staring at me.
I choked on another Samoa.
Seriously, I was beginning to wonder if the cookies were out to get me.
âCan I help you?â I asked, still gasping and clutching the phone.
Her gray hair didnât budge from its tidy curls despite the sharp, cold wind off the ocean. Her strong jaw was clenched, and her icy blue eyes were fixed on me like she was trying to see inside my head.
Weird.
âOn the contrary,â she said quietly, âIâm here to help you.â
âHelp me do what?â Ditch Logan? Scream at Bob? Bully Leo? Have I mentioned that men are currently pains in my ass?
âAccept your destiny .â
âOkaaaayyyyâ¦â I said, trying to be patient. Itâs never wise to upset crazy people.
âToday you are thirty-two years old,â the old woman went on, and just how the hell did she know it was my birthday? âYour time has come.â
She smiled, but it wasnât a grandma-type, wanna-cookie? smile. Nope, this was more like the grin on that fake shark they built for the movie Jaws .
âThere is no time to waste,â she said. âThe demons are here. And only you can kill them.â
Chapter Two
âK ill the demons,â I said, nodding and giving her a wink like this was a little secret just between the two of us. I kept thinking, Keep her calm. Donât upset her little fantasy world . Meanwhile, Iâm wondering how I can call 911 while Iâm on hold with an appliance store. âOkeydokey. Iâll get right on that.â
She frowned. âYou are the chosen one. It is your duty to fight theââ
The Muzak ended and Bob answered. Holding one finger up to the strange-and-getting-stranger-by-the-minute woman, I said, âHold that thought. Bob? Hi, itâs Cassidy. Look, Leoâs here with the new machine, but he says you didnât tell him to take the old one away.â
âThat wasnât part of our deal, Cass, andââ
âBob!â I cut him off because, really, once he gets going, itâs hard to stop him. While I was gearing up for a fight, the old lady slipped past me into the house and was wandering around my kitchen. Sugar was no help. She was hiding under the table.
âLook, Bob,â I said, frowning when Weird Grandma started opening my cupboards. I snapped my fingers at her, but she just gave me a quelling look and continued her snooping. Pretty snarky for an intruder. âYou get Leo to take away the old machine, or I tell your wife about the time you took Terri Flannery to Vegas for that âbusiness trip.ââ
He shrieked. Never an attractive sound coming from a man, but at least I knew Iâd made my point. Iâd been hanging on to that little nugget of information for two years now, just waiting for the right chance to use it, ever since the night Terri got drunk and told me all about the trip with Bob and how he cried during sex. Though from how Terri described it, she should have been the one crying. God knows, I would have. Since high school, Bob had done some serious deteriorating. I hung up with Bobâs promise to call Leo, then turned to face the creeper in my kitchen.
âYou know,â I said, âmaybe we should get you back outside.â Where people from the home can find you.
The occasional stray wacko wasnât exactly news around here. La Sombra is known for more than its great surf and excellent bakery. Weâve also got the biggest nuthouse in California just outside town. Excuse me, long-term mental health care facility. Whatever. Itâs a massive place that looks more like a medieval castle than a home for the terminally weird, but there you go. In California, itâs always about appearances.
Point is, there are always a few escapees every year, and sooner or later, the guys in white vans go cruising the streets to round âem back up again.
Of course, this was the first time one of the escapees had found