“I’m the one born with the klutzy gene, not you,” she said, coming down the hall. “Or as my mother likes to say, I was cursed by gypsies.” Suddenly, she was at his side, her hand on his shoulder. “Asher, you’re bleeding. Oh my God, what’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t speak.
The young woman in the drawing looked exactly like his sister.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
CHAPTER 18
“I haven’t seen Zara in many years,” Asher said as Olivia held his hand.
The cut wasn’t deep. It took hardly more than a thought to heal him. “That’s a pretty name,” she said.
“My father used to say he loved us from A to Z.”
“And you really think it could be her? How is that even possible?”
“If it’s not, then she’s got a twin sister I don’t know about.” Flexing his hand, he thanked her, then carefully examined the rest of the drawings, five in total. “Are these the only ones you have?”
She nodded. “And the one you’re holding is the only one I have of her face. There’s something sad and melancholy about the ones where she has her back to you. That’s why I took them, I think. It seemed as though she was looking for my brother, missing him like I was.”
“Where were you living when he drew these?”
“I think we were in Granite Falls by then. It’s a small town in the Cascade foothills. Vince and I were fifteen when my father retired and we moved there.”
“Fifteen?” he repeated, almost to himself. “And he was taken from home when he was seventeen?”
“Yes.”
Asher said nothing for a long moment as he stared at the drawings, then he pointed to one of them. “Do you recognize these mountains as being the ones near Granite Falls?”
Olivia tried to remember, but when you see something every day for several years of your life, you forget to pay attention to the details. “That would be my guess, but I don’t know for sure. My brother liked to go camping and fishing with his buddies. He was really outdoorsy. Sometimes he’d go out by himself with a sketchpad and our dog. I honestly didn’t pay too much attention to what the mountains looked like. They all seemed the same to me.”
Asher looked like he was about to ask another question when headlights flashed against the living room wall, interrupting him. It made a moving geometric pattern through the blinds. He jumped from the sofa to peer outside.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Do you see anything?”
He held out a finger. “Hold on. I’m not sure.”
Olivia’s heart thumped in her chest.
“Is the light on in the bedroom?” he growled.
“Um, I think I turned it off. Crap. Maybe I didn’t. Why?”
“If this is the only light, it could easily be the one you’d leave on if you weren’t home, right?”
“I…I guess so.” She didn’t understand what he was getting at. “Want me to go turn it off if it’s on?”
“No, it’s too late now. If you do, then they’ll know for sure that someone’s here.”
She tried to think clearly and not panic. “Where’s Conry?”
“Still there, but he’s standing now. And watching.”
Okay, that’s it.
She slung the messenger bag over her shoulder and grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter, stuffing them into her pocket. They’d already packed up most of the rooms and taken everything down to the truck. She glanced around, doing a quick survey. The furniture in the living room would have to stay. She’d always hated that ratty sofa anyway.
Maybe Asher was just being overly cautious and it would turn out to be one of her neighbors. If so, then they could finish up and make sure she’d left nothing behind.
Conry gave a quick bark.
“Shit,” Asher said, ducking away from the window. “Night Patrol vehicle. Do you see many of them around here?”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. “No, not really. It’s a fairly quiet neighborhood.”
“Let’s go,” he ordered. “We’ve got to assume they’re coming here.”
She grabbed the box with Vince’s artwork and ran toward the door.
“No.” Asher lunged, grabbing her arm. “It’s too late. They’ll see us coming down the stairs. We’ll go out the balcony and hope they don’t have another unit back there. We’ll run along behind the two buildings and get to the truck from the other side.”