The fae girl choked and brought a fist to her mouth to hide a surprised cough. Matthew Thomas cocked his head. His smile remained, but this time, the side of his nose wrinkled so much that it made him squint.
Like he knows he’s been caught.
He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m not following.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cheyenne cast a suspicious glance through his open apartment door across from her own and lifted her chin. “Okay. Have a good night. Neighbor.”
Without waiting for a reply, she turned to her front door and stalked inside, heading straight for the side of their apartment with her bedroom so Matthew couldn’t watch her any longer. But her drow hearing picked up every word of the conversation in the hall.
“She having a rough night or something?” Matthew asked through another casual chuckle.
“You’d have to ask her.” Ember’s wheels rolled along the floor.
“What about you? I’d still love for you to come join us. You don’t have to stay long, and from what I hear, your Uber ride home is pretty cheap.”
The fae laughed, but it fell flat. “Maybe another night, Matthew. We came home early ‘cause I was feeling really tired. I won’t be doing myself any favors if I don’t get to bed in the next five minutes.”
“You sure? There are some people here I’d really love for you to meet.”
“I’m sure. Thanks. Have fun.” Ember wheeled quickly through the doorway and grabbed the door to throw it shut behind her. It didn’t quite slam, but it wasn’t quiet, either. Then she put both hands over her mouth and stared at their black and silver area rug. “Oh, my God.”
“Yeah.” Cheyenne tossed the broken machine-bug leg onto the couch and folded her arms.
“Oh, my God.” Ember glanced at the door and grimaced in disgust. “Do you think he’s watching us?”
“Depends on how you define that, Em.”
“I don’t mean with his eyes. Well, I do.”
“I can see where you’re going with this.” Cheyenne slumped into the closest black leather recliner and dangled one leg over the armrest. “So I’m gonna take a wild guess and say yeah. I think our day-trading, cyber-security-CEO of a neighbor has cameras all over this floor. Maybe in other parts of the building. Who knows?”
Ember dropped her hands into her lap and stared at the halfling. “That’s what I was thinking, but, I mean, we can’t prove that, can we?”
“Not yet. Shouldn’t be hard to do, though.”
The apartment fell silent as they looked at the vaulted ceiling and the wide expanse of their shared loft. “You don’t think he had them here?”
“Well, it was a show unit for a long time.” Cheyenne ran her hands through her black hair, smoothing it away from her forehead as she dropped her head back against the recliner. “I’d be more creeped out about him running surveillance in here before we moved in than if he stuck something under our noses after we met.”
“How the hell is that creepier?”
“If he bugged our apartment after falling madly in love with you at first sight, Em, that makes him a stalker. Which isn’t ideal, sure, but it’s focused. If he had stuff in here way before that, though, I’d say that ventures into psychopath territory.”
Ember snorted. “That’s funny, coming from you.”
Cheyenne glanced quickly at her friend, and they burst out laughing. “Almost. But people who watch everyone constantly for no reason other than because they can have a lot more issues than one lonely dude with an obsessive crush.”
“That’s messed up.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”
A chill raced down the back of Ember’s neck, and she shuddered, shaking her head. “You think he can hear us right now?”
“If he can, serves him right.” The halfling grinned at Ember and stuck her middle finger in the air, waving it back and forth at their apartment. “Just for fun.”
“How can you be so calm about this?”
“Come on. No point in freaking out until I can prove something one way or the other.”
With a deep breath through her nose, Ember grimaced and wrapped her arms around herself. “Just the idea is enough to convince me. I mean, all the pieces fit. He always shows up at the worst times.”
“Or the best times. For him.”
“Yeah, mostly when you’re gone.”
“I know.”
“Oh, shit. If he’s watching us in our apartment, he saw me with that illusion charm.”
“Yeah. Hypothetically.” Cheyenne stretched her arms above her head before sinking back into the recliner.
“But it makes sense!”
“Hypothetically, Em. Look, if he’s got something in our apartment and he saw you put on that ring, he did a damn good job of acting like it never happened.”
“Well, if he’s like us, it wouldn’t surprise him, would it?”
The halfling raised an eyebrow. “Do you honestly think he’s like us?”
Ember opened her mouth, paused, then said, “No. No way. I can always tell.”
“Yeah, me too. At least, now that I know what to look for.”
“So, you’re saying that he didn’t freak and he’s not a magical, so he didn’t bug our apartment?”
“Or he’s got an insane poker face, and now he’s even more curious than he was in the beginning.”
Ember slapped her hands on the armrests and gripped them tightly. “You’re not helping.”
Cheyenne couldn’t hold back an unapologetic chuckle. “This wasn’t supposed to be a helpful conversation. I knew there was a reason I had a weird feeling about that guy.”
“Please don’t say, ‘I told you so.’”
“I’m not. I still don’t know what’s going on with him.” The halfling nodded at the couch and the metal leg. “He didn’t give that thing a second glance when we showed up.”
“Oh, shit. You think he had something to do with that machine in the market?”
“I seriously doubt it. I mean, that thing right there does look a lot like a crowbar.”
Ember snorted. “Yeah, I wouldn’t think twice about you walking around with a crowbar, either. Fits your whole ‘Back the fuck up and don’t talk to me’ vibe.”
“Thanks.” Still staring at the
