In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue #4)(75)

She tried to think of something she could bake that didn’t require eggs, but she was too distracted to do more than pull a few ingredients out of the cupboards. When she caught herself staring blankly into the sugar canister, Daisy decided that attempting to prepare edible food when she couldn’t concentrate for more than two seconds at a time was probably a dangerous idea.

After putting away the items and cleaning the kitchen, she wandered into the study. Although the dolls still freaked her out, they were growing on her a little. It might have been because both were doing so well in their online auctions. Apparently, there were a lot of people who didn’t feel that the antique dolls were toys of the devil.

She booted up her laptop. After deleting a few junk emails, she opened up an Internet browser. Only two minutes later, she shut down her computer, unable to sit still.

Checking the clock on the desk, she groaned. It wasn’t even one yet, and it felt like an entire week had gone by since Chris had left to help Lawrence with the missing tire cover. He’d called her after he’d gotten off work, but he’d been distracted, so they’d ended the call shortly after she’d confirmed that she was doing fine.

Daisy wandered into the training room. Friday was officially her rest day, but she figured it could still be considered Thursday night, if she really wanted to lie to herself. She jumped and grabbed the pull-up bar, swinging back and forth like a kid on the monkey bars. When her hands started to sting from the friction, she lifted her legs up and over the bar, releasing the grip of her fingers so she hung upside-down by her knees.

Her spine popped as she dangled from the bar, and she thought of how different the room looked from her inverted position. When her face burned from too much blood flowing into it and her eyes felt like they were about to pop out of her head, she swung back and forth, flipping her legs off of the bar to land on her feet. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stick the landing, and she fell back on her butt with a grunt.

Glad that she didn’t have an audience for that ungraceful maneuver, she scrambled to her feet and headed for the treadmill. If she didn’t do something physical, she was going to lose the battle raging in her head, run to the door, and fasten every single lock, erasing all of her progress.

As she settled into her warm-up jog, she thought about how Lou had mentioned at their last training session that she wanted to set up Daisy with a fireman named Steve. The thought of dating someone hadn’t really occurred to her, except for her daydreams about Chris during unguarded moments. Lou’s mention of the fireman, though, had her actually considering the idea.

The thought of dating a stranger made her stomach churn with a mixture of excitement and nerves. She tried to picture someone next to her on the couch while they watched a movie, or someone across from her at the dining room table as just the two of them shared a meal, or someone next to her in bed… Her insides clenched, and she shoved the last thought away. Even considering it felt like cheating.

Daisy growled as she increased the treadmill’s speed, annoyed that she couldn’t even think about dating someone who wasn’t Chris without feeling guilty. They were only friends—friends who, up until a week or so ago, hardly even touched in a friendly way.

After they’d talked about her mom, though, Chris had touched her…a lot. Daisy reminded herself sharply not to read too much into the hugs and pats and knee-squeezing. They were still strictly friends, just huggier than they had been, and she was asking for awkwardness and long absences if she tried to push them into more.

Even her father didn’t want to be in the same house with her, so Daisy wasn’t sure why anyone else would, either.

“Stop,” she said out loud, annoyed with her angst and self-pity. She hit the button to increase the speed several times, until all she could think about was moving her feet and trying to breathe.

Working out killed an hour of the endless night, and a shower used up another twenty minutes by the time she was moisturized and dressed. She was exhausted, having finally crashed from her adrenaline surge, so she decided to attempt sleeping.

“This is probably a bad idea,” she muttered, pulling down the covers. She stared at the sheet-covered mattress for a while, but she just couldn’t bring herself to lie down. As much as she longed for sleep, to be unconscious and oblivious until she woke refreshed in time for Chris’s six a.m. breakfast visit, Daisy knew it wasn’t going to happen. With a sigh, she headed for the window seat.

The second she sat, she was tempted to pop right back up again. Irritation with her restlessness kept her in place. Automatically, she checked each house across the street for any signs of movement. Ian and Rory’s house was dark, with no light peeking around the shutters. Daisy couldn’t remember if Ian was on duty or not. There was a reassurance to the idea that Ian and Rory were sleeping across the street, so she decided to pretend that Ian had the night off, and his house was not as empty as it looked.

The Storvicks’ was almost equally dark, except for the dimmest glow from the younger daughter’s bedroom. She always slept with a night-light. Corbin’s computer must have been off or sleeping, since his window was pitch-black.

Almost reluctantly, Daisy shifted her gaze to number 304. Now that she knew there was blood in the living room, the building felt almost menacing. Had it really been a body Macavoy had been hauling out of the house that early, early morning? Was that where the blood had come from? If so, who was the poor dead person?