The phone behind him rang, and dread settled in his gut. Noah had a feeling he knew who it was, so he reluctantly tore himself away from the window to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Just checking in, West,” a raspy voice drawled. “I was starting to think you were avoiding my calls.”
“I told you. I prefer email.”
“Haven’t gotten any of those from you either. You’ve been there more than a month. I expected to have something by now. Talk to me.”
Noah closed the blinds and flipped the lights back on. His gaze fell on the collection of photos pinned to a corkboard. Photos of Hannah Dawson and Zachary Collins getting in their cars, walking their dogs and moving around inside their house across the street. Alexandra King and Zach Collins’ younger brother sitting at a table at one of those sidewalk cafes.
“Collins just got married,” Noah said. “He’s on his honeymoon. I’ve been tailing King today.”
The gruff voice swore. “You got anything yet?”
“No.”
“If Collins isn’t there—”
“So what?” Noah reviewed the pictures he’d just shot on his camera. “Give me another week or two. I’ll have enough evidence to make you happy.”
“We’re paying you a hell of a lot of money to prove those two so-called psychic detectives are frauds. You’d better get us something soon.”
The other man abruptly ended the call, but it was the paused image on his laptop that gave Noah more reason to worry. He didn’t have time to figure out what was going on in this house.
He had a job to do, and the sooner he finished it, the sooner he could address the problems in this house and get a decent night’s sleep.
Rubbing his eyes, he risked another look through the blinds. Emma – he preferred the name to Spider – and the dogs were still lingering in his yard. It was late. Dark. Didn’t the young woman know it wasn’t smart to be walking the dogs alone at this hour? Granted, it was a nice neighbourhood, but … he couldn’t help but think about his sisters doing such a ridiculous thing.
With a harsh curse, he reached for the keys sitting on the desk. It would do as an excuse to go outside and see that she made it safely home.
He pretended not to notice her as he stepped out on the front porch, trotted down the steps and headed for his car. Good thing his garage was still filled with moving boxes. Otherwise, he’d have parked inside. The dogs began barking and Noah lifted his gaze in their direction, acting surprised to see them.
Strange thing was, both dogs and the woman were looking up at his house. Emma smiled, directed an awkward wave toward his second floor, and then tugged the animals back before dropping her gaze to where he stood. “Come on, guys. Our night time walk is over. Shhh!”
Noah followed her gaze up toward his bedroom window.
“Sorry,” she called, drawing his attention back to her. “We didn’t mean to bother you or your, er, wife.”
The irony of that idea tugged at his mouth. “I’m not married.”
“Oh.” She glanced back toward the window. “Girlfriend?”
A chuckle tickled his windpipe. “Don’t have one of those either.”
If this was her idea of fishing to see if he was attached, she was doing a lousy job of being subtle.
She bit at her lower lip. “Point is, we didn’t mean to bother you and your friend then.” She turned and practically had to drag the growling dogs after her. “Come on.”
Noah scratched at his neck and followed her. “Wait. What do you mean, me and my friend?”
With a nod toward his house, she seemed more preoccupied with the dogs than him now. “The woman in the window.”
He jerked his gaze toward the upstairs bedroom window. The light was on. What the—? His muscles froze, rooting him to the spot. He hadn’t been in the room tonight. No reason for that light to be on.
All thought of his new red-headed neighbour fled his mind as he bounded up the stairs and back into his house. This could be his best chance to catch the person who’d been messing with him.
But there was no one in the bedroom, nor any other room in the house. He searched them all. Nothing.
The house was empty.
Mornings sucked.
After letting the dogs out, Spider lumbered like a zombie from the kitchen back to bed and groaned when she saw that it was an hour-and-a-half earlier than she’d planned to get up. Only six hours since she’d fallen into blissful slumber. She faceplanted into bed and pulled the sheets over her head.
Working from Zach’s house. Can set own hours. Sleeeeep.
A heavy weight settled against the back of her neck. She was drifting toward unconsciousness so she ignored it until, a few seconds later, the sheet tugged at her hair, exposing part of her face to cold air and the light in the room. A tiny claw nicked her scalp.
“Stop it, cat!” She swatted over her shoulder and connected with fur. “Y’all are seriously messing with my beauty sleep,” she grumbled and dug deeper into the pillow.
The cat’s weight shifted away from her.
She started to doze, but a sharp prick at her ear followed by “Mreeeoow” shocked her awake again.
Spider flung the sheets off her head and glared at the animal. “You have a litter box! What do you want?”
Abbott shifted on his front paws on the pillow beside her, watching her with big, rounded kitty eyes that rivaled those of Puss in Boots. “Meow.”
“You’re hungry?”
He stood and brushed against her. “Meow.”
She glanced at the clock. “According to the note Hannah left, it’s not time for you to be fed yet.”
“Meow.”
“Will you let me get some more sleep if I feed you?”
“Mrreeow.”
“Don’t make a habit of this, cat.” With heavy-lidded eyes, Spider padded into the kitchen and set the cat’s food out. Charlie and Costello came running, and Spider shrugged. Why the heck not? After pouring them some food, she shuffled back to bed, nudging the bedroom door shut. Darn animals could entertain themselves for a while.
She glanced at the clock again before tugging the sheets over her face and snuggling into the pillows. Ah, sleep.
Her muscles relaxed as her mind sank into a comfy dream. A lake glistened beneath bright sunlight as birds chirped in the distance. Music and singing grew closer. Wearing one of his trademark suits and over-sized glasses, Elton John sat on the lounger beside her cooing out a song about unicorns and elephants – Wait, what? –while the hot neighbour from yesterday peeled his shirt off and dove into the gleaming water, revealing a set of abs so chiseled Michelangelo would have drooled.
The hottie from the lake surfaced right in front of her, slicked back his wet hair exposing arm muscles so defined she wondered if he was for real, and, smiling, asked her, “Do you wanna—?”
Spider’s eyelids jerked open as the bed sheet pulled at her hair and slid toward her shoulder. Something sat on her feet, so she kicked toward it, hoping to dislodge whichever animal was making a nuisance of himself now.
And