The Glass Man - Lila Gray Book 1

Chapter Three

"How did you sneak up on me so quietly before?" I followed Liam along the front of the barn, still marveling at the utter silence. No wind. No peeping frogs. No chirping crickets or yipping coyotes. Not even the creaking wooden song of the trees came out of the darkness.

"Bet not many sneak up on you," he said, marching on without turning. "Am I the first?"

"Why are you avoiding my question?"

He whirled around, the bright light of the full moon spilling over his face. A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. When I didn't let up on my stare, he sighed. "I was sittin' on the rail fence on the far side of the house when you came down the hill. When you were distracted, I crept up. Happy now?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Okay. Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why were you sitting on your fence half naked holding a gun?" And I thought I had issues.

"Hey, I wasn't—" He twisted his head away. The muscles in his arms corded beneath his skin as he flexed and relaxed his fingers. After a brief silence, he rolled his shoulders and ran fingers through his hair, causing mine to tingle. "I've been muckin' around in the storage bins all day. Didn't bother with a shirt 'cause it's nasty work. And someone's been stealin' my tools, so I thought I'd catch 'em in the act. There's lots of folk around these parts who deserve your suspicion, but I'm not one of 'em."

It sounded reasonable. "If you were so close by, how come you didn't hear Mr. Psycho going at that boy? You must have heard him screaming. Hell, I was half a mile away up the ridge, and I heard him loud and clear."

Chuckling, Liam rubbed his fingers along his temples, as if he had a headache. People did that a lot around me. "They're always messin' around. If I came runnin' every time I heard 'em carryin' on, I'd be out here all damn night."

Lazy or a wuss? I had no use for either. "You don't sound like you're from Pennsylvania."

Liam smiled. It wasn't humor this time, but a baring of teeth. He resumed his course along the barn. "You know, I got enough problems. I don't need this shit."

I jogged to match his long stride. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm just—"

"Paranoid? Suspicious?" He threw up a hand. "Stubborn as a Goddamn mule?"

I wanted to say 'if you had a diamond-eyed freak hunting you across two countries you'd be that way too,' but I didn't. "I'm curious by nature and cautious by necessity, that's all."

We came to a faded grey shed with a crooked door. The one Garret had run from earlier. A motion light came on as we neared it. Liam faced me and crossed his arms. "Curious, huh?"

For a distraction, I dug the toe of my boot into the grass. "Yeah, just like you."

"Yeah, I suppose I am." He nodded, grinned. "Uncle died a few years back and left me the place. When things went to hell overseas, and the riots and shootin's picked up here, I moved up from Arkansas and took it over. It was real run down when I got here, and thieves had picked it clean."

"What did you do in Arkansas?"

"I was a cop."

I knew it—cop eyes. "That's what I took you for, either a cop or a P.I. Nobody else picks up details like you do."

Liam leaned closer, squinted as if trying to see past my skin. "Is that what's huntin' you, a P.I.?"

I snorted and cast my face up to the moon. For reasons I couldn't identify, I considered telling him everything. Not that he'd believe me anyway, and the fewer people I allowed near me, the fewer I'd hurt by accident, and the fewer in the sights of my hunter.