Page 30 of Time Out

A slow, sly smile stretched her glossy red lips. “Good.”

Chapter 10

Maggie

I needed a nap. Actually, what I needed was to sleep for at least the next five to six weeks. That’s when the doctor told me I should see a return of my energy levels.

As it was, I’d gotten stuck at work through the dinner shift when I was supposed to be home around four. Now, it was eight, well past my bedtime these last couple of weeks. The only thing keeping me awake as I pulled myself up the stairs toward my apartment was the promise of my soft bed and new sheets.

A shadow moved at the top of the steps and I gasped. My heart started racing as there was another movement, no sound of my neighbor’s door.

“Hello?”

I was already moving back a step, fully awake and my eyes wide as something moved closer to the stairs.

Another step back and the floor creaked. My neighbor was never home. I had never seen them. I didn’t even know if it was a her or him or them because my landlord told me the apartment was rented, but that was it. It’d taken me a few days to stop assuming it was some empty place used to store bodies and whatnot.

“Maggie?”

A deep, thick voice called my name and I had half a mind to rush right back down all four flights of stairs—thanks in part to the elevator being broken—when recognition sparked.

I gripped the banister and took a step forward. Then another.

“Davis?”

He appeared at the top of the stairs, stealing my breath and bringing tears to my eyes.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. Where have you been?”

“Where have I been? What are you doing here? How did you know where I—Belle. You went and saw Belle, didn’t you?”

I might not have been the smartest girl in the room, but I wasn’t the dumbest. It’d be easy to find her. Much easier than me.

He nodded and held out his hand to help me up the last two stairs, but I shook him off and skated around him at the landing.

“I went and saw her today to find you.”

“Figures. By the way, her name’s Annabelle. You should call her that sometime, she hates it.”

A rough chuckle followed him. “Pretty sure I want to stay on her good side.”

“Well, that’s all I’m calling her now.”

“Are you mad I’m here?”

I already had my keys in my hand, so I inserted it into the lock and glanced at him over my shoulder. “No. I’m not mad, but some warning might have been nice.”

“I didn’t know if what I needed to say should be done over the phone.”

Of course she gave him my phone number too. The heads up would have been nice, at least from her, but my phone had been silent all day. The last place I wanted Davis was here. At my home. In my tiny and old apartment after spending time in his elegant and massive one.

As if he sensed my unease, he shoved his thumb in the direction of the stairs. “I can leave. Give you a call. Set up a time to meet.”

He’d come all this way.

A yawn hit then and I couldn’t hide it. The fear of a stranger being outside my door had momentarily wiped away my exhaustion, but now I felt it everywhere. My eyelids burned and were weighted with lead, and my already sore feet ached with the need to be released from my work shoes.

Heels. Not the most comfortable thing to wear while delivering large trays of food.

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