The Midnight Hour - Brenda Jackson [44]
Narrowing her eyes to slits she searched the darkened living room and the entrances to the other two rooms. Her heart began racing wildly and she forced herself to calm down. Seconds passed before Tori eased from her position after detecting no further sound. But still, she knew for certain she had heard something. It hadn't been her imagination. First the suspicions last week and now this. She refused to believe she was just acting paranoid.
And then she heard a noise again and quickly crossed the room at the same time she heard the sound of running feet outside on the porch. With her gun raised, ready to fire, she snatched open the door and made out the silhouette of someone running down the beach.
"Freeze!" she said, taking aim but not pulling the trigger. She had to remember she was not in some hostile country, and the person who had tried entering her home could have been a teenager with nothing to do but get into trouble. She was a sharpshooter and the bullets in her gun were not intended to warn but to kill.
Before lowering her gun she glanced around, quickly checking the areas around her porch beyond the open door, just in case her trespasser had brought along an accomplice. Seconds passed and once she was satisfied there was no one else, she turned and looked beyond her porch, noticing the footprints in the sand that the moonlight revealed.
Breathing hard and taking precautions, she walked off the porch to examine the area. It was man's shoe and from all indication it looked to be about a size eleven. Tori glanced around and noticed the screen from the side window of her house lay on the ground. Raising her gun again, she quickly circled her house to see if anything else had been tampered with, her ears tuned to pick up any sound. When she returned to the porch she sighed deeply.
Someone had tried to get into the window of her guest bedroom and she had two questions. Who? And why?
Drake pulled the SUV he had rented into a hotel off of Interstate 580. He had caught a plane from Houston to Oakland, California, deciding to drive the rest of the way to Stinson Beach. But since it was night, he decided to check into a hotel and arrive on Tori's doorstep first thing in the morning.
It had taken less than seventy-two hours for Alex Maxwell to provide him with the information he needed. He had been both elated and somewhat nervous. If Alex could find Tori so easily, then so could anyone else. Although according to Alex, it hadn't been as easy as it seemed to find Tori since there were a lot of Victoria Greens living in the United States and she had apparently tried hiding her tracks. He had narrowed the list down to those who had changed residences within the last six months and then from there he had zeroed in on those who had recently searched the Internet for job opportunities. It seemed that a Victoria Green who lived in Stinson Beach, California was a new resident who had moved into the beach community recently, although she had owned the home for over a year.
After traveling for almost an entire day, Drake didn't know what he planned to say to Tori when he saw her. "Hey, I was passing through and thought I'd look you up" just didn't sound plausible. He then decided that "I need to know if you're pregnant" was better. However since she hadn't tried contacting him, he could only assume that she wasn't, and she might be quick to bring that fact to his attention.
A frown marred his brow as he pulled his overnight bag out of the SUV and carried it inside the hotel to register. He would get a good night's sleep and think things through before showing up at Tori's place unannounced.
A few moments later, after entering his hotel room and closing the door behind him, he unpacked his toiletries and placed them on the counter in the bathroom. Taking off his jacket, he removed the 9mm Beretta from his holster. He might travel light but he never went anywhere without his gun.
He didn't want to think that he