Strangers of the Night Read online

  He wasn’t going to last here much longer, though. Not without losing a large portion of what remained of his mind, and there wasn’t that much there to begin with. Not for the first time since running from the men who’d tried to kidnap him and his sister, Phoenix wondered if spending the rest of his life always looking over his shoulder was better than signing up with the Crew the way Persephone had.

  Yeah, he knew she’d done it. They had a connection that went beyond the talents they’d each been born with. Maybe because they were twins. Whatever it was, he knew if she was in trouble, and although he’d had a few waves of emotional upheaval from her over the past few months, it had more to do with the fact she’d fallen head over heels in love with the cop from her apartment building, not because she was in any kind of personal danger. Phoenix could’ve tried to save her from a lot of things, but he couldn’t save her from love.

  He knew she worried about him. He’d risked contacting her, just the once, a couple months after leaving her behind. He knew she’d forgive him for it—she’d had the cop with her, and Persephone had never hated the idea of joining the Crew as much as Phoenix had. She was all right. He was going to be all right, too, he told himself as he looked out the window at the falling snow covering the narrow alley behind the house he’d been renting.

  The woman he’d met in the market earlier tonight was struggling with her trash can. Willa, he remembered. She’d been having a rough day. That irritating woman Babs had been in her way. He’d nudged Babs to move. Okay, so he’d done more than nudge. He’d mentally shoved her hard enough to leave her numb for a few hours, but damn, she’d been so absorbed in herself that he’d had to push that hard. He’d added the urge to spill her guts just so she’d embarrass herself. It was far from the worst thing he’d ever had someone do, and besides, Phoenix had always thought people that irritating deserved to be manipulated into doing stuff that made them look dumb.

  He’d already known Willa, of course, even though he was a stranger to her. He’d seen her from this window every single day, morning and night, for the past four months. She’d never spotted him because he’d barely come out of the house. Bumping into her in the market couldn’t even be considered a coincidence, since Pappy’s was the only place in town to buy groceries, so seeing her there was no shock.

  What had surprised him was the way she’d been able to resist him when he’d nudged her to give him the cereal. He hadn’t wanted it, not really. He’d done it as a test to see what he could poke her into doing for him.

  Willa had resisted.

  It wasn’t the words he used that turned people into puppets, it was something different, something deep inside his mind that Phoenix had never and probably would never understand. Like flexing a muscle—you didn’t think consciously about it. You just did it.

  However, Willa had not done as he’d nudged her to do. She’d been about to, her hand on the cereal bag and her intention to follow his desire obvious. Yet at the last moment, she hadn’t done it. Nobody had ever resisted him before. He supposed it was possible there were lots of people in the world who’d be able to, but Willa was the first person who ever had.

  He watched her now, struggling with the metal trash pail she was trying to empty into the dumpster. She wore a pair of fleecy pajama bottoms beneath a heavy parka, her feet shoved into oversize winter boots that nevertheless were slipping in the mess of slushy ice. Before he’d quite decided to do it, he was ducking out the back door and down the alley. She looked up, startled and wary at the sight of him. He couldn’t blame her. If she knew who he was and the things he’d done, she’d have run screaming.

  “Sorry,” he said smoothly, with a jerk of his thumb toward the house. “I live next door. Saw you might need a hand.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He watched her struggle with the pail again, her boots slipping in the muck. There was no way she was going to get the leverage to lift it into the dumpster. “I’m happy to help you, Willa.”

  She looked at him, eyes narrowed. Mouth thin, nothing like the smile she’d given him earlier in the market. “I said I’m fine.”

  “You should really let me help you,” Phoenix said with a nudge.

  Willa tensed visibly. Her frown deepened. “Look, I said I was fine. I don’t need you to—”

  With an easy reach, he snagged the can from her and lifted it, using his other hand to flip open the dumpster lid. He emptied her pail into it and handed it back as he closed the lid. Grinning, he waited for her to thank him. Ladies almost always did when he pulled that he-man trick. They went all fluttery lashes and heaving bosoms and usually invited him back to their boudoirs to show their gratitude. Not that he was going to go to bed with her, he thought, since they were neighbors and he was in Penn’s Grove to hide out—not to get involved with someone he couldn’t leave behind the next morning.

  Willa didn’t. “Wow.”

  “Wow?” Phoenix hesitated. He hadn’t thrown on a coat before running out here, and he was starting to get cold. The hems of his jeans were soaked. And she was looking at him like he’d handed her a package of dog poop.

  “I don’t need a knight in shining armor.” Willa looked him up and down, but instead of her eyes glowing with desire, she was barely concealing a sneer of disdain. Strike that. She was absolutely not concealing it—she was full-on sneering.

  Phoenix, stung, tossed up his hands. “I was being nice!”

  “You’re being...weird!” Willa said with a glance over his shoulder toward his house, which was connected to hers. “I’ve never seen you here before.”

  “I haven’t lived here very long.”

  “I’ve never seen you anywhere before tonight at Pappy’s. Penn’s Grove is a very small town.” She took a step backward, keeping the pail between them.

  “Hey, I’m sorry.” He backed up a few steps, making himself less of a threat. “Really, I was only trying to help.”

  “Were you spying on me?”

  “No, I was just looking out my window and I saw you, I thought you could use a hand. That’s all. Truly.” Contrite, uncertain what had made her react so strongly, he consciously made himself smaller and less of a threat. Without thinking, he nudged her again, trying to get her to trust that he meant no harm.

  The nudge had the opposite effect. Willa winced again, her expression darkening further. “I didn’t. I don’t. I’m fine.”

  “Okay. You’re fine.” Phoenix didn’t try to argue with her any further. He turned and walked away, hopping up the steps of his rented house with a backward glance at her. She’d already gone inside.

  He’d really screwed that up, he thought, not sure how. Not sure why it mattered. Only that suddenly, it did.

  Chapter 2

  Willa had had the whole world to live in, but she’d chosen to stay here in Penn’s Grove. She wasn’t a fan of regretting life choices, but on days like this, she did allow herself to think about what her life might’ve been like if she’d gone away. She would be too far from her parents to help take care of them. Too far from her nieces and nephews to go to their school concerts and soccer games. She wouldn’t run into her old elementary and high school acquaintances who’d grown up and had families of their own.

  She wouldn’t run into him.

  She could have run away from Penn’s Grove, but she’d stayed, and that had been braver choice. It didn’t even bother her that much anymore when Brady Singer came into the library with his kids, or that his gaze skated over her behind the checkout desk without so much as a flicker of recognition. It was better than the times when he paid attention to her.

  Today, with the snow falling thick outside, she hadn’t expected a lot of patrons in the library. The early dismissal for the kids had brought a number of people to grab books and movies to keep them entertained, but that had been before the storm really began. She’d been look