Nighttime Guardian by Amanda Stevens

Author:Amanda Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

As always, daylight did wonders to restore Shelby’s calm. Standing at the kitchen window again, this time with sunlight warming her face and a cup of coffee cradled in her hands, she could almost convince herself the noise she’d heard last night had been nothing more than an animal scurrying about underneath the house, building a nest or foraging for food perhaps.

The notion that the intruder had been human, someone deliberately trying to frighten her, seemed less likely in the light of day. While it wasn’t so hard to imagine that her uncle James would enjoy scaring her all the way back to California, his tactics were usually more direct—like walking into the office and pronouncing his plans to have her grandmother declared incompetent. That was a threat Shelby took very seriously, and she supposed it wasn’t inconceivable that James might try to bolster his claim against her grandmother by proving how unstable Shelby was.

Still, she had a hard time picturing her elegant uncle, in his designer clothing, skulking about in the dirt and cobwebs beneath the house. It would have been a simple matter, after all, for Shelby to have gone outside and shone a flashlight in the space, catching him in the act. Unless, of course, he was banking on her inability to do so.

Maybe he suspected she would be too frightened to do anything but cower inside. He already knew about her nightmares, the time she’d spent in the hospital after Lunt’s attack. Her stint in the psychiatric ward had only been a couple of days, but James had made it sound as though she’d gone off the deep end.

And who was to say she wouldn’t have if Dr. Minger hadn’t intervened? His soothing, nonjudgmental demeanor had made it possible for Shelby to confide in him her terror, not just of Lunt, but of losing her grip on reality.

If I’m not going crazy, why do I keep dreaming about a monster?

Because we all need our monsters, Shelby. They help to explain the darkness in our world. Sometimes it’s easier to believe in such creatures than to admit that bad things happen for no good reason.

Maybe that was what she’d done twenty years ago, Shelby mused, staring out the window at the river. Maybe it had been easier back then to be frightened of a creature that came up out of the river rather than to face her deepest terror—that her own parents didn’t love her.

Time and adulthood had helped to vanquish that particular monster, and Albert Lunt was still in prison. There was nothing to be afraid of now. There was no good reason why Shelby shouldn’t go outside and check underneath the house for signs of an intruder—animal or human.

Certainly nothing inhuman would be lurking anywhere other than in the realm of her imagination, she told herself firmly, as she went out the back door and down the back steps.

The only access to the space beneath the house was a gate in the latticework underpinning.

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