Page 67 of Heartsong
It didn’t help that Frey became his own little surveillance unit. He paced the apartment constantly, tail lashing behind him like an angry cat.
Between his sulking and her paranoia, the mood of the apartment took a nosedive. Even Captain seemed affected, burrowing under furniture to take his naps and avoid the passive aggressiveness.
They ate meals together. They sat together. But things were…different. Anna didn’t know how to fix it or if it really should be fixed. Maybe it was better that they take this reminder that things just couldn’t work between them, not that way. Did she miss coming home to his open arms and an evening of just being with him? Of course. But she’d lived without it before and she could do it again.
Even if living without it was less and less appealing.
Scowling at the SUV, Anna hurried into her apartment building, glad to be done with the day. A headache had been threatening since lunchtime and her new pills hadn’t gotten rid of it. She needed a shot and a hot shower and her bed. Did she daydream a little about Frey’s claws massaging her head in that way he did that somehow eased her headaches? Yeah, okay, she did. But a hot shower would be nice, too.
Anna shuffled into her apartment and put down her outside things. Captain came to rub against her legs. She picked him up for kisses and buried her face in his soft fur as he purred happily. When asked how his day was, he gave her a chirpy, chicken-flavored meow then licked her nose.
“You’ve definitely had your dinner.” Looking around, the kitchen was lit and something was in the oven with about twenty minutes on a timer. “Where’s Frey, hmm?”
Not seeing him, she carried Captain into the dark living room.
Backlit by the windows and the cloudy, sapphire blue sky, Frey stood on in silence, his back turned to her.
Her heart jumped into her throat to see him there, just barely illuminated by the weak moonlight filtering through the thin cloud cover. His profile was all sharp lines as he gazed out the window, a thunderous frown reflecting back in the glass.
“Frey, I’m home.”
At first, he said nothing, only worsening the dread tugging on her insides.
When he finally did speak, his words drained the blood from her face.
“When were you going to tell me about the vehicles?”
“What?” she croaked.
His head slowly turned to stare at her, those intense eyes the color of starlight and just as cold. “Two large vehicles have been parked across the street for days now. Sometimes they are not there in the early evenings, but one is always back when you are.”
A groan erupted from Anna, and she hugged Captain tighter.
Here it is. Here it comes. Here we go.Her mind whirred, and she had to swallow down the need to run. But the train wreck was barreling toward her and there was no getting off the tracks.
A thousand things to say jumped up her throat, but she couldn’t get anything out.
As if sensing she meant to lie to him, Frey’s upper lip curled. “Tell me,” he demanded, in a tone he’d never used with her, that made her knees quake.
“I-I’m not sure, but…I think that van has followed me before. Like followed me from work back here. Which is why you shouldn’t be hanging out in the window, it’s not—”
Anna’s ears rang with the ferocious roar Frey unleashed, and Captain yowled in fright and clawed her shoulder in his haste to jump and run. In a flurry of wings and black mane, Frey threw open a window and climbed outside.
“Wait!” she yelped, but he was too fast. That angry, lashing tail disappeared up the fire escape. Anna leaned out the window, watching in horror as Frey pulled himself up onto the roof.
“Frey!”
Her fear gave way to spitting anger, and Anna hauled herself back inside, pacing angrily. She kept her eyes trained on the SUV outside, just waiting for a SWAT team to come pouring out of it. Any minute now, a horde of police cars were going to light up the street outside and bust open her door. Detective Ramirez would arrest her with a smug little grin and she’d get taken to the precinct and be kept up for hours while they went round and round and round over her story and why there was a statue-shaped thing climbing over her building and—
Anna jumped when Frey landed on the fire escape.
Scrambling for the window, she waved frantically. “Getinside!Someone willsee you!”
A growl rumbled through him, but he acquiesced, pulling himself back through the casement.
“Whatthe fuckwas that?” she demanded. “They could be watching the windows and you—”
“When were you going to tell me?” he roared. “You say you will be safe, you say you can take care of yourself. You’re beingfollowed,Anna!”
