter. Blood pumped out of the notebook all over the desk. It spilled over the edge and he slid further back, shooting a glance at Jennifer. Her wide eyes were glued to the red stain spreading over the counter top.
The blood ran off the front edge, onto the student sitting in the next row. He didn’t notice the gooey liquid dripping into his hair and oozing onto the collar of his shirt. Jennifer glanced around the room, catching a glare from the girl sitting next to her.
Jennifer turned back to Steve. He slightly shook his head and put his hand out. She took it and grabbed her books. He yanked her out of the classroom, leaving the seeping notebook on the desk and the instructor irritated at their abrupt departure.
“The notebook was fucking hemorrhaging. What the hell was that?” he cried when they hit the fresh air.
“It obviously doesn’t want us together.” Jennifer’s voice shook. “I think your note triggered it.”
“It didn’t like ‘fuck me later?’”
“Imagine if you’d said ‘fuck me now?”
What a ridiculous time for humor, but it worked. He laughed aloud. “This can’t be really happening. Notebooks don’t fucking bleed.” He practically dragged her across campus toward the parking lot.
“Can you slow down a little?”
He glanced at her and then scanned their surroundings. “Sorry,” he said, slowing his pace. “I’m just a little freaked out right now.” He flipped open his phone and pressed a number. “Is anyone at the cabin?” he asked. “Okay.” He flipped the phone closed. “Looks like it’s your place.” He glanced over at her.
Jennifer scanned the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”
“I walked to campus this morning. If you drop me at the frat house, I’ll follow you.”
“Sure.”
“What did you see in the notebook?”
Jennifer started the car without speaking. “It doesn’t matter because it’s not going to happen.”
“What did it say?”
Jennifer glanced at him. “It said it was going to kill you.” She looked back at the road.
“I am not dying and neither are you,” Steve said. “I told you that the other day.” He looked out the window and gripped the door handle like it was the last rung on a crumbling ladder.
Jennifer glanced at his pale white knuckles.” You have a problem with my driving?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have a death grip on the door?”
“I don’t like being a passenger in any car. Lack of control thing.”
“Control freak?”
“Why do you think I’m a cop?”
“I don’t know, I just thought you liked handcuffs.”
His smirk morphed to a grin.
Jennifer pulled into the fraternity parking lot next to his car. “Can we just forget about all this for the rest of today?”
“Fine by me. I’ll be right behind you.” He hopped out of her car and dug the keys out of his pocket. He pressed the play button on the CD player and spun his wheels, peeling out behind her. The music filled the car and he sang while navigating the streets back to the apartment, trying to let the tune relax the tension wiring his entire body.
Jennifer might be able to forget for a while, but there was no way he would get that vision out of his head and he doubted anything short of a drinking binge would wipe it away. He pulled in next to her, hesitant to shut off the car and face reality. She approached his open door, and the way she stared at him woke up his libido and he grinned, finishing the song before shutting the car off.
He offered her his hand and the moment her skin met his, the fire in his heart bloomed. There was no way he’d stand by and let harm come to her and he made a silent vow to protect her at all costs.
“You could sing that song to me every day of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough,” she said, opening the door to her apartment and stepping aside so he could enter.
Steve grinned and put his arm around her waist, swinging the door closed. He sang the chorus of Far Away, twirling her around the entry. “I’ll sing every day if you promise to always look at me like that.” He didn’t wait for an answer, yanking her close, he crushed her lips under his, his tongue slipping in her mouth, mingling with hers and blocking the vision of the bleeding notebook.
When the kiss broke, his mind drifted back to the case and the levity disappeared. “I know you didn’t want to think about what happened today, but after what happened yesterday I want to take you out of Brooksfield.” He wiped the hair away from her face. “I don’t think it’s safe for you here.”
“You’re the one it threatened.”
“I’m a big boy, Jen. I can take care of myself. Besides, based on my research, whoever is doing this may be mimicking that old legend you told me about.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You still think it’s a human after today?”
“Humans are capable of horrifying things, Jen,” he said. “And Murphy tells me there are some out there with the mental power to induce hallucinations like we saw today.”
She peeled herself out of his grip, grabbed her book bag and took a seat on the cushy couch, sending him an exasperated look.
“Human or not, based on the notes I’m seeing, it is setting its sights on you and I’m just in the way.”
“I need to study,” she said, opening the book in her lap. “And I really don’t want to talk about this.”
“I want you out of Brooksfield.”
Her gaze shot to his. “For how long?”
“For however long it takes to catch this guy,” Steve answered.
“I can’t just drop out of school because someone’s terrorizing the town.”
Frustration soured his mouth and he ran his hand through his hair. “Then why don’t you stay at my place?”
“Oh yeah, alone in the woods. That’s just where I want to be.” She rolled her eyes and dropped her gaze to the book in her lap.
“Can you just leave town for the weekend then?” Every nerve ending in his body shouted to haul her away against her will, but he knew the second he turned his back, she’d find a way to come back into the hot zone.
She sighed and met his gaze. “Where do you want me to go?”
“I’ll see if Murphy can arrange a safe house for you for the weekend.”
“You’re really serious about this,” she said, putting her book on the table.
“Yes, I’m dead serious. After we meet him for lunch, I’ll have him take you into protective custody for the weekend and I’ll personally pick you up on Sunday.”
“What am I going to tell Tracy?”
“I don’t know. Tell her you’re meeting your parents for the weekend.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Fine. But I’m not running off and hiding every time you think I might be in danger, understand?”
He couldn’t help the smirk that surfaced. In twenty-four hours, he’d be able to breathe and concentrate on the case without worrying about her every waking moment.
“Don’t you have homework?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No. We have some stuff for the Public Relations class. Did you even look at the syllabus he handed out Tuesday?”
Steve laughed.
“I may be dating you and willing to surrender into protective custody for you, but I am not doing your homework for you.”
“I would never dream of asking you to do that.”
“Bullshit.”
He grinned. “Well, maybe.”
“If you’re here at the school, you’ve got to do the work.” She dropped her notebook on the table and rummaged for a pen.
He crossed behind her and laid his hands on her shoulder, leaning close and kissing her neck. “Maybe I’ll just make love to you for the next twenty-four hours.”
“Tempting as that may sound, I really have to get some work done,” she said over her shoulder and broke away from his playful grip. “I am actually a student, remember?” She disappeared into her room, coming out a few minutes later with the rest of her books and a laptop computer.
Steve wandered into the kitchen to assess what they had for food. He took four chicken breasts out and put them on a plate on the counter.
“What are you doing?” Jennifer asked from the kitchen door.
“I figured I’d make myself useful and make dinner tonight.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Go study, I have to make sure you have everything I need,” he said and continued his inventory, placing the ingredients that did not require refrigeration on the counter next to the thawing chicken breasts. He found a pad of paper, scribbled the few missing ingredients, and headed to the living room. “I’ll be back in a few.”
“Wait,” Jennifer said and tossed him her keys. “Take my keys so you can get in when you get back.”
“Where are you going to be?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. I might not hear you knock.” She held up her MP3 player.
“Okay. I’ll be back.” He disappeared out of the apartment. The grocery store was just around the corner and it didn’t take long for him to get the items on the list.
Jennifer was on the couch reading one of her textbooks when he came in. She didn’t even glance up as he walked through the room with the grocery bag. That didn’t sit well with him. She needed to be more aware of her surroundings, especially with the level of danger in the air. He put the food away and came back out in the living room, standing and watching her, every second that ticked by increased his unease.
