The MORE Trilogy (7 page)

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Sure. He went to the trouble of looking for me so he could spend an hour talking to you. Makes perfect sense.”

“You’re giving me a headache.”

Lucy laughed. “All I’m saying is there’s something there, Av. And if I’m not mistaken, it’s not all on his end.”

“And all
I’m
saying is that you’re imagining things,” Ava said, packing up her books. “So, how about lunch?”

Lucy grinned, sufficiently distracted. “Now you’re talking.”

They made their way out of the library, and if Ava kept running over in her mind what Lucy had said, she could hardly be blamed. If she kept trying to find a reason why Caleb had stopped by their spot in the library, it was only because she was curious. And if she could have sworn she spotted him a few times as they made their way back to the dorm, it was only her imagination playing tricks on her again.

Caleb cursed to himself as he lost sight of Ava. The campus was vibrant with costumed partygoers celebrating Halloween a day early, even though he expected there would be a repeat the following night.

College students never turned down an opportunity to party.

Well, most students, at any rate. Ava, however, was spending the next two nights working, which was the only reason Caleb wasn’t fighting his way through the crowd to keep her in his sights. He knew where she was going, and he knew the crowd ensured her safety, at least to a certain extent.

He needed to be more careful, however. He was aware that Ava had spotted him that afternoon as she walked home from the library and chided himself for getting sloppy where she was concerned. It was one thing to run into her coincidentally at the library so he could check in on Lucy and make sure he’d sufficiently blurred her memories of the night before. It was another thing altogether for Ava to suspect he’d been watching her, following her. Ava wasn’t stupid. If he didn’t get his act together, he would be lucky if she didn’t end up calling the police. Regardless, it would mean the end of his mission, and Ava would be at the mercy of the Council. He couldn’t let that happen.

Ava entered the diner, and Caleb moved to an empty doorway where he could easily see through the front window. When she reappeared at the counter, he let out a breath and started back down the road, planning to return when her shift ended later that night. He froze at a familiar prickle of awareness, eyes darting wildly until he spotted Katherine in the shadow of some trees about a block away.

She wasn’t alone.

Her companion looked in his direction and turned to say something to Katherine before he disappeared into the darkness. Katherine watched him go and leaned back against the tree, focusing on Caleb with a satisfied smirk. She wiggled her fingers at him teasingly, and his eyes narrowed as he made his way back to the empty doorway, settling in for a long night.

Ava appeared briefly in the window and he saw Katherine stiffen, pointedly looking toward her, then back at him, a brow arched in challenge. He glared at her, and she laughed, slipping deeper into the shadows. He knew she wasn’t gone, though. He could still feel her nearby.

Watching him. Watching Ava. Waiting for the order they both knew was coming.

Caleb sighed in frustration.

Time was running short, and if he didn’t figure out what to do next, Ava was going to be in serious trouble.

Ava yawned as she gathered up the trash at the end of the night before slipping out the side door and kicking a rock into the jamb to keep it from locking behind her. Dragging the garbage bags behind her, she spared a moment to mourn her sore feet and aching back. It had been a crazy night, with crowds dropping in on their way home from Halloween parties to gorge on greasy food and coffee before heading back out. She frowned, realizing that it would most likely be more of the same the following night.

Lucy had texted a couple of reports from her big date with Philippe, and had apparently had a great time. The two would be going to the Halloween party together, and Lucy very unsubtly suggested Ava call in sick to work and call Caleb so they could double.

Ava ignored the text.

It was enough to put Caleb on the brain, apparently, because she could have sworn she saw him through the front window of the diner. It was only for a second, though, and then he was gone. So, most likely, she imagined it.

Probably.

Or Caleb was some kind of stalker.

Immediately, she felt a wash of guilt at the thought. Caleb was a nice guy and had done nothing but try to help her. He’d never given her any reason to feel uncomfortable around him, and she wasn’t going to let her own paranoia destroy a blossoming friendship that was becoming important to her.

A friendship. That was all, despite whatever Lucy said.

Ava sighed as she heaved the bags into the dumpster then pressed her hands against her lower back, stretching out her spine with an exhausted moan.

“This is why I’m going to college,” she muttered to herself. “So I don’t have to do this for the rest of my life.”

After a moment, Ava turned to head back into the diner, only to freeze as an uneasy feeling wafted over her, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She glanced out toward the street, daring to take a few steps so she could look one way, then the other, scanning the shadows for whatever was making her feel so jumpy.

