Don’t let it be Silas. Anyone but Silas.
Forcing my eyes open, I asked Madison, “Why did you come here?”
A pair of muscular legs stepped around her, in pressed black slacks. The accompanying shoes were shiny and spotless, a true feat given our surroundings. If there had been any question before, it was gone as soon as I caught a glimpse of the ragged bottom of a tan trench coat.
Silas planted himself firmly between Madison and me, towering over me like some sort of looming jerk skyscraper.
I pretended he wasn’t standing a foot in front of me, pretended he didn’t exist, and whisper-yelled at Madison, “I told you I had this job under control.”
“Didn’t look like it from where I was standing,” Silas said.
“No one asked you,” I snapped.
Inwardly, I sighed upon realizing I’d acknowledged him. I shot up to my feet, slipping only a little in the goop, and forcedmyself to take a long, deep breath for composure. Still, I didn’t look at Silas.
Madison stepped beside Silas, creating a united front against me. She said,“Yousaid no assistance. The library decided otherwise.”
She flicked her gaze to the side. I followed it—straight to Silas.
His gaze was dark as he stared through my tough facade, straight to every insecurity I tried to suppress.I was rusty and off my game. I wasn’t good enough anymore to be a librarian. I was broken.
I turned back to Madison. “You assigned me a babysitter.”
Silas winked at me. “I’m the back-up you clearly needed.”
“I neednothingfrom you,” I said, thrusting my chin up. Heat rose up my neck and settled in my ears and cheeks. “I had the situation entirely under control.”
“Letting the soup suck your brains out was part of your plan?” he asked, so calmly it almost seemed like it was a serious question.
I put my fists on my hips.
“It was fortunate Silas was here,” Madison said. “Now let’s get this place cleaned up. Then it’s time for paperwork…yay.”
Madison and Silas exchanged a conspiratorial look.
Silas hadn’t shown up when I was in trouble, or after Madison and my phone call in the convenience store. No, he had already been here, and he’d been following me the whole time.
I returned my attention to my stalker. Unashamed, he stared back at me. There was a force of will inside of him that matched my own. He wanted to keep the office and position he had stolen from me as much as I wanted to reclaim them. Neither of us were willing to back down.
Madison wouldn’t have had to ask him to follow me. He’d volunteer and wait for his opportunity to prove me incompetent.
Given my epic failure today, I’d made it easy on him.
Realizing Madison seemed to be waiting for me to say something, I said, “Phoenixes can’t have their brains sucked out.”
“You sure about that, sweetheart?” Silas asked.
And I could swear that there was something warring behind his smug expression. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it could be a touch of concern. But that was ridiculous.
“Positively,” I told him, though I wasn’t certain at all. Coming back from the dead was entirely too fresh for me to be sure of anything. Could the soup have transformed me into a mindless pile of mush, still breathing, yet completely brain dead? Possibly.
Would I give Silas the satisfaction of that admission? Never. I’d die first.
CHAPTER 3
The viscous quality of soup goop made it exceptionally difficult to clean. While salt worked wonders at creating holes in large masses of solidified goo, the usefulness only went so far. Removing what remained on the floors, walls, and ceilings of the town hall required shovels, back-breaking hours of scraping and scrubbing, and industrial-grade slime-be-gone detergents.
Unfortunately, none of those tools would work on my favorite polka dot dress or my matching pink pumps. Well, they used to be pink. The thick layer of goo was already hardening, creating a layer of muddy green stone that would soon be impenetrable.