“Yeah, no kidding. You should have seen her a few years ago. You wouldn’t have recognized her she was so domesticated.” It was then that I remembered Lexi never had a mom. I glanced at her leaning against a rack of plaid flannel fabric. She never looked more out of place. Or more alone and like a little girl. “Hey, you should stay for dinner tonight. My mom is cooking, and I know she would love it if you came. She adores you.”
The glint of sadness left her eyes and was replaced with one of mischief. “She also adores my dad.”
I groaned. My mom and Devin had officially gone out on two dates. That was two dates too many in my book. “Ugh. Don’t remind me. It is so weird.” I gathered two of the fabric rolls I wanted under my arm.
Lexi beamed. “Maybe for you. I personally think it’s great. Your mom is a-ma-zing, and my dad seems to really like her. I’ve not seen him this happy…” She pondered that statement for a moment. “Ever.”
I didn’t want to burst her bubble, so I just agreed. “I guess. So are you coming over?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding her honey highlighted blonde head.
We waited in line to get the fabric cut, paid for my purchases, and then headed home. As we entered the Spring Valley city limits, I couldn’t help but notice how incredibly rustic and beautiful the woods looked, tangerine, candy apple red, and golden yellow trees were back dropped against the clear blue sky, or how the plowed fields were now dry and dead. Burning leaves scented the air and everything here moved with leisure. It was a nice change, and I hated to admit it, but I might actually be adapting to country life.
But I wouldn’t dare tell a soul that.
Unfortunately my serene peace was cut short. Lexi was chattering a hundred miles an hour and fiddling with the radio stations, while I did everything I could to follow her conversation and stay on the road. It was not easy. Occasionally I would nod my head or give uh-huh remark. The sky was darkening, cutting down on my visibility. My car was cruising along the rocky road.
Lexi’s voice cut through my concentration. Apparently I’d fallen behind on my appropriate responses. “Angel. Are you even–”
She never finished her sentence. There was a loud clunk, clunk, clunk noise vibrating under my car.
Slowing the car, I swore a colorful string of words under my breath and pulled over.
“Oh man, that doesn’t sound good.” Her brows drew together. “You got AAA right?”
“Triple what?” I muttered.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she reassured.
I wasn’t convinced. If my car was clunking – it was bad news. Getting out of the car, I walked around looking for...I didn’t really know what I was looking for, something that screamed, hey right here. I’m broken. Well as luck would have it, it didn’t actually scream the problem, but my car was leaning very awkwardly to one side.
Good riddance. Now what?
I walked to the rear of the car. “Shit.” One of my back tires was flatter than a pancake, and to make matters worse, there was an arrow sticking out of it. A mother freaking arrow.
That was definitely not normal, not even for the boonies.
Lexi stepped out beside me. She took one look at my poor tire and announced, “I’ll call Chase. And Angel…”
I looked up from the mutilated rubber into her turquoise alarm-filled eyes.
“…get back in the car,” she finished.
Oh mercy.
Chapter 4
All I could think of was, crap here we go again.
I hadn’t even been back to my normal life for like two seconds, when shit decided to go south. Only me.
Huddling back into my car, I hit the lock button the moment Lexi slammed her door shut. The phone was already to her ear as she waited for her cousin to pick up. I knew that I didn’t have any supersonic eyesight, but that didn’t stop me from scanning the area like a crazy person. Someone or something was out there, and they had wanted to hurt us. This I was sure of, or we wouldn’t be calling for backup.
My blood pressure spiked, and I felt a full on panic attack rising. Not knowing what lurked, hiding in the edges of the woods, was torturing me. Not knowing whether it was from hell’s gates or if it was human. The not knowing was killing me. I didn’t know how Chase, Lexi, and Travis handled this. I wasn’t cut out for this kind of life, yet the choice had already been made for me. It was out of my hands, and I better suck it up, put my big girl pants on, and calm down.
“Chase,” she said into her pink rhinestone phone. “We need you.” Lexi glanced at the GPS on my dashboard. “We are a half mile from Burton’s Bridge.” She flipped her phone closed and glanced at me with big turquoise eyes. “He’s on his way.”
My heart started to beat irrationally fast in my chest. Just knowing that Chase was on his way did funny things to my belly. To all of me really. Those feelings of anxiousness I’d felt earlier, grew tenfold. I kept trying to tell myself it was because someone, or something, might be out there. Waiting. Watching. But in the end it really didn’t matter how much I tried to delude myself. The fact still remained that Chase, and only Chase, made me feel this way.
Someday I was going to have to come to terms with that.