She flung up her hands in surrender, figuring Allie had been mistaken about leaving the backpack in her car, when she heard it.
The soft scrape of a boot against hardwood…or was it? The hairs on her nape raised. Her skin prickled. “Is anyone there?” she shouted, reaching into her purse for her can of mace. “Hello?”
Quiet.
Unearthly silence.
And yet…she felt as if she wasn’t alone…knew there was another presence nearby.
Her diaphragm slammed hard against her lungs.
She shouldn’t have said a word. Now, if someone evil was lurking in the shadows, he’d know exactly where she was and she’d be trapped in the basement. Unless she took the stairs to the exterior exit near the kitchens. But that was too far, down a long, winding, dark hallway. She was better off using the main stairs.
Nervous sweat broke out on her skin and a chilling fear took hold of her throat.
To hell with the damned backpack. Clutching her can of mace as if it were a silver cross and she was about to face a vampire, she slowly eased up the stairs. She reached into her pocket for her cell phone and flipped it open. It beeped. Oh, God, how did she mute the damned thing so whoever was in the theater with her couldn’t hear it? Her hea
rtbeat pounded in her ears. Her breathing was nonexistent, the spit in her mouth dried. She swallowed hard. Hit the cell’s autodial key for her house and heard the phone try to connect. Please answer. Please. Carefully, she turned at the landing, her ears straining.
Crash!
“Oh, God!” Jenna whirled, her finger on the mace can’s button. She dropped her cell and it clattered noisily to the floor.
Something brushed against the back of her legs.
She jumped, nearly squealing in fright before spying Oliver. The cat was staring up at her with big green eyes, an old umbrella stand tipped over and rolling against the floor. “For the love of God, Oliver, you scared the hell out of me!”
He meowed plaintively up at her and she instantly forgave him, relief rushing through her bloodstream as she petted his soft head and righted the umbrella stand. “I’m sorry,” she cooed as he purred as loudly as the rumble of a single-plane’s engine. “And am I glad to see you. If you only knew.”
She found her cell phone and pocketed it. “It’s pretty obvious that I’m a little on edge these days, isn’t it?”
The truth of the matter was that her nerves were stretched so thin they were about to shatter, and she’d forgotten all about the cat.
As if proud of himself for scaring her witless, Oliver rubbed up against her legs as she, calmer, put away her mace. “You stay here and guard the place,” she ordered, before he trotted off to Rinda’s office, hopped onto her desk, and began washing himself. “Good. That’s real good. No bad guy will get past that defense,” she told him.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A loud knocking rattled the windows and echoed through the theater.
Jenna nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Jenna? It’s Shane Carter,” the sheriff’s voice boomed through the door.
Her knees turned to water. Carter? Here? Relieved, she raced along the main aisle and unlocked the dead bolt.
His expression as dark as the night, he was standing beneath the overhang of the roof.
Tears of relief sprang to her eyes as he stepped inside the theater.
“Are you all right?”
No! Are you crazy? I haven’t been all right since I got that first note! She swallowed hard and lied through her teeth. “Yeah—I guess.”
“Sure?”
“Oh. I’m…I will be fine.” She felt like a fool and forced the tears away before he could see how near she was to falling into a million pieces. “But I am relieved. And glad you’re here.”
He wrapped an arm around her and she wanted to burrow deeply against him, to let the tears rain from her eyes, to let go and fall apart right there in the vestibule. “Everything’s all right,” he said softly, and her heart nearly broke as his lips brushed against her forehead. “You’re fine.”