Page 45 of Through the Fire
“Approximately fifteen feet from the edge of the house’s backyard.”
“Could he describe the person? Does he know them?” Although the words were quiet, there was an urgency to them that made his blood run faster. It wasn’t a bad feeling. Ever since he’d met Kit, he’d felt so much more alive.
“He said it was a stranger.”
The sound of a harsh inhale a few feet from their table made Wes start. Turning his head, he saw a small, dark-haired woman in a diner uniform, two menus in her white-knuckled grip.
“Elena.” Kit greeted the woman. Although her voice was cordial, there was the slightest of tensions there, telling Wes that she didn’t trust this newcomer. “Are those menus for us?”
“Oh, yes.” The woman seemed to snap out of her paralysis, and she offered them the laminated sheets. “Sorry. Jules is busy, so she asked if I’d run these out to you.”
“Thank you,” Kit said. There was a pause as Elena continued to hover, and Kit glanced at Wes, their eyes meeting ever so quickly. That brief look connected them and made him feel like they were a team. He wished Elena would leave so they could go back to their intense discussion where it felt like there were only two of them in the whole viner.
When she didn’t move away, Kit said, “We’ll probably need a minute before we order.” She gave Elena a closed-lip smile, the one Wes recognized as her polite expression. “We’re both new to the viner’s offerings.”
“Oh! Okay.” A frustrated look passed over Elena’s face—so quickly that Wes almost wasn’t positive he’d really seen it—before the doe-eyed, terrified expression returned. He was fascinated by how she could switch masks so quickly. “Just let Jules know when you’re ready to order.”
“Will do,” Kit said cheerily, her attention turning to the menu. Her body stayed alert, though, and Wes knew her focus was on Elena. After hovering for another few seconds, Elena darted back toward the kitchen, almost running into a sharp-faced woman in the doorway. The other woman barked out a “Hey!” as she recovered her balance. Wes couldn’t hear Elena’s response before she ducked into the kitchen. The other woman headed for the restroom.
Kit met Wes’s eyes. There was that look again, the one that said they were a team. It was a thrilling feeling to be a part of something with Kit.
She waited several moments after Elena had disappeared into the kitchen before saying very quietly, “I don’t trust her.”
Wes thought that was wise. “She hides what she’s really feeling.”
“Yes!” Kit raised her hands as if in triumph. “Exactly. I’m also beginning to suspect that she’s an instigator.”
“In what way?”
“She knew some information about my past and lied about it.” Her features hardened, a dramatic change from her usual soft expression when she looked at Wes. “She said that Hugh’s girlfriend gossiped about me, but both Hugh and Grace—that’s the girlfriend—denied knowing anything about it.”
Wes considered her words carefully. Hearing about these types of interpersonal exchanges made him glad he spent most of his time at his tower alone. “Couldn’t Hugh and Grace be the ones who lied?” After he asked it, he hoped Kit didn’t think he was doubting her. It was just in his nature to question things.
“It’s possible.” She sounded thoughtful, rather than offended, and Wes’s tension eased with relief. “My internal lie detector is usually pretty good, though, and it’s telling me that Elena was the one not telling the truth.” She made a wry grimace. “I might be biased, though, since something about her rubs me the wrong way.”
“You shouldn’t question your instincts,” Wes said. Leila had repeated that over and over when he was a kid and had a hard time figuring out people’s motivations. She’d always told him to trust his gut, that it would tell him whether someone was meaning to be kind or cruel. “With your job, I can see why you’d get good at knowing when someone wasn’t being honest. You shouldn’t disregard that.”
Smiling slightly, she studied him. “Thank you, Wes. You give excellent advice.”
He blinked, never expecting to be complimented on that particular skill. “You’re welcome.”
“Enough of my mini-dramas.” She took another sip of coffee. “Tell me more about what your neighbor saw. Can he describe the person he saw leaving the house?”
“I don’t see why he couldn’t, since he was close enough to get a clear look.”
Kit raised an eyebrow at him, looking slightly amused when he stared back, not sure what she was waiting for. “So, he didn’t describe the person he saw?”
“No.” Murphy had heard something and disappeared into the trees before Wes could get anything more out of him.
“What’s his name and address?” She pulled a small notebook from her coat pocket. “I’ll go interview him this afternoon.”
At the thought of Murphy’s reaction to a strange cop showing up at his house, Wes winced. “That probably won’t work, especially since I don’t know his address.”
After eyeing him for a long moment, she dropped the notebook back in her pocket. “Is this neighbor one of the gun-toting, paranoid set?”
“No. Not of the group you met. He does like guns, and from what I’ve seen, he’s probably suffering from paranoia.”
“Great.” Kit closed her eyes and let out a hard breath before reopening them. “So, he hasn’t pointed a gun at me yet, but he probably will in the future?”
