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She hadn’t been thinking about people watching her, and yet she’d felt that sa her spine, that intense stare following her all the way up

She walked to the rail and looked over She could see nothing but the tops of a dozen ten-gallon hats

Turning away, she opened her door, prepared for bed and crawled in

She started dreaone past She dreamed of a darkened room, and the man aited for her there, and she dreamed that he spoke her naan felt the extreme emptiness of his house when he returned to it

The fire had died do Silence surrounded him

He’d wanted her to stay He couldn’t reht with a wo, shouldn’t I?" he said

Of course, no one answered

He walked into the kitchen and began picking up the remnants of their dinner As he rinsed the dishes and put theht of the way Kelsey had looked when she was in his kitchen and the way she’d looked in the shower, and then in his bed

He groaned as he walked back into his bedroom The sheets were still dane or soap or maybe just the wo to uilty He hadn’t reat sex

More than that--he’d cared

That hy he should feel guilty

But he didn’t feel the corrosive pain he usually did He tried to analyze himself He knew Alana had loved him She’d really loved him, the way he’d loved her

And she would honestly want hih it shouldn’t have been

Ah, but as happy?

He told hi that he was being effectual in stopping the murders that had occurred beneath his nose

But as he lay there, he was oddly at peace

"I will get you, you bastard," he said aloud

And he would, or die trying

But he found that he could close his eyes, and that sleep would coain in the

Hours later he woke suddenly, and he did so with extreme dread

Kelsey

Her name pounded in his head He bolted up

Kelsey didn’t knohat time it was She didn’t knohat she’d heard, but she ide awake

There was…so A sound that had wakened her from a deep sleep

She opened her eyes in the darkness but made no sudden move She’d left her Glock on the bedside table where she could grab it in an instant

When she did un, staring into the darkness

"I’m armed, and I’ll shoot," she said, and sheof the old-fashioned alarht Shadows seemed to slide back into the walls

There was no one there She rose, always careful about the placement of her back, and walked quietly to the bathroom The shower curtain was closed; she wrenched it open with her left hand No one there, either

Perplexed, she headed back into the rooe that she couldn’t see every corner of it Nothing stirred She listened to the hum of the air conditioner, and wondered if it had kicked on, awakening her

She knelt down and peered under the bed Not even a dust bunny

At last, she walked to the door It was locked

Perplexed, she went back to the bed As she did, the phone rang

"O’Brien," she said, looking at the clock

"Kelsey?" Logan He sounded anxious

"Logan Hey Do you knohat tiht sarcas happened?"

"I’m fine"

"Where are you?" he asked

"My room 207"

"And you’re alone"