Passing the Torch (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation 1)

y?”

“That his name? He basically growled at me when I said hi.”

I laughed and stepped into the bedroom. “Harry is pretty quiet. I think he’s only said a few words to me the whole time he’s lived there.”

Hero let go of my hand and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Guy seems off, Reva.”

I scowled and crouched down in front of the sparse row of shoes in the bottom of my closet. “I think you’re overreacting a little, Hero. Harry is harmless.” I grabbed a pair of sandals and held them up. “These?”

“You just told me you barely talked to the guy. I don’t think you can really tell me he is harmless.”

I waved the sandal again.

“No. Something close-toed if we’re on the bike.”

I dropped the sandal. That seriously narrowed down my choices. I was left with a pair of chucks, black leather booties, and my work tennis shoes. “Can we take my car?”

Hero chuckled. I was really starting to like that. “We’re not taking the cage, Sunshine. You’re on my bike. No girly shoes.”

I scoffed and grabbed the leather boots. “Well, I am a girl, Hero.”

“Trust me, I’ve noticed.”

I sat back on my butt and pulled on the boots.

“You got a light jacket to wear?”

I managed to get both boots on and stood. “I’m wearing a sweatshirt, Hero, and it’s warm out.”

“Trust me. Grab a coat. It gets cold on the bike at night.”

I rolled my eyes but turned back to the closet. I had stuffed away my coats in bins on the top shelf of the closet since it was almost summer. I flicked on the light and looked up. “What the hell?”

Why was the access panel to the crawl space cracked open?

“Huh?” Hero moved next to me and looked up. “Been in the attic lately?” he asked.

I had never been up there. “Uh, it’s not really an attic. It’s sort of just a crawl space.”

Hero stepped into the closet and got under the open hole in the ceiling. “Does this run the whole length of the building or just your unit?”

“Just mine.”

Hero pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and pointed it up into the crawl space. “You sure about that?”

“Yeah. When I first looked at the place, they offered to let me go up there to check it out. I stuck my head up in the hole, and there was a wall where the next unit starts.” I didn’t need to crawl around up there. It looked good to me.

Hero turned off his flashlight and tucked his phone back in his pocket. “Maybe the latch got jiggled loose over time.” He reached up and swung the square door closed. He hooked the latch and stepped back. “Let me know if it opens again.”

I nodded.

“Sunshine,” he called.

I blinked twice and looked at him. “Huh?”

“What are you thinking about?”

I thought back to yesterday when I had the eerie feeling someone was watching me in the bedroom. It didn’t make sense, though. The crawl space went nowhere. “Uh, trying to remember which bin my coat is in.”