Chapter Five

Adam studied Naomi's face carefully. He could sense that she was no longer afraid of him, but she was still very wary of his presence. It was obvious in the way she held herself around him, tense, but not ready to run away. It was almost as if she was prepared to dodge anything that he might try on her. It made him curious.

"Someone has been here, recently." He said, "There's a fresh footprint in your garden outside this window." It was then that he realized that the person may still be in the building. It sent shivers down his spine, they were shivers like none of the ones he had ever felt before. There had been shivers of silly fear, haunted houses from when he was a teenager, shivers of desire, shivers of excitement, but never shivers of blood chilling, heart stopping fear. This was real danger, not a scene in a movie he was starring in, it was real life. The thought made the shivers intensify. "Do you have a gun?" He asked.

Naomi looked at him dumbfounded for several seconds before shaking her head as though to clear it. "Yes, in my office." She said pointing to the room she was headed for earlier.

"Okay, I think we need to search the inn just to make sure that he did leave." Her eyes grew wide just like they had earlier that day when she had come out from her box prison. Something had really hurt this woman and Adam felt selfish for thinking that he should just try to get her to go out with him. She didn't need someone to bother her into trying to date. She needed someone to be there to comfort her at the very least.

"Right." She said; the accent that she had managed to keep light was very thick now. Naomi started to lead the way to the office, but Adam stopped her and walked ahead of her.

He did not see the surprise in her face at the gesture, and for that she was grateful. She didn't want him to think he could try and 'help' her with every problem that presented it in her life. She didn't want to involve anyone in her problems, she was afraid to let anyone in her life, because they had either ended up entirely different than what she'd first thought, or ended up dead. She shook off that thought that before any old memories could surface.

Truthfully, deep down, Naomi desperately wished that someone would just knock down all the barriers of her past. She craved a companionship that she had only seen briefly, small little instances throughout her thirty years of life. She never mentioned these feelings or desires to anyone for two reasons. The first, she had no one to share them with, there was no one that she leftclose enough, or that she trusted. The second, the idea of love was silly. It couldn't really exist, not truly. It was just an illusion that fell apart when you got close enough to it.

Though now as she followed Adam to her office she was finding that her life was going to be turned upside-down again. It had been semi-stable for the past three years, and it was due for a change. She only hoped that this time she would get to stay where she wanted to. She didn't want to run.

Wrapped up in her thoughts Naomi didn't realize when Adam stopped abruptly in front of her. She ran into his strong broad back. "Umph! Why did you stop?" She asked annoyed.

"Do you have a safe in your office?" Adam turned around to face her simultaniously stepping back to give her some more room.

"Aside from the gun safe? No." She said her eyebrows pulling together. "But there is one in my bedroom!" Remembering this and the valuable information contained in the safe that she had very carefully hidden she raced back to her bedroom. Inside the room was just as she'd left it. The bedcovers were rumpled and half hanging offthe bed, the pillows littering the floor from her tossing and turning from her constant and horrible dreams. The dreams where she only saw the gun, the horrible shiny gun, and then the blood, she could hear the screams, and she could remember his voice, his eyes, and the words that he spoke. It made her shiver just thinking about it.

No! She screamed in her head, you can't let yourself be drawn back into that. Keep your head! After taking a few breaths she laid down on the floor and scooted under the bed. "What are you doing?" Adam asked.

"Getting my safe." She replied, her voice muffled by the bed.

"You keep your safe under the bed?"

"I keep one of my safe's under my bed. And it's not entirely under my bed." Naomi said as she moved away the panel that she had installed herself when she'd purchased the inn three years ago. She picked up the flashlight that was kept behind the panel, turned it on to undo the padlock that kept the safe in the small hole. That done she replaced the chain, padlock, and flashlight before moving the panel aside and siding the safe from under the bed. She followed quickly after it.

Adam held the safe firmly in his large hands while Naomi entered the electronic code into the key pad. Her hands were shaking when the safe opened. Half expecting the safe to be empty she was relieved when she saw that everything was in it's rightful place. That was before she saw the additional piece of paper.

Author's Note

Things I need to work on? Let me know please!