Page 51 of Survive the Night
Her first customer proved her wrong about having met everyone. The man was very nondescript-looking—average height, average weight, average brown hair and eyes—but Sarah was pretty sure that she hadn’t seen him before.
“Hi.” The bar code on the spool of wire wasn’t wanting to scan, so she entered the numbers by hand. “I’m Sarah.”
The man studied her for a long moment. “Norman Rounds.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“You, too.” He was quiet while she finished scanning the rest of his items.
“That’ll be forty-four dollars and two cents.”
As he handed her the exact amount in cash, he spoke again. “Are you the Sarah staying out at the cop’s place? The one with all the animals?”
An instinctual jolt of fear shot through her, and she caught herself right before she lied and denied it. Aaron, Jeb, and Logan were all locked up. They couldn’t hurt her now. “That’s me.” She bit back the urge to clarify that she was only there temporarily. The longer she lived with Otto, the less she wanted to leave. Sarah wasn’t sure how Otto felt about her staying, though. He hadn’t kissed her since right before they’d slept—just slept—together, and she’d catch him staring at her with an odd expression. She knew she needed to talk to him, but she didn’t want to know if he was just no longer interested. That would hurt. A lot.
She handed Norman Rounds his receipt, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he asked, “Where are you from?”
“Iowa.” For some reason, she’d never picked up a Texas accent, so Mr. Espina had her pick her imaginary home state. To her, Iowa had always seemed like an ideal place to grow up. She pictured helping with the chores as part of a big farm family—kind of like a modern-day Little House on the Prairie. Now that the cops, Grace, and Jules knew her story, she supposed that she could’ve said Texas, but she liked pretending that happy farm upbringing had really happened.
“Hmm.” He studied her for so long that she shifted uncomfortably.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“No.” He picked up his bags, looking secretly amused. “I think I have everything I need for now.”
As she watched him leave the store, Sarah felt a little shiver of unease ripple through her. “Stop it,” she muttered. “You have enough real bad guys in your life. Don’t be inventing more.”
“Who are you talking to?”
Whipping her head around, she saw Otto leaning against the counter. Her heart did the usual hop, skip, and jump it always did around Otto, and she smiled. “Hey! I’m just mumbling to myself. Organizing the back room made me a little batty, I think.”
He smiled back, that slow, honestly happy smile that always dazzled her.
“Shouldn’t you be home sleeping?”
“I’m headed that way. I promised Theo I’d pick up more milk replacer for the puppies.”
“How are they doing?” she asked. Sarah realized that she was leaning forward, bracing her hands on the edge of the counter, as if her body instinctively wanted to get as close as possible to Otto.
“Good. Fat.” He rolled his eyes. “Theo and Hugh fight over them like a pair of fussy nannies.”
“Mannies?”
The breathtaking smile came again. “I like it. How’s your shift going?”
“A tiny bit boring and a whole lot satisfying.”
“You’ve been stocking shelves again.”
“Exactly.” Her own smile faded. “Has the FBI picked up Aaron and the others yet?”
“Not yet. There’s an issue with the paperwork that had to be ironed out. Lieutenant Blessard said it should just be a few more days, though.”
Her stomach churned at the thought of Aaron being in the same town as her, even though he was behind bars. Jeb had admitted under questioning that Logan had come along so that they could use his police status to more easily kidnap her. Even though Aaron had been locked up, he’d still managed to get to her. If they hadn’t been in Monroe, it probably would have worked, too.
Otto interrupted her gloomy thoughts. “I’m hoping they get them out of here before the snow hits.”
Peering out the front windows into the gray parking lot, Sarah snorted. “If it ever snows. It keeps threatening, but I haven’t seen a single flake.”
