Page 149 of The Woman By the Lake

After that, he smiled.

THIRTY

Ice Cold

Nadia

I woke when the bed shook mightily.

It took a beat for me to realize it was because Riggs had left it in a hurry.

I knew this because it was really dark since Riggs let the shades down, but even so, his even darker shadow was beside the bed and moving like he was putting on his jeans.

It was only then I heard the scratching on the window.

I sat up, and like he had the vision of a cat, his finger was on my lips as I opened my mouth to speak.

“Hush, princess. And put clothes on,” he ordered quietly.

I was naked, considering, mid-martini, we got busy again, and since we had emotion to work out, that busy was busy.

Now I started to do what he said, but we both froze when the scratching at the window by the reading nook stopped, but it started almost immediately at the window on the bed side, down by the bathroom.

That was new.

And even creepier.

Were there two of them?

There had to be. No other explanation. No one could make it around the cabin that quickly.

Riggs grabbed my phone off the charger, found my wrist then slapped it in my palm, wrapping my fingers around it. Then he moved away only to come back and sit on the edge of the bed to put his boots on.

I was trying to figure out if I should call the sheriff’s office first, or get dressed, when the scratching at the window by the bathroom became the same by the living room.

Oh shit.

Were there three? Or had the first one moved around?

I slid out of bed, feeling for clothes with my toes, and ran into my dress.

I bent and snatched it up.

Riggs let out a low whistle, and I looked his way.

“Call. Whisper,” he commanded in his own whisper.

Then I stood, fixed with panic as his shadow moved to the storage closet, he went in it and came out of it incredibly quick.

The panic part came when he headed down the back hall.

He’d reinstalled it, so the door opened without a sound, but still, I knew he was opening it.

Shit!

Frantically, I searched for my clothes, ran into my panties, tugged them on, found my bra on the back of the armchair in the living room (Riggs really wanted rid of that, it seemed, because he’d thrown it a long way). I struggled into it, then I went back to my dress I’d tossed on the bed. I wasted no time pulling it over my head.

After that, I sank to my bottom beside the bed, yanked the quilt over my head (just in case they could see inside somehow, I didn’t want them to see my screen light up), and I activated the phone.

---