Why did she constantly feel as if someone was watching her? The mysterious dark-haired woman. The huge man with the frightening eyes. Even Caleb, who was obviously not threatening in any way but seemed to be everywhere lately.

She took a deep breath, searching the shadows but seeing nothing.

The feeling didn’t leave her, though, not even when she made her way back into the diner, pulling the door tightly closed behind her. And Ava was beginning to wonder just how long she could ignore the lingering suspicion that maybe she wasn’t being paranoid after all.

Chapter 4

The sun shone the following afternoon, but Ava didn’t notice, absorbed instead in a constant parade of sandwiches, coffee, and slices of pie. The diner was busy again, with costumed diners either heading out trick-or-treating or to another round of parties, and it wasn’t until after the dinner rush that Ava had time to take her lunch break. She sat at the counter, mindlessly munching on the meatloaf special as she flipped through her physics notes.

“Crap!” Callie, one of the other waitresses, glared at her phone in irritation, twirling a lock of curly blonde hair around a finger.

“Everything okay?”

Callie blinked at her, crossing to fill Ava’s coffee cup and leaning on the counter as she chewed on her lip. “Babysitter just called. My little one’s got a fever of a hundred and one.”

Callie was a single mother of three boys under the age of six. She worked two jobs and took online classes in the hopes of becoming a paralegal one day. Ava liked and respected her a lot and often wondered how in the world she did it all.

“Oh, no,” Ava said, setting down her fork. “I hope he’s okay.”

“He’ll be fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “But he feels awful, and he’s crying for me. Jake’s gonna kill me if I ask to leave early.”

Ava didn’t hesitate. “I’ll close for you.”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that. You have your own stuff to deal with,” Callie said, tapping on Ava’s notebook.

“It’s no problem,” Ava said, packing away her stuff and carrying her dishes to the bus station. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be for this test, and your baby needs you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Definitely. I’m supposed to be off in an hour. I’m sure Jake will let you go now that things have quieted down.”

Callie considered it for a moment. “Thanks, Av. I owe you. Big time.”

Ava waved a hand then tied an apron over her jeans. “Don’t worry about it.”

Callie thanked her repeatedly before heading out, with Ava smiling and shooing her out the door as she wiped down the counter. The blonde waitress ducked into her car and sped out of the parking lot, and Ava started to turn away, only to have her eyes drawn by a movement across the street.

Her hand froze on the counter mid-swipe as she recognized the tall, dark-haired woman standing in the dim arched doorway of a closed shop, half-hidden by a pair of topiaries flanking the entry.

It wasn’t the woman who sent a chill down her spine, though, even when Ava recognized her as the same woman she’d seen watching her from the shadows of the administration building. It was the fact that the woman was speaking to a man—a large, muscular man dressed all in black.

A man who bore a strong resemblance to the man from her dream.

“Ava?”

She jumped, shrieking slightly as her boss touched her arm.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jake asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Ava turned back to the window, but the doorway across the street was empty. She ran to the front doors, slamming through them as she looked up and down the street, her heart pounding and mind racing wildly.

It couldn’t be, could it? Where could they have gone? There was no way
 
.
 
.
 
.

Jake came through the doors a moment later, wiping his thick hands on his apron before running one through his short, gray hair. “What the hell’s going on?” he asked. “What are you doing out here?”

Ava blinked at him, eyes blown wide with shock. “I . . . uh . . . I thought I saw someone,” she said.

Jake scanned the empty road. “Where?”

Ava shook her head. Obviously, she was losing it. Her lack of sleep and the freaky recurring dream was messing with her mind, making her see things that weren’t there.
 
“Nowhere,” she mumbled with a heavy sigh. “I just . . . I need to get back to my tables.” She pushed her way back into the diner and swept behind the counter to grab the coffee pot, forcing a smile as she filled cups and cleared plates. Her hands trembled, the plates clinking as she set them down, taking a deep breath. She gulped down a glass of water, trying to make sense of it all.

It wasn’t possible. It was her imagination. She definitely needed more sleep.

And maybe professional help.

“You sure you’re okay?” Jake asked quietly, dark eyes kind in his creased face as he refilled her water glass.

She took it with a grateful smile. “Yeah. Sorry,” she said, taking a sip. “Just a lot on my mind, you know?”

“You need to leave early?”

“No,” she said quickly, and Jake frowned in understanding. She needed the money, and she knew he wouldn’t force the issue. He patted her arm and walked back into the kitchen as she got back to work, smiling her way through the rest of her shift. But she couldn’t keep herself from looking up now and then, holding her breath as she glanced at the doorway across the street.

And only letting it out when she found it still dark and empty.