Page 6 of Wraith
Amelia skidded to a stop.
Growl.
Slowly, she turned around and almost missed the black wolf dog—no, that can’t be right. Squinting, she saw she had been wrong. It wasn’t a wolf dog but an actual wolf. Amelia screamed and tried moving backward only to trip over herself and hit the snow-covered ground, hard Grunting, she pushed against her palms to propel her away from the animal.
“Doc!” A stern voice called.
Amelia looked up to see a man, the tip of a shotgun pointing upward behind him. “Stay back!” She told him. “You’ll spook it!”
“Lady, your scream could’ve woken the dead. If he wasn’t spooked by that I don’t think I could.” The man reached forward and swatted the wolf against the rump gently, like he would a pet. “Easy Doc. Get inside.”
The wolf sniffed at Amelia then trotted off as if she had been wasting his time. Amelia frowned.
“You’re trespassing,” the man said, extending a hand toward her.
Amelia wanted to tell him to go bite himself but she accepted the hand. Once she was on her feet, she yanked her hand back. “I’m looking for Liam Snyder.”
“Who’s askin’?”
“I’m Amelia—Hemmingway?”
“Uh-huh?” He tilted his head to peer at her.
“My father is—I’m the Blackbird.”
The man nodded then turned toward the steps leading to the front door where the wolf was patiently waiting. “Come inside or you’ll freeze to death.”
“Wait, are you Liam Snyder or not? I don’t want to waste your time or anything. But it’s real important I find him.”
“I’m Liam Snyder.” The man didn’t stop moving until he’d opened the door to let the wolf in. “You’re not dressed for this weather. Come inside.”
He disappeared inside but Amelia wrapped her arms around herself. She glanced back at the truck then at the house. Giving in, she picked up her purse from the front passenger seat and made her way into the warm depths of the cabin and closed the door.
After removing her shoes, she followed the sound of cupboards opening until she found Liam in the kitchen. She could actually get a good look at him now and found herself liking what she saw. Though she’d never been attracted to facial hair, but on Liam—every carnal piece of her dusted themselves off and sparked to life. His hair seemed recently cut, and his wide shoulders flexed under his movements. To make it worse, he wasn’t wearing his coat and she could see just how muscular he was.
“I take it Leonard is dead,” Liam said, dumping some coffee into a filter and closing the maker.
“Why would you think he wasn’t alive?”
“He wouldn’t have sent you to me unless he was gone, or something is really wrong.”
“I don’t know. My father hasn’t been around in over ten years.” Amelia leaned against the doorframe. “Then I get two letters from him in a day, go home to some van parked outside my house and everything inside is either cut or smashed to shit. Then my best friend tells me some cop was asking questions about me. I may not know what’s going on, but this joker wasn’t a cop.”
“You’re right.” Liam didn’t look at her. He merely kept moving around the kitchen putting together a plate of food then sliding it slowly toward her with a large finger. “Your cell phone?”
“I turned it off, took the battery out and dropped the pieces in some water at home.” Amelia explained. She made no move for the plate. “He said it could be traced.”
“Did he send you anything?”
“Yeah. A new identity, phone, money and your address. What’s going on? How do you know my father?”
“Eat something and then we’ll make up the guestroom for you,” Liam said. “It’s not much but it will have to do until we have to move.”
“Move? What?”
“We’ll need to go.”
“Go where? Give me something—please?”
