Page 6 of If You Dare

Okay, so at the moment, she didn’t feel like she had this. What she felt mostly…was creeped out.

Something skittered up the faded patterned wallpaper to her right, but she refused to turn her head. Her peripheral vision made out enough of the long, shiny body and waving antennae to know who she’d be bunking with tonight.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t added Raid to her shopping list.

Disgust sat like a lump in her throat, but she gulped it down. She kicked a downed spindle. It rolled and hit the baseboard with an echoing thud. One last thought about the shadow-faces peering down at her from upstairs, and it was decided: downstairs would have to do. No way was she going anywhere near the second story.

She tossed her supplies onto the living room floor. The massive space would make for a workable ground zero. Once the air mattress was inflated and she was surrounded by creature comforts, this place would feel like home.

Or hopefully close to home.

A doorway stood to her left. She poked her head into the wide kitchen—big enough for several servants, and well-lit thanks to the large, unbroken windows. But the warped linoleum strewn with the bones of dead rodents and the doorless cabinets encrusted with cobwebs kept the room from being cozy.

Funny. The living room was almost charming by comparison.

A loud bang made her jump, and a pathetic Meep! exited her lips. The front door hung open, leaves blowing across the entryway. After her heart restarted, she blew out a breath of relief. It was the wind. Likely a sister gust to the one that had tried to drop a shutter on her head. And definitely not a ghost trying to spook her out of her room and board for the night.

A few structural uncertainties weren’t going to send her fleeing. Wouldn’t Marcus love that? If one little bump in the waning daylight sent her running…Nuh-uh. No way. He wasn’t winning this bet before it started.

If the only prize from this ridiculous dare was her proving to herself that she was strong and brave and capable, then it would be worth it. Even better, she could reflect on her personal growth while sipping a rum-infused drink out of a hollowed-out coconut on Oahu.

Ah, yes. There was a thought that made her smile.

She made a final trip outside to retrieve the rest of her supplies. As she shouldered her purse, she recalled Marcus’s smug expression as she’d pulled her designer handbag over her shoulder at the bar. He believed she was too delicate to spend the night in Willow Mansion, but he was wrong. And she was about to prove it to both of them.

Let’s do this.

Bravery renewed, she reminded herself she’d suffer nothing more than dust allergies during her night behind the mansion’s walls.

The grocery bag in the crook of her arm was filled with the essentials. Wine, check. Bottled water, check. iPad, check. Dinner from her favorite local restaurant, check.

At the mansion’s front door, she cast one last look at the surrounding woods and the long, cracked driveway. She had moved her car to park off to one side, behind a low-hanging weeping willow tree and overgrown bushes. Satisfied that her vehicle was reasonably hidden from the road—she didn’t need attention from vagrants or cops—she punched the lock button on her key fob and smiled at the answering cheery beep.

“Hawaii, here I come.” With that last thought warming her, she headed into the dark house and shut the door behind her.

CHAPTER THREE

“Idon’t know why I had to come with you.”

Marcus stopped climbing the weed-infested hill to glare at his whining best friend. “What are you bitching about? I’m the one with Hawaii on the line.”

“Yeah, and that trip was technically mine.” Clive Cameron pointed the flashlight at Marcus’s face. “Plus, I’m the one in danger of an early grave if Joanie finds out we aren’t playing darts at the Shot Spot.”

Marcus shielded his eyes. Clive swept the beam away from his face. “I swear you traded in your balls at the altar a year and a half ago.”

His buddy smiled. “That’s a helluva trade, considering how much sex I get.”

“Married people don’t have sex,” Marcus grumbled, resuming his climb to Willow Mansion. “Everyone knows that.”

“Yes, we do. But unlike you, I don’t have to sneak out in my underwear in the morning.”

Rather than argue, mainly because Clive had made a compelling and, other than the underwear part, an irritatingly accurate point, Marcus continued his stealthy approach up the hill. As stealthy as one could be toting a duffel bag full of Halloween costumes.

Hey. It was Hawaii. He might as well try to salvage it.

They rounded the house and found a reasonably clean window that hadn’t been busted out. Marcus peeked through one corner and Clive through the other. He could make out a kitchen, and beyond that, a doorway. Lily’s face was lit by ambient light one room over.

Marcus swore under his breath. “Is that…sushi?”