Forged in Stone by Alyssa Rose Ivy Page B

the keys out for you.”
    “Where will you be when I wake up?”
    “I might sleep in.” I had no plans to. I had no plans to sleep at all, but I did not want to tell her that.
    “I’ll take care of your car.”
    “I know you will.” I turned off the light as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. I closed and locked the attic door before following her.
    “Why did you lock it?”
    “To keep you out,” I teased.
    “I mean it. Half the rooms in this house are locked. Like the one right there.” She pointed at the door across from where she slept.
    “That is where they keep the dead bodies, didn’t you notice the smell?”
    She pushed my arm, and I used it as an excuse to pull her into my arms. I kept my lips mere inches from hers.
    “Easy there. We are limiting the physical contact.”
    “Limiting, not avoiding it completely.”
    “What’s in there? For real?” She stepped out of my embrace. “And why is there a light on? I swear it wasn’t on when I passed by it a few minutes ago.”
    “It’s an office. It’s locked because there are a lot of personal mementos in there, but I didn’t notice the light earlier either.” A sense of dread washed over me. “Why don’t you go on to sleep?” I didn’t like the light suddenly turning on, but I tried to stay calm. No matter what was going on, I wanted Ainsley safely out of the way.
    “No. I’m wide awake.”
    “Ok, then how about you wait in your room anyway?”
    “No.” She shook her head. “I’m waiting right here.”
    I nodded. This was not an argument I was going to win. I went through the keys, selecting the one I thought went to the office door.
    Ainsley waited at my side as I tried the lock. I guessed right the first time. I pushed open the door.
    “What happened in here?” Ainsley peered into the completely ransacked room.
    “Nothing good.” I stepped over piles of scattered papers and turned over drawers on my way to the windows. One was slightly ajar. “Change of plans.”
    “What do you mean?”
    I bent down and sorted through a pile of watercolor photos. They depicted scenes from a place that very few had seen. But it wasn’t the pictures that caught my eye, it was a piece of parchment with two words written on it. Ainsley Bales. Before turning it over I knew what I would find. The unmistakable M was there. I closed my fist around the parchment.
    “What do you mean, James? What’s changed?”
    At the sound of my name I moved to standing. “You need to pack a bag. We leave tonight.”
    “What? Why?”
    “Someone has been here. I have to warn Charlotte and Liam, and I will not leave you here. Whoever did this may return.”
    “I can stay somewhere else.”
    “I am sorry, Ainsley, but somewhere else will not cut it.”
    “You can’t tell me what to do. Remember?”
    I opened my fist. “I can, and I will.”
    He eyed widened as she took in the parchment in my hand. “That’s my name.”
    “Exactly. Whoever was here knows you. And these are not the kind of people who are going to give up easily.”
    “But how would anyone know about me? From the contract I signed?”
    “I need to know everything. How you found out about this house sitting set up. Everything.”

13

Ainsley
    “ T ell you everything ?” I repeated his words, still dumbstruck that my name was on a piece of fancy paper in a room that had been locked since I’d moved in. Logically someone could have written it before my arrival, but why on a small sheet of fancy paper?
    “Tell me how you found out about this place. How this rent free thing fell into your lap.” His serious face let me know he wasn’t teasing me about living rent free this time.
    “A former professor, my advisor, asked me if I needed a place to stay after graduation. He is a friend of the owner’s, and they were looking for someone to live in the house while they were out of the country.”
    “Who is the professor, and why did he ask you? It seems like a strange thing to ask a