Damien
Back in the apartment, Raven curled up on the sofa with her Kindle, and I sat across from her, using my laptop, checking emails. Every so often, I would feel her eyes on me, but when I would lift my head, she would drop her gaze back to her e-reader, a small smile tugging at her lips. She was up to something, but I hadn’t figured it out yet.
Outside, the wind was stronger and the clouds darker.
“Are you afraid of storms?” I asked.
“No. I love to watch them.”
“Me too. The skylight in my room is the perfect place for it.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “Is that a fact?”
“It is.”
“Trying to lure me into your bed, Damien?”
“Is it working?”
She giggled, and I grinned at the sound.
“You like the sunlight best, though, I assume.”
“Why would you say that?”
“You seem like a sunshine kind of girl.”
“I enjoy the sun and summer, but I actually love the darkness. You know most people hate the winter and how short the days are? I love it. The nighttime. The inky skies and the stars. Winter is my favorite season. Fall, second.”
“You are one odd girl, Raven.”
She laughed again.
I enjoyed teasing her. I liked hearing her laugh. I liked being the one to make her laugh.
I looked back at my laptop, unhappy with Egan’s latest message. He still had come up empty trying to find Andy. He was convinced Andy was a hacker and had deleted every trace of himself from the site. I had to agree. We were going to start delving into other sites, although there was a chance Andy had used a different name or had erased himself there as well. Egan informed me he was shocked at the number of dating sites there were. I had to agree with him, especially given how much harder that would make our job of finding this slimeball. But I was determined.
I shut my laptop and looked over at Raven. She shifted in her seat, rolling her shoulders.
“Um, could you hand me that pillow?” she asked, indicating the other end of the sofa she was seated on.
“Sure.”
I placed the laptop on the table beside me, stood, and picked up one of the toss cushions to give her. Unexpected movement caught my eye as I picked up the pillow, and I gasped in disbelief as a mouse scurried under the other cushion.
“Fuck,” I swore, jumping back.
“What?”
“A mouse,” I said through gritted teeth. “A goddamn mouse.”
“Oh.”
“I hate mice.”
Suddenly, it appeared again, and without thinking, I backed up, hitting the other sofa and falling on it. “Damn it!” I yelled. “There’s more than one!”
A strange noise hit me, and I looked at Raven in a panic. Her hand was covering her mouth, and she was laughing.