myself into sleep, so all I had on was an oversized, vintage t-shirt and a pair of cotton boy-short panties. I was covered enough that I shouldn’t really be embarrassed, but the way Vernon asked the question made me blush anyway as I reluctantly pulled out of Huck’s hold.
“I saw something in my room.” My voice cracked, and my teeth started to chatter even though I wasn’t cold.
Vernon blinked his odd-colored eyes and exchanged a look with Huck I couldn’t decipher.
“You look like you’ve actually seen a ghost. Why don’t you go sit in the kitchen, and I’ll go upstairs with Huck and check things out? Make yourself a stiff drink while you’re down there.” Vernon reached out and patted me lightly on the side of my arm. “I’ll grab you something to put on while I’m up there.”
As much as I wanted reassurance that my safe haven hadn’t been breached, there was no way I was stepping foot back in that bedroom tonight. I wasn’t sleeping in the attic until I had the time to go over every baseboard and light fixture to see if hidden cameras were watching me. I was never turning a blind eye again.
Swallowing hard, I blinked pleadingly at Vernon and asked in a whisper, “Can I crash in your room tonight? I swear you won’t even know I’m there.” The thought of being alone until the sun came up turned my stomach.
Before Vernon could answer, Huck grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to him. “Wake Harlen up if he isn’t already and go see if you can find anything strange upstairs. Call me and let me know if anything seems out of place.” His amber eyes gleamed with an unholy kind of light as he glared at me. “You can stay in my room tonight.”
Oh man. That sounded like the worst idea in the history of ideas. Right now, I wasn’t in any place to argue, so I just nodded meekly as Vernon smirked and held up the phone charger. “Can’t call you. Your phone is dead, and your charger is still at the bar.”
Huck swore and glared at his mischievous friend. “Then come knock on my door.”
Vernon’s eyebrows shot up, and he chuckled. “If you don’t think I’ll be interrupting anything, then fine. What did you see, Ollie? What am I looking for?”
I cleared my throat and shifted nervously on my bare feet. “I saw a shadow. It looked like a person. No one outside could have made it appear on my wall. That room is so high up.”
Huck muttered something under his breath, and Vernon finally started to look slightly concerned. “Okay. I’ll make sure no one is upstairs.”
“Those stairs are so loud. You would’ve heard someone coming from a mile away.” Huck’s voice was gruff, and while he was trying to be reassuring, his logic didn’t help.
“There might be someone watching.” I whispered the words and put my hands to my face to hide from the reality of how fucked my life was no matter how hard I tried to turn it around. “There could be wireless cameras hidden in the room.” And throughout the rest of the house.
I knew I sounded like one of those conspiracy theory nuts. I sounded beyond paranoid, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do to prevent past mistakes from repeating. That included blindly following Huck into his room when we both knew it was the last place I should be.
Vernon’s eyebrows lifted even higher, and a slight frown pulled at his pretty features. “Oooookayyyy.” He drew the word out and again shared a long look with the dark-haired man who was holding me close. “Hidden cameras. Got it. You two go downstairs, and I’ll let you know if I find anything suspicious. Give me a couple minutes. Harlen is a bear to wake up and he’ll be grumpy that I’m asking him for a favor in the middle of the night.”
“I’m sorry.” The words felt like they were ripped out of me, and I could feel the scalding burn of tears at the back of my eyes. I barely held it together when Huck’s wide palm settled on the back of my head and pushed my face toward the center of his chest.
“If someone has been in the house, it affects all of us. We’ll all deal with it.” He didn’t sound nearly as angry at me as I thought he would for bringing exactly what he feared right to his front door.