Chapter 2
His hand wasn't on my mouth anymore but I could still feel where it had been.
We were that close in the doorway, his breath warm against my cheek, the hall light behind him making a thin line around his jacket. My back was against the door frame. My right hand was still up by the wall switch, fingers spread, not touching it yet. I could hear my own breathing and his, both too fast, and the radiator clicking behind us in the apartment.
I didn't move right away. I looked at his eyes. He was watching my hand, not my face.
"Don't," he said. Quiet. Controlled.
I pressed the switch anyway.
Nothing happened. The lamp on the side table stayed dark. The overhead in the entry stayed dark. Just the faint glow from the hallway outside that cut across the wooden floor.
I flipped it again. Up, down. Nothing.
My stomach dropped in a different way than fear. Someone had been in here.
"Try again," he said.
"I did," I said. My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
I stepped sideways, keeping distance between us, and reached for the little table lamp by the brick wall. I twisted the knob on its base. The bulb was loose. Not burned out — unscrewed, a quarter turn out of the socket. I stared at it. The brass base caught what little light there was. My fingers were shaking so I had to steady the shade with my other hand to turn it tight again. I twisted it until it caught.
I flipped the wall switch once more. The lamp came on, warm and low, throwing light across the brick and the floorboards. It made the whole entry look normal again, except it wasn't.
Someone had wanted it dark.
He hadn't moved toward me. He stayed by the door, his hands visible at his sides, palms out a little.
"I didn't do that," he said.
"Right," I said.
"I came in through the front. It was unlocked."
I looked at the dark wooden door. The brass knob was exactly where it always was, no scratches, no marks. My keys were still in my bag, zipped.
"I locked it," I said. "I always lock it."
"I know," he said. "Check it. No damage. Someone left it that way for you to walk in without thinking."
He nudged the door with his boot, not his hand, so I could see the latch. It moved clean, easy. No forced wood. No pry marks on the frame. That was worse, somehow. It meant whoever had been here had a key or someone had turned the deadbolt back after I left.
"They watched you tonight," he said. His voice stayed low. "Outside the coffee shop on Main. You stayed late. You walked back alone after nine. They saw you come up the stairs."
I felt cold run up my arms despite the lamp heat. He knew where I'd been. That meant someone else did too.
"Who's they?" I asked.
He didn't answer right away. He glanced down the hall outside, then back at me. "The people who want what's in your apartment. They wanted you to come home in the dark and not notice someone had already been waiting."
My hand went back to the switch without thinking, touching the plastic cover. I wanted light. I wanted noise. I wanted to scream and have the neighbor across the hall open his door.
He saw it.
"You can," he said. "Scream now. He'll hear you. Then two more will be up here in under a minute to see what the noise is about. You won't get to choose who comes through that door next."
I believed him. Not because I trusted him, but because the bulb was still warm from my fingers and the door was still open to the hall.
I had a choice in front of me. Keep the door open and yell, or step back and close it and hear the rest.
I stepped back.
The wooden floor creaked under my boots as I moved inside, away from the threshold. I didn't take my eyes off him.
"Close it," I said.
He looked at me, surprised for the first time.
"You close it," I said. "From the inside. Lock it."
He stepped inside after me, slow, giving me room. He pushed the dark wooden door shut with his shoulder. The brass knob clicked. Then he turned the deadbolt, then the chain. Two sounds, solid. The hallway disappeared.
We were both inside now, the lamp low between us, the radiator hissing. The apartment felt smaller with the door closed.
He kept his hands where I could see them and took a step back toward the brick wall, putting distance between us.
May you like
"Okay," he said. "Now we talk."
I nodded, but I didn't move closer. My hand stayed near the switch, where the light was.
