Leopard Moon Read Free

she was dubious about the lack of information on the page. "Parents maybe, even if you don’t talk to them?"
    "My parents are dead. They died when I was sixteen." She was only half-lying at least, so that made her feel somewhat better about the lies that were to come. "I went to stay with my aunt, but she didn’t really want to be saddled with a kid. I left as soon as I graduated." She kept her face open and her voice soft and watched Anita’s reaction carefully.
    "Oh, I’m so sorry, hon." Kess relaxed at the solicitous tone in the landlady's voice, but tensed again as she continued in a firmer voice. "There’s nobody who we should have on file, you know, in case?"
    Kess shook her head. "No, ma’am. I lost touch with most of my old friends when I had to move away to live with my aunt. It’s just me now." She allowed herself a small smile. This too was true; it was just her now, though she did have a family she could lay claim to, had she wanted.
    "And you’re eighteen?" Kess nodded. She thought she heard a hint of suspicion in Anita's voice, but dismissed it. Her ID, license, and a set of papers would prove she was eighteen, though she was still some months from it in actuality. "You attending school here?"
    "I hope to. Right now, I’ve been working to save money so I can take a class or two while I try and get scholarships or grants for full time study." How she wished that were true. But she could never really apply for college and hope to attend. Not now at any rate. It was too dangerous to risk staying in one place with her father and Sek still searching for her. "I figured I’d get a job and get my feet under me--I picked up a job application while I was at the Barn." Now that she was moving away from the fabricated history of herself, she felt more comfortable.
    Anita settled back in her chair. She smiled as she spoke of the Barn. "That’s a good spot. It stays busy the whole year since it’s a local’s place. The students stick to bars and restaurants closer to the school and the resort folks usually stay up on the high mountain rather than drive back down here. Oh, some venture down and they tip well when they do," Anita winked at her, "but you’ll make steady money there regardless."
    Kess leaned back, luxuriating in the heat of the fireplace. She felt like she had passed some test with Anita. She hated lying, but it was the only way for right now. She had fled the last place after only a few months; she needed time to rebuild her finances so she could make a more permanent departure, maybe even out of the country. She thought that Sek wouldn’t find her so quickly outside of the U.S. And it meant that no one would be able to give him or his bloodhounds much to go on if she did have to bolt. The less anyone knew of who and what she really was, the safer they all would be.
    "Come on, I’ll show you the rooms you can choose from," Anita said, offering Kess a hand up. She accepted it gladly. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in almost three days, choosing to catch naps in the car at rest stops during the day. The couch and the fire were very tempting, but there were still things that had to be done.
    As they climbed the stairs that led to the upper floors, Anita went over the payment schedule. "These are just the bedrooms with private bathrooms," Anita said as she led Kess down the hall. "We thought about opening up the other rooms, but people seem to like the privacy that having their own bathroom gives them."Anita keyed open a door off the right of the staircase. "Take a look in here while I open up the other one. You can pick between the two."
    Kess went in to have a look. The one window in the bedroom looked out on the street from the front of the house. Too exposed-- it offered no way to come and go unseen. She dismissed this room without looking further and went to see what the other room offered.
    "Anita?" she called when she was out in the hallway.
    "Back here," came the muted reply. "Head