Blind Faith - Sharon Sala Page 0,74

almost sundown when Wyrick went back upstairs to make sure the security system was set, then turned on a couple of lights in different rooms so that the mansion did not look empty.

She locked the doors to the stairs after she went down, and then locked herself in below. Before, she’d known Merlin was upstairs, and now there was no one on the whole estate but her. It was a disconcerting feeling she was going to have to conquer.

She turned on the television for company, then puttered around in the kitchen, dragging out cartons of leftovers until she settled on what was left of Chinese takeout and reheated it.

As was her habit, she ate in front of the TV in the living room and thought about calling Charlie just to hear his voice, but she didn’t, because that wasn’t their relationship.

No matter how much their lives had changed in the past month, with Annie’s death, Boyington’s murder and cancer finally claiming Merlin, that part of their lives was still the same. Keeping him at arm’s length and pissed off at her was how she rolled.

* * *

Charlie thought about Wyrick all evening, wondering what was happening, wondering if the old man was still alive. He didn’t know anything about their relationship other than he was her landlord, and someone she’d known for a while. But he knew from the reaction she’d had today that she cared about him.

He thought about texting to check on her, then thought better of it and let her be. But if he’d known she was alone on that estate with Cyrus Parks still lurking in her life, he wouldn’t have been as certain she was okay.

* * *

Wyrick slept with a handgun under her pillow and a can of Mace on the table by her bed, then woke up before 4:00 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.

The house above her was an unknown, sitting like a weight upon her shoulders, and it pissed her off beyond words that Cyrus Parks had taken away even an iota of her confidence.

Then, just to prove to herself that Cyrus could kiss her ass, she got up and started turning on lights and turned up the thermostat, then stomped up the stairs.

“I’m not hiding from shit,” she muttered, as she strode through the main floor of the house, turning on lights as she went. “I’m here, house! Merlin gave you to me, so don’t go freaking out at my long legs and bald head. I’m not afraid of you, so don’t go freakin’ out on me, okay?”

She got all the way to Merlin’s bedroom, then stopped. The door was closed, and there was a part of her that didn’t want to go in, but she wasn’t harboring ghosts, no matter how charming, and pushed it open.

The huge sleigh bed had been stripped, but everything else was in place. She took a deep breath and then entered.

“I’m here...just like I promised. I’ll give your girl a new lease on life and make new memories here, okay? And in the meantime, I need to feel safe. So no surprises.”

After that, the rest of the tour was anticlimactic.

The second floor was all bedroom suites, and the attic above that was almost as large as the basement apartment in which she’d been living. Part of it was storage, and part of it were the tiny rooms from generations past, when the family still had live-in staff.

It was almost 6:00 a.m. before she’d seen it all, and she went back downstairs to get ready for work.

Charlie wouldn’t be expecting her, but Merlin no longer needed her, so she was pleasing herself.

She didn’t feel like an in-your-face outfit for the day, and reached for a pair of hip-hugger bell-bottom jeans, a pair of blue suede half boots and a royal blue V-neck sweater.

Once she was dressed, she moved to the mirror and looked at her face—really looked—then put the eye shadow aside and reached for a tube of blue lipstick, the same shade as her jeans. Her eyes hid what she was thinking. Dark eyes were like that, but there was still something missing.

She dug through her makeup drawer, found a sheet of face gems and peeled one blue-colored gem in the shape of a starburst off the page, then stuck it on her forehead like a Hindu bindi.

Then she looked at herself again. Brown eyes so dark they almost looked black. The sky blue starburst on her forehead, and the slash of metallic