Page 28 of Midnight Secrets

All this heat had served an important function. Isabel didn’t feel so lost and alone and crazy. Joe’s physical presence gave weight and heft to her memory, grounding her.

Isabel sat up straighter, brushing his penis again. His hand had gone from cupping the back of her head to cupping her neck and she tilted her head slightly.

“I was looking for something using that flashlight you gave me. It’s really bright.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Joe said.

“I went into the bedroom. I needed something and instead of turning on the bedside lamp or the ceiling light, I used the flashlight. It crossed the window and that’s when I saw him. It.”

“Why do you sayit? You couldn’t tell the sex?”

Isabel took her time. This was important, if he was going to believe her. “Itbecause it didn’t quite look human. Now that I think of it, it was probably a ski mask, but in that moment, that split second, it was like this—thisthingoutside my window had no human features. No nose, no mouth, just black blankness, and those eyes.”

Joe frowned. “What about the eyes? What was wrong with them?”

This was the tricky part. “They, um. They weren’t human eyes. That’s what went through my mind. The immediate overall effect was alien.” She shuddered. “That’s when I thought I was losing it. But they weren’t alien eyes. It or he or she was wearing some funny kind of goggles. Like steampunk goggles.”

Joe looked blank. “Steampunk?”

“Yeah.” She ventured half a smile. “It’s a literary genre. Sort of Victoriana with a steam engine vibe. It’s also a look. A style. Men in fancy Edwardian waistcoats and women with leather bustiers.” Joe seemed more and more lost. “ThinkThe Golden Compass. And the goggles, the eyepieces, look like those goggles the Arctic explorers wore in all those old photographs.”

“Goggles.” Joe had been looking up and to the right to envision what she was saying but suddenly his gaze dropped and locked with hers. He let out a harsh breath. His body was tight with tension. Every muscle was taut, delineated. She felt his shoulder muscles under her hands flex and harden. “Fuck,” he breathed.

“Pardon?”

“That bastard was wearing night vision goggles!”

“What?”

“You didn’t see a monster. You saw a guy in a ski mask with night vision. They are special eyepieces that magnify any ambient light and allow soldiers to see in the dark. It’s military hardware. It shouldn’t be in the hands of civilians. Did you strip naked?” he asked, mouth a thin grim line.

“Yes.” She shivered. “The room was dark but I guess he saw…everything.”

“Do you always keep the lights off in your bedroom?”

“No. I have a small reading light on my bedside table. I have a ceiling light—” She stopped, fingers digging into the hard muscles of his shoulders. “But you know all about my ceiling light because you put it up.”

“Yeah. Do you use it much at night?”

Isabel looked up, thought. “No. I mostly have my bedside light on.”

“So if someone’s been looking in on you, watching you, he expects the room to be dimly lit. If he’s been watching you, he’d expect you to be absolutely unaware of his existence. He can watch everything you do even in the dimmest light. Even in the dark. You went into your room and kept it dark and then used a flashlight that picked him out. And, by the way, that flashlight would have blinded him with night vision gear. It would have been like looking at the sun for him.”

Isabel stared at Joe, disturbed and queasy. “So…you think someone has been…watching me?” She swallowed bile. The idea was horrible.

Joe didn’t answer right away. When he spoke, his voice was firm. “Motion sensors are going up all around your house and you will have monitors. No one will ever sneak up on you again, guaranteed.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He nodded. “There’s something else you need to know, honey.”

The endearment just slipped out of him. Isabel didn’t think he even noticed. But she did. It didn’t feel like one of those words players used as a placeholder for a name. Joe knew her name. Thathoneyhad come out of his subconscious.

She watched his eyes. They were dark brown, with striations of a slightly lighter brown and they seemed to absorb the light. They were eyes that saw everything and betrayed a keen intelligence.

“What do I need to know?”

He studied her face for a moment longer and Isabel became uneasy. This was bad news coming and she’d had a lifetime’s worth of bad news lately.

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