Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper Page A

respond. She sat there like a bump on a log, practically asking for permission before working up the nerve to smile at the hippie girl’s antics.
    The hippie rolled her eyes, jostling Nina’s arm and topping off her tea. Nina ducked her head, but he could make out the curve of her lips through the binoculars.
    The man sniffed, his handsome face twisted into a mocking sneer as he watched the girls raise their glasses together. Well, wasn’t that just precious? He was sitting out here in the heat, sweating his sack off, and Miss Priss was joining her Girl Scout troop for tea and cookies in the nice, cool house. She was rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, and he was hiding in the bushes like some nobody.
    It wasn’t fair. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to turn out. Nina thought she could just walk away? She thought she could steal jobs from him and show him up? Not in this lifetime.
    Make her pay , a voice whispered in his ear.
    He started, looking around for whoever had whispered in his ear. He waved his hand, as if an errant mosquito were buzzing nearby in the fading light of afternoon. Hefocused his binoculars on the window, watching Nina sip her tea and delicately dab at her lips with a napkin.
    Always so polite. He sneered. Always so prim and proper. She wouldn’t say “shit” if she stepped in it. She was too good for that. It was what made her so easy to push around, her refusal to make a fuss even when she got trampled. Then again, the Virgin Mary act was also what had made her such a convincing little victim when she finally went to the cops to file her bullshit complaints against him. Conniving bitch.
    Make her pay.
    It wasn’t a bad idea, he mused.
    Nina should pay. She’d used her big doe eyes and her poor-orphan-victim routine to fool Deacon Whitney into hiring her, when she knew he was bidding for this job. The lack of loyalty shocked him, pissed him off. The minute she saw his name on the list of bidders, she should have stepped aside. He thought he’d made that clear with all the trouble he’d caused her, but she obviously hadn’t understood the message, because here she was, on Whitney Island, where she had no business being.
    Make her pay.
    Yes, he would do that. He could show her, once and for all, who was in charge. He’d let her have her little moment now. He’d let her relax and think that maybe her stupid little business might make a go of it. But then he would crush her, just like he had at all the other job sites. He would fix it so that Nina was too much trouble to keep around. He would make Deacon Whitney feel unsafe having her on his staff. And who would be ready to step in and take over the mediocre work she’d done? He would.
    Make her pay. The dark, seductive voice seemed to slither through his mind, worming its way into the cells and making them its own. Show her who’s in charge.
    He nodded slowly. It had been easy enough to sneak onto the island, even with the motion detectors and security cameras Whitney’s people had arranged around the perimeter of the property. He’d simply followed the charter boat rented by the hippie girl and then veered south before they reached the shore. As he crept along the shoreline, he’d managed to spot every hidden piece of surveillance equipment. It was if he were being led along a safe path, allowing him to spy on the Whitney Island team undisturbed. The island, the house, wanted him here, he could feel it. A sly, rasping voice from the recesses of his brain told him so.
    You’re doing the right thing. You’re putting her in her place. It wouldn’t be so easy if you weren’t doing the right thing. Whitney will probably thank you later.
    He smiled, raising the binoculars to his eyes. Nina would be sorry that she ever crossed him. She would pay.



Sending Ghostly Tantrum Throwers to Time-Out
    CINDY HADN’T BEEN entirely honest when she told Nina that she hadn’t felt anything out of the ordinary at the Crane’s Nest. Since