Credence

I check every corner, behind bales of hay, and all the hooks on the walls, but I don’t see anything. Stopping, I absently shake my head. How does he lose stuff so easily?

But as I start to head out, a loud thud hits my ears, and I jump. I thought they were in the shop.

Three more pounding sounds hit, and I peer around the stalls, not seeing anything or anyone. What…

Forgetting the buckets, I veer left and head down the row of stalls, the sound getting louder the closer I get to the door. Another thud hits, and I blink, slowly reaching out and laying my palm against the door. It doesn’t latch, and even though I see movement behind the cracks and I know who it is, I push the door wide anyway, the hinges whining as the room beyond comes into view.

A large stove burns in the corner of the dark room, fire spitting from its vents as Kaleb stands at a table with his back to me. He raises his ax, coming down hard. Blood splatters, he removes the leg, and then he grabs his hunting knife. A lump rises in my throat, and I can’t breathe.

Oh, God.

I rear back, but I don’t escape in time. The sounds as he tears into the hide of whatever animal he bagged, the serrated edge carving through the skin, muscle, and rib cage, hits my ears as blood immediately spills at his feet.

I swallow the bile down.

He turns, seeing me, and his green eyes hold me frozen as he raises his fingers. Sweat covers his chest and arms, his hair sticking to his temples, and I watch as a small grin curls his lips, and he sticks a finger into his mouth, licking the blood off.

He grips the knife in his other hand, lowering his chin and looking at me as if nothing else exists in the world, and there’s no way they’d hear me out here beyond the machines they’re running in the shop if I screamed.

Yeah, no.

I grab the door and pull it closed as I scurry back out of the room. His light chuckle carries as I quickly disappear from his sight. Asshole.

But then I stop, noticing. He laughed. Out loud.

It wasn’t much, but I heard his deep voice. He’s growled or grunted a few times, but he let me hear him laugh. I narrow my eyes, lost in thought. I wonder if he even realizes.

He let me hear him.

I shrug, shaking it off, and take a step toward the exit. But then something catches my eye, and I look to my right, noticing a ladder. I’m not in the barn much, especially since this is where Kaleb likes to lurk.

Glancing at the door again, behind which he still works, I approach the ladder, placing my boot on the bottom rung and gripping the one level with my head.

I climb, coming up through a door in the floor and stand up in a small room, filled with sheet-covered objects.

Furniture?

I reach out, grab one of the pieces of cloth and pull.

Tiernan

“What do you want to do with it?” Jake asks me.

He and Noah each hold a side as they carry the three-drawer chest into the shop, and I smile at the feather-and-filigree carvings in the wood.

“Anything you’ll let me, I guess.” I shrug, not really knowing yet. “It’s a great piece of furniture, and there’s so much more up there.”

There were more chests, a couple of dressers, some end tables and a bedside table, a couple of doors, and a desk. None of the furniture was in good shape, but as soon as I saw it all, my heart leaped. Everything in our house growing up was so new.

I walk over, running my hand over the grainy wooden top of the chest. There’s no history in new. No mystery. I like old.

Jake stands back, looking at the piece with me. It almost looks like something out of Beauty and the Beast. The Disney version. The wood curves, the chest widening as it goes up, and there’s lots of detail around the edges and feet. This was probably a stunning piece in its day.

“My ex and I collected a bunch of stuff from yard sales for when we finished building this place,” Jake says, “but then shit happened, so…”

I open the drawers, checking the functionality.

“So yeah, it’s all yours,” he adds. “It’s one other thing to keep you occupied this winter.”