Nice didn’t keep her fed. Burying her conscience did.
Testing her luck, Alice trailed her hand along the wall as she edged further into the house, toward the direction of the kitchen to grab a knife for protection, at least.
After only a few feet, Alice stopped suddenly and took a moment to get her bearings. The hall seemed to stretch in both directions for a mile. Where was the kitchen again? To the left or... Shit. Damn this place for being larger than any single guy could ever need!
Glowing ahead caught her attention, and Alice inched closer to it. A muted sliver of light fell into the hallway, a beacon if ever she saw one. Venturing toward its source, she realized it was a computer monitor that lit up an office almost as well as daytime. If only it affected the corners of the room, which remained in inky blackness.
Deeper inside, her shoulder brushed against some artwork as she hugged the wall, the blunt pain a reminder she shouldn’t be here. A little nagging voice directed her to exit the room, exit the house and go back to her own world. But another little voice, one more demanding and a hell of a lot more curious, insisted a quick look at the screen would ease her suspicions about Sebastian. For instance, if she just found run-of-the-mill software programs running, even just a simple Internet site for porn, she could dismiss him as just another red-blooded male. If, however, she discovered something a little more nefarious, her next decision—namely, leaving—would be justified.
It almost physically pained her to abandon her search for a weapon, but she comforted herself with the knowledge that it was only temporary. One quick look, and she’d get back on task.
Swallowing past a dry throat, she moved toward the computer, putting an unsteady hand on the mouse as soon as she nudged the desk.
“Wow,” she said softly before she could recall the sound. She knew diagrams like this, learning them almost before she’d learned to read. But the extent of detail which had gone into the family tree diagram on the screen before her would have made any museum curator proud. His lineage went on for generations. Nothing like she’d ever seen before. Her mother’s research had been impressive, but what was before her made their family line look like what they taught children in elementary school biology.
Back when things were good, when they’d been a whole, functional family, she and Mom spent hours on the weekends working on their own tree. Even after she’d died, Alice had been loath to stop the research. Ultimately, her homelessness forced it to end. She missed it.
She continued to study the display, only then noticing the missing information. “What about over here?” she mused aloud, noting that merely one half of Sebastian’s tree had been completed. He sat as a lone box in a sea of wiggles, dashes and lines.
“It’s still a work in progress.”
Swinging her body in the direction of his low voice, Alice shrieked. “Fuck!”
A dark shadow moved, and it took her eyes a second to adjust. Sebastian stood from a wing-backed chair placed in one of the corners, a half-empty glass dangling from his fingers. His movement was slow, yet at the same time reminded her of a predator. “Is that a request?”
“Wh-what?” She racked her brain, trying to understand, before her own last remark came back to her. “Oh.”
The same little voice she should have listened to earlier gave her a triumphant told you so, but Alice stood her ground as he approached. Her fingers folded around the computer mouse, intent on using it to her advantage if he stepped too close. Not quite the baseball bat she longed for, but that was the price she paid for morbid curiosity.
He came closer than she would have liked but didn’t act threatening. Not yet, anyway. The scent of liquor hovered around him, although nothing in his manner suggested he was inebriated. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
The subtle aroma of liquor coming from his breath sent a shiver through her spine. “It’s hard to sleep in a new place sometimes.”
“So you decided to pass the night by snooping? Or perhaps stealing?” There was a slight hint of amusement in his voice.
Her face went hot. Did he know? “I’m not a thief.”