Page 15 of Yellow
CHAPTER 3
Intruders
Chloe
Time passed slowly that Thursday and as darkness fell, my fears flared up.
Four times, I made sure the door and all three windows were securely locked. I moved from the sofa to the chair and back to the sofa endless times, going out of my mind with fear.
What if something happened to me? How long would it take before someone came looking for me? My agent thought I was on a tropical vacation and so did everyone else. Except Faith of course, but even she didn’t know the exact address. Off in Scotland, she wasn’t likely to check up on me for at least a few days anyway.
What if this Adam guy turned out to be that major jerk I had met at the bar last January? I hadn’t forgotten how he had humiliated me.
Just the off chance that it really was him made my hackles rise.
Pulling energy from my fear, I waved a finger at Max and declared out loud, “You know what – your owner might think me a pushover, butthat, my friend, was the old Chloe.” I puffed out my chest and strode around the room like a bad theater version of a pompous king. “I’m not going to let anyone boss me around anymore. Did you hear me?”
Max lifted his head.
“That’s right, I’m talking to you, Max.”
His tale started wagging.
“This is thenewChloe, and you’re the first to see how fierce and brave I am.” Imitating Superman, I lifted my arm in a power gesture.
Max didn’t look too impressed and to be honest, my bravado didn’t last long either. Around eleven I gave up waiting for Adam and begged the dog to join me on the bed. When he finally did, he curled up on the foot end and refused to move.
“You’ll tell me if someone approaches, right, Max?” I begged and left the bed lamp on.
Max did tell me!
In fact, he almost made me pee my pants in fear when he woke me up with his deep menacing growling.
“What is it, Max?”
The dog jumped down and took up a position in front of the door; his sharp teeth lit up in the dampened light of the room and his growls were telling me that something was coming.
“Is it Adam?”
With the way Max behaved it didn’t look to be someone he recognized as friendly.
“Is it a bear?” I pulled the blanket up to my nose, every nerve ending on alert.What if Niko found me?
Chills ran from my toes to my skull and I tried to listen for sounds.Nothing!– except for the horrible growling sounds coming from Max, who looked like Satan himself was on the other side of that door.
Then a sound made me tilt my head to listen.What was that?
“Conquer your fears…” I muttered ten times before slowly crawling out of bed and picking up a candelabra to serve as a weapon.
Another sound…a car door perhaps?
Growls became barks, but I knew better than to open the door to check out what was out there.
Adam will knock on the door. A bear won’t, I thought.
When the knock came, I jumped and gave a scream.
“Open up,” a deep male voice called.
