Free Whisper Cape by Susan Griscom

thigh. “That’s bullshit. Once a wire is fried, it’s fuckin’ fried. Women, shit.”
    To Addie, Tim was nothing more than a creep and she couldn’t understand what Darcy saw in him. He wasn’t even attractive. With his scruffy, dirty brown, half-inch sorry excuse for a beard, he was a bit grotesque. She imagined that his breath must reek, but wasn’t going anywhere near him to find out. Then again, Darcy wouldn’t have been kissing him if his breath was all that bad.
    Addie reached forward and pushed in the power button to the radio and it blared on.
    “Well, whatever happened, the radio sounds great,” Jared said.
    Jared pulled the truck into the parking lot of the Cliff Hanger, the wet gravel sounding mushy under the truck tires. When he threw the gearshift into park, Tim and Darcy jumped out and ran toward the bar.
    Jared started to get out, but glanced at Addie. She hadn’t made a move to leave the truck and he slid back in. “Everyone’s going in for a drink. Aren’t you coming?”
    She sighed. “No, I get a little tired of this place after being here all day and my head hurts. I think I’ll just go home. I’d like to go on to bed and get an early start tomorrow.”
    He didn’t plead with her to stay but he didn’t leave the truck right away either. Instead, he turned toward her and said, “Addie, I know your feelings for me don’t go anywhere beyond friendship and that’s okay. I can accept that, but I want you to know I’ll always be your friend, so when I ask you to do something with me, I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing myself on you. I’m sorry I tried to kiss you tonight. It won’t happen again, I promise. I also know it’s tough on you with your dad gone, so if you ever need a shoulder ... well, I’m here.”
    “Thanks, Jared. You know, I don’t make friends very easily nor do I take them lightly. It’s good that we’re friends.”
    “I’ll hold you to that. Will you be okay?” he asked, lifting the hair from her forehead with his finger and studying the bruise.
    “I think so. It’s just a nagging dull ache.”
    “Okay. Goodnight, beautiful lady, and pleasant dreams.”
    Pleasant dreams? If he only knew.
     
     

Chapter 8
     
     
    Rain drummed down above Addie's head on the roof of the truck’s cab and slammed against the windows. Wipers flew from side to side as the rain pelted the glass in quarter-sized droplets. It was almost impossible to see the road. Between the rain and Addie’s aching head, the three-mile drive home seemed like six. All of a sudden, something dashed across the street in front of her truck. She swerved to the left and the tires screeched, the right front fender just missing the thing before it disappeared into the thicket. Luckily, no cars approached from the other direction or she'd have been sitting sideways right in their path.
    “God, what was that?” Addie gasped. It seemed rather large, too large to be a mountain lion, but it could have been a man. No, a man couldn’t possibly move so fast. Thoughts of almost hitting the guy the other day came to mind; he’d certainly moved quickly, hadn’t he? She maneuvered the truck back to the proper lane and slowed almost to a stop, but then remembered about the dead woman they’d found yesterday and sped back up, worried if she stopped whatever it was might attack her.
    Oh, for the love of Pete, get a grip Addie. The rain probably made it seem larger—it was probably just a deer running across the road. Maybe it was time to brush up on her self-defense skills, just in case. She'd ask Maia if she wanted to practice with her tomorrow. Grateful for the company of the radio and determined not to think about the mechanics of it, regardless of what creepy Tim had said, she assured herself it was possible for the wires to reconnect, fried or not.
    The rain pounded down as Addie pulled into her apartment building parking space. She noticed Ed Lewis’s light was on and she was glad he was home.