Page 62 of Little Sunshine

If things went wrong—and in my experience, they often did—I needed a general idea of my surroundings. What type of gated development he lived in. How close the other houses were. An address.

An exit plan.

Jostling my dirty clothes bundle into one arm, I opened the door and stepped outside.

And then a national emergency was declared.

That was the only logical explanation for the blaring alarm that made me jump out of my skin. It echoed out from the foyer, and it was a miracle all the lovely windows didn’t shatter. I expected to see choppers, SWAT teams, and emergency vehicles descend while that one Led Zeppelin song played in the background.

Rushing back inside, I threw the door closed as if that would fix it. When it unsurprisingly didn’t, I searched the walls for the alarm control panel. Not that I knew what to do with one, but my brain wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

Even over the shrill siren, I could hear a nearby door slam. I whipped around in time to see Ash pull a T-shirt over his head. I caught a brief glimpse of defined muscles and tattoos above his basketball shorts before the black cotton tee covered them.

Before he could start yelling, I stammered my apology. “Sorry. Really sorry. I?—”

“Hush.” He stopped close behind me.

I tilted my head up and did not do as he’d ordered. “I was just?—”

“Hush, Mila.” With one hand lightly on my hip, he reached the other around me to open the discreet panel right in front of my face. I dropped my head to give him privacy, but his hand skimmed my side, continuing up until it reached my jaw. He used the gentle hold to make sure I watched as he walked me through how to disarm the system.

I didn’t absorb any of it.

I didn’t even breathe.

Once the irritating noise cut off, I stepped away and spun around, needing space. Needing to explain. “I wasn’t going to run away.”

“Didn’t think you’d try.”

There was just enough emphasis on that word. Try. Like even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t succeed.

His threat from the night before filled my head.

‘I will chase you.’

And like the night before, it moved down my body to settle someplace lower. Someplace it didn’t belong.

Someplace that didn’t make sense.

“I just wanted to look outside,” I said.

It wasn’t a lie, even if it wasn’t the full truth, either.

“Not a prisoner here. Go outside all you want.” He scanned me. “Are you okay? What’re you doing out of bed?”

“I can’t stay there all day.”

“Why not?”

Since that was a loaded question, I returned to his unanswered one. “I’m sore, and my scrapes burn like they’re literally on fire, but the sleep helped. What time is it?”

“Almost one.”

“Almost… What?” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept so late. I wasn’t sure I ever had.

No wonder I feel so rested.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

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