Rules of Attraction. Susan Crosby

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      Claire saw with surprise that it was almost ten o’clock. She’d intended to keep herself distracted, but had done such a good job of it that she hadn’t noticed that night had fallen. She had no reason to feel guilty, but—

      The bell rang again. Rase barked more frantically, alerting and calling her at the same time. She couldn’t imagine who would be coming around this late. Some friend of Jenn’s, she supposed. Someone who didn’t know….

      Claire grabbed her portable phone and made her way to the door without turning on any lights, a streetlight providing just enough illumination from outside that she could negotiate the stairs. Maybe it was better that she hadn’t turned on any lights. She could pretend she wasn’t home if the visitor wasn’t someone she wanted to talk to.

      Without telling Rase to quiet down—as if it would’ve done any good anyway—she crept to the door and looked out the peephole. She hadn’t turned on the porch light, however, so she could see only a dark blob silhouetted from behind by the streetlight. Now what?

      “I know you’re in there,” came a man’s voice.

      She hopped back. Rase picked up on her surprise and reared up, slamming his paws against the door, digging at it, barking louder. “Who’s there?” she asked.

      “Quinn Gerard.”

      Quinn— From the blood bank? She looked again through the peephole but still couldn’t identify the man. How did he— He’d followed her?

      She put a hand over her mouth. How stupid could she be? She’d told him what time she got off work. He’d followed her to her home.

      “Please open the door,” he said. “I need to talk to you.”

      Grateful for how ferocious Rase sounded, she called out, “You’re stalking me. I’m calling the police right now,” she said, meaning it, squeezing the portable phone a little tighter.

      “You’ll save us both a lot of time if you don’t do that,” he said, his voice raised but calm. “I’m under contract with the district attorney. If you open the door I’ll show you my identification.”

      The D.A.? She relaxed a little, but no way was she removing the safety of the wooden barrier between them. “What do you want?”

      “You can call off your dog, for one, so I don’t have to yell. Unless you like having your neighbors hear your business.”

      He had a point. “Sit,” she said to the dog. “Quiet.”

      Rase wagged his tail, barked once, but didn’t sit. She sighed. “Okay. Now, what do you want?”

      “I’d prefer to tell you face-to-face.”

      “You can prefer all you want.”

      A pause ensued. Her grandfather clock ticked off time, the sound seeming to gain volume.

      “If you don’t tell me right now why you’re here,” she said, “I’m calling the cops.”

      “I want to talk to you about your sister, Jennifer.”

      She closed her eyes. Great. Just great. She should have guessed. Just as she should’ve guessed he hadn’t been attracted to her. They were as different as night and…tuna. For one thing, she was honest.

      “Did you follow me from the blood bank?” she asked. If so, he’d been sitting in his car for hours, biding his time, waiting for darkness to fall.

      “I followed you to it. I thought you were your sister. Look, is she in there?”

      “No.”

      A long moment of silence sat like an invisible wall between them. “Will she be home soon?”

      Claire leaned her forehead against the door. “No.”

      She was tired of covering for Jenn, who was two years older than Claire and should’ve been the big sister but had never behaved like one.

      “Is she gone, Claire?”

      He asked the question quietly, almost sympathetically. It made her throat ache. Rase picked up on her mood and nudged her thigh with his muzzle. She patted his head. “That’s Ms. Winston to you.”

      “Is she?”

      She needed to tell someone, even this stranger. Maybe especially this stranger. “Yes,” she said quietly. Jenn had taken so few personal possessions with her that Claire might not have realized she was gone, except that she’d left—

      “How do you know?” he asked.

      She propped herself against the doorjamb. “She left a note.”

      “May I see it?”

      “No.” She certainly was not opening her door to a man who’d pretended to like her, who’d lured her just with promise in his eyes. Give her a dull but honest man anytime.

      “Why didn’t she take her car?”

      “I don’t know. Go away or I’ll sic my dog on you.” Quinn couldn’t see Rase, all twenty-five wimpy pounds of him. He only sounded like a hundred pounds of ferocity. In truth, he’d been known to run from cats.

      “Do you know why the D.A. wants her?” Quinn asked.

      Knowing Jenn, it could be anything. After all, she’d gotten herself involved with an investment broker who’d embezzled millions from his clients, investments they’d made in good faith. Jenn was as gullible as those clients. She’d just been lucky not to have any of her money taken by him.

      “The D.A. believes she’s got Craig Beecham’s stolen funds,” he said when she didn’t answer. “Or at least knows where they are.”

      “That was settled in court. Jenn didn’t know anything about it.”

      “She’s been under investigation because no one believes that. How far gone do you think she can get on five million dollars, Ms. Winston?”

      “She didn’t take the money.” Jenn had assured Claire of that, many times. Claire had sat beside Jenn in the courtroom, supporting her, believing in her. Jenn might be self-centered and immature, but she wasn’t a criminal. “She inherited a lot of cash when my parents died, enough to equal the value of this house, which I inherited. She’s got plenty of money.” More than she should have access to, Claire thought. She’d been spending it, too. On clothes and jewelry and that snazzy car. “She wouldn’t have need for more.”

      “Everyone has need for more, but I hope you’re right. Good night.”

      She moved to her front window in time to see him jog across the street and climb into an almost invisible gray sedan parked between two streetlights so that she couldn’t see into the interior. Picking up on her tension, Rase looked out the window then at her, then out the window and back at her again. She waited for Quinn to drive away. He didn’t.

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