Free Deathtrap by Dana Marton Page A

teller remembers her being in the week before, with a man. She remembers them specifically because they were fighting the entire time they were standing in line.”
    “Start the warrant request for the security videos.” He stepped on the gas. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
    * * *
    Jeremy called just as Sophie was getting ready for bed. “How was your checkup?”
    “Pretty good,” she told him, turning back the covers.
    “I want to come over and see you.”
    “I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m fine. Really.”
    “Well, I don’t think you are,” he snapped, then tempered his voice. “I could help. I could take care of you—”
    “Don’t you have a new girlfriend?”
    A long pause came. “It didn’t work out. I miss you.”
    “We’ve both moved on.”
    “You have someone?” His voice rose.
    “That’s not what I meant. We both have different lives than when we were together. We want different things.”
    “And if I still want you? I think about you all the time. We could have something good together again.”
    “But only on your terms?”
    “What’s wrong with me wanting to take care of you? I could have gone to your appointment with you. Wouldn’t it have been better than going alone? Two people can pay better attention than one. What if you missed something important Dr. Pratt said?”
    “I have a full printout of everything I’m supposed to be taking, eating, and doing. And Wendy came.” They needed a change of subject. “How is work?” He ran a small business consulting agency.
    “Okay. You know how difficult it is to run a business and be the boss, taking care of employees. My decisions determine whether they can put food on the table for their kids.”
    “I know. You’re doing a good thing.”
    “So can I come and see you? We really need to talk.”
    “Can’t right now, not this week, and not the next one either. Sorry. I’m up to my neck in work.” And she wasn’t lying. Two new work orders had come in while she’d been busy with Peaches and Bing.
    “You need me to protect you,” Jeremy insisted. “It’s just not safe for you without me.”
    She pressed her lips together. Telling him about some random guy peeking in her windows lately would definitely be a bad idea, she decided, even as guilt bubbled up inside and nearly swayed her. Guilt said she owed Jeremy. And going back to the familiar, even if not the best thing, was always a temptation. Starting something new and unknown had an enormous potential for disaster.
    But also for reward.
    Illness had defined her for too long. She refused to be defined by fear. There was no going back, only marching resolutely forward.
    “You need me,” he insisted. “I could make everything easier.”
    He didn’t understand her, and she wasn’t sure he ever could. “I’m not looking for easy.” She was looking for something real.
    She shook her head when, for some reason, Bing’s mocha eyes popped into her mind.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    Sophie woke to a call from Dr. Pratt the next morning.
    “Biopsy and lab work are as good as can be.”
    She breathed easier for the first time that week, her lips snapping into a smile. “Thank you so much for letting me know.”
    “That pet you asked about,” the doctor went on. “I’m going to tentatively approve it. As long as he’s one hundred percent healthy and clean. Maybe something small would be good to start with.”
    She sat up in bed, her gaze settling on her unplanted forest as she glanced outside. “How about gardening?”
    “Don’t push it, young lady. I don’t want you playing in dirt.”
    “Yes, sir.” Her results were good. Nothing else mattered. But her eyes narrowed as she took a second look at her plants outside.
    Her entire row of boxwood bushes was missing.
    So as soon as she thanked the doctor for the good news and hung up, she threw on some clothes and hurried outside to investigate.
    About a hundred dollars’ worth