They are gone now and I’m lying in bed thinking about how alone I am; how if someone came to murder me no one would know. It’s a creepy house and screams of horrible things that must have happened here but it’s all I could get. I decide to take a few swigs of cough medicine and call it a night.
I’ve just about dozed off when I feel someone shaking my leg. I kick at the hand and mumble something about letting me sleep but the hand pulls harder and I nearly topple off my bed. My blue hair is in my eyes and it takes me a few disoriented swipes to see a man standing above me.
Holy hell!
I’m screaming. I’m scrambling back on my hands and I’m screaming. The man ambles towards me; he grabs me around the head silencing my shrill shrieks of horror. He smells of rich soil and deep woody musk. The scars across his face stand out in the gloom. His peculiar green eyes are boring in to mine.
“Hush your mouth,” he snarls. His voice is deep, booming. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
“I live here!” I say. Not really. He has his hand over my mouth so it comes out as a mumble.
“What?” he asks. The proximity of his body against mine is arousing in a most alarming way.
I roll my eyes and point at his hand. He removes it reluctantly.
“I live here,” I say and push his hands away. I find my feet and stand five feet tall. It’s like a mere cat standing up to an elephant. “Who are you?”
“This is my cabin,” the man says. “I own it.”
I’m genuinely stumped. I thought he’d say this was his crack den where he came to shoot up most nights; or a Satanist cults meeting place or even the playground of a deviant orgy group. I did not expect him to come out as the owner of the property. Diesel had said the owners weren’t around!
“Oh,” eloquent me, I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“You’re trespassing,” he growled. That got me out of my comatose state.
“I am not!” I screeched as if he’d accused me of adultery in 1865. “I paid rent and everything. The Sherriff said I could stay here and send my checks to PO Box account. You did receive my check, didn’t you?”
He looked dazed like I’d sucker punched him.
“What’s your PO Box number?” I ask on a whim. His slack jaw and over bright eyes are rousing my suspicions.
“Okay so I lied,” he concedes but he doesn’t look too pleased about it. “But I need this property two days from now.”
“What for?” I ask.
“That’s private,” he says. His evasion makes me angry. What I should be doing is calling the cops on this freak who entered my house and tried to terrify me with my second eviction in 24 hours, no matter that he was very handsome and made me a little wet between the legs. But I won’t. I’m alone, in a house this man is capable of getting into. Let’s just resolve this rather than enrage him with threats of arrest and end up being murdered.
“Well tough,” I shrug.
“Can you clear out for two days?” he asks. “Loan me the use of it? I can pay you handsomely. You can stay at the Waterville hotel, huh, imagine not doing your dishes. Or take a trip, go see the Grand Canyon.”
It was tempting. The man himself was tempting. But I pushed both thought in the back of my mind. I have no idea what he wants to do here, and I’m not packing all that damn crockery again just so people won’t use it.
“No,” I say as politely as I can manage. “I’m sorry but I’m not interested.” The shadow of a smile that had been playing in his eyes disappeared completely. For a fraction of a second I thought he might attack me but he seemed to rein it in and shrug with an effort. “Your funeral,” he muttered ominously and left. I followed him to make sure he was out of my door. He paused at the threshold of the front door and glanced back at me, his eyes piercing in to mine and I felt myself flush. He sneered and lifted his middle finger, and sauntered out of my house.
Chapter Four
The Family Man
Diesel Wake could feel the swell of Sonya’s breasts against his chest. She didn’t sleep she sprawled. Her honey caramel hair tickled his face and he tucked them behind her ears gently. He cupped her cheek, and kissed the tip of her nose, his other hand snaking around her waist, his mouth closing around a hard nipple straining against her nightgown.