Sheltered. HelenKay Dimon

that usually creaked didn’t. He shifted and stalked around her furniture and through the room until he disappeared.

      She had two choices—sit and wait or track and help. She’d made a vow to step in and not remain silent years ago. She followed it now.

      As she reached her kitchen, then the back door of the cottage, she visually searched for him. He’d have to be running to be gone, but she couldn’t see him.

      He’d congratulated her on her security system, then set up additional sensor lights that afternoon, insisting she had blind spots he needed to fix. One of those popped on behind the shed where she kept the lawn mower and other yard equipment.

      She squinted, thinking she’d see movement. She could make out one dark blob...then another. They were nearly on top of each other.

      She was halfway outside with the door banging behind her before she remembered Holt’s words: stay here.