LUPE WAS over the moon when he saw—and smelled—Veena. He was not so pleased when Cooper and Veena slowly undressed each other on the way to his bedroom, stopping for frequent make-out breaks, or when Cooper nudged the door almost completely shut, which was his way of telling the pup, No climbing into bed with us. For now.
Something woke Cooper later that night, although he didn’t know exactly how late it was—he’d muted his phone and turned it facedown on the nightstand right before they fell into his bed together so there would be no interruptions.
But there were, of course.
Tiny metallic sounds that Cooper wasn’t meant to hear but heard anyway. Like…scraping. Was it some kind of animal? he wondered, still half asleep. He rolled over and saw that Veena was awake too.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. I think it’s an animal in the backyard. Probably a squirrel.”
“I think the sound is coming from your front door. Also, I thought we settled this. That is not a backyard, it’s a glorified al—”
“Shhh.” Cooper realized the clicking sound was indeed coming from the vicinity of his foyer. There was also a low growl—Lupe had sensed something too.
“What is it?” Veena asked.
“I’m beginning to think you were right about moving to a hotel.” Watch your backs, everyone had said. You don’t know who you’re messing with.
Without warning, the entire bedroom lit up. Cooper had a sudden realization and lunged for his phone on the nightstand.