Free Deadly Sight by Cindy Dees

type to peer out of her windows at all hours of the day and night at the slightest noise or movement. He was worried about the quantity and quality of her prying. Miss Maddie could be a problem going forward. She did, however, make the best homemade macaroni and cheese he’d ever tasted.
    As more neighbors commenced dropping in, he lost track of their names, addresses and connections to one another. And he was usually pretty good at that sort of thing. But Sam made it look effortless, and by early evening seemed to have the genealogies of most of this portion of West Virginia unraveled.
    She picked unenthusiastically at a green bean casserole someone had brought over, but he had no qualms about digging into the surprisingly tasty food. At the moment, he was working his way through a plate of some succulent barbecued meat dish.
    “What is this I’m eating?” he asked her.
    “Don’t ask. If it tastes good, just go with it. In this part of the country, it could be anything from pork to possum.”
    The meat abruptly lost its savor, and he went back to Miss Maddie’s macaroni and cheese, which even Sam had declared “fantabulous.”
    She waited until he had a mouthful of cheesy goodness to say without warning, “So. I assume you know about the other radio antenna array in the NRQZ. The classified one the NSA runs that pretends it’s a Naval Communications and Signal station.”
    He choked but managed not to kill himself swallowing. “I can neither confirm nor deny any knowledge of any classified sites in this area.”
    “You seriously claim not to know that the NSA has a gigantic antenna array at the navy’s Shady Grove station?”
    “I don’t confirm or deny anything,” he retorted.
    “Ahh. I know that game. That’s a yes. If you could deny it, you would. Or you’d lie. Why didn’t you? Afraid I could read you and recognize a fib?”
    Damn, that woman was quick. Only way to fight fire was with fire. He shot back at her, “How old were you when you ran away from home?”
    “Fifteen,” she blurted, looking startled.
    Lord, that was young. And naive. So easy to get in awful trouble at that age. His heart ached a little for the scared, angry kid she must have been. “Why’d you go?”
    “The usual reasons. I was pissed off at the world, sure I could get it right on my own and sick of the crap at home.”
    “What kind of crap?”
    “The usual kind that makes kids run away.” She got up and carried their paper plates to the trash can in the kitchen. “I did the dishes, honey,” she called out to him in a saccharine voice.
    Hmm. Abuse? Alcohol? Drugs? Arguments? All of the above? Abruptly, he felt incredibly lucky to have had the upbringing he had. He might not have had a dad, but his mom had been a great single parent. He’d have to give her a call when he finished this mission and tell her so.
    Last night hadn’t included much sleep, not to mention all the shopping and chores today. He called it a night early, and went into his room to face a strange bed. He still struggled with them. After seeing his own bed soaked and dripping with blood—
    He slammed the door shut on that memory as hard and fast as he could. That particular chamber of horrors could swallow him in clinical depression for days.
    He fell asleep surprisingly fast, but woke up abruptly in the middle of the night. His watch said it was nearly 2:00 a.m. Blue light flickered underneath his door. Sam must still be up and watching TV. He pulled on a T-shirt over his sweatpants and went out to check on her. She was wrapped practically to her nose in a fuzzy blanket and staring blankly at a bad comedy movie. Her eyes glowed like cinders nestled deep in the shadows of her face. But oddly, he felt like he was getting used to the sight of her surreal eyes. He doubted she was seeing a thing on the television.
    “Hey,” he said quietly. “Everything okay?”
    She glanced up as if startled out of deep thoughts. “Yeah. Fine.”
    He sat down