Perfect Nightmare Read Online Free Page A

janitor shook his head. “This is my last office. I’ll just dump your trash and be gone.”
    Steve nodded toward the wastebasket. This guy didn’t look familiar. “You new?”
    The man nodded. “Just started today. Didn’t mean to get in your way.” He gathered the plastic bag full of trash, dumped it in the large bin he’d left just outside the door, then replaced the plastic liner in the wastebasket. As he straightened up, his eyes fell on the framed photograph of Steve, Kara, and Lindsay at the beach that had been sitting on Steve’s desk since last summer. “This your family?”
    Steve nodded, not even looking up, wishing the man would just go away.
    “Nice. Very nice,” the janitor said. “Looks like Long Island.”
    “It is,” Steve mumbled.
    “Pretty girl,” the janitor said.
    Leaning back in his chair, Steve saw that the man’s eyes were now fixed on another of the photos on his desk, this one of Lindsay in her cheerleader’s uniform.
    “Very nice,” he said, so softly that Steve wasn’t sure he was even aware he’d spoken out loud. “Beautiful.”
    He was about to reply when the phone rang, startling both of them. Nodding almost curtly, the janitor disappeared out the door as Steve picked up the receiver.
    “Hello?”
    “Hi, honey,” he heard Kara say, and there was something in her voice that belied her cheerful tone.
    “Hi.”
    “Are you coming home?”
    He sighed. “I don’t see how—I’ve got too much work.”
    “You promised.”
    He could almost see her struggling not to sound plaintive. “I know,” he sighed. “I tried, but I’ll get out of here early tomorrow and we’ll have the whole weekend. We’ll do something—just the three of us.”
    Kara was silent for a second, then: “I was hoping you could be home before Lindsay went to sleep tonight. She’s kind of upset.”
    Steve sat up straight in his chair. “Upset? Why? What’s up?”
    “She hurt her wrist at cheerleading practice, and then the real-estate agent was here when she got home. I think we all ought to sit down and talk. You know, like a real family?” Kara quickly added, perhaps at hearing the sarcasm in her voice, “I’m sorry—that wasn’t fair. I’m just—well, I just really wish you’d come home tonight.”
    “What did the agent say?”
    Kara chuckled hollowly. “You won’t like it.”
    Steve looked down at the deposition. If he called a driver, he could finish it on the way home. But he couldn’t afford a driver—not with what it cost to keep the apartment. “Kara, I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve got to finish this deposition tonight.”
    “Okay.” Her voice was small now, and he knew she wasn’t going to argue anymore, which only made him feel worse.
    “Let me see what I can do,” he finally said.
    “Okay. ’Bye.”
    “ ’Bye.”
    He heard her say “Love you” just before he put the phone back in its cradle.
    Crap!
    First the damn janitor had thrown him off his concentration, and now Kara was angry at him, and he couldn’t blame her.
    And Lindsay was hurt and upset, and that made his stomach churn.
    And on top of everything else, he was going to hate what the agent had to say.
    Enough was finally enough. He glanced down at the deposition one more time, then flipped its cover closed, turned off his desk lamp, and headed for home.
     
    L indsay dialed up the volume on the iPod her father had given her for her last birthday, but no matter how loud the music coming through the headphones was—even if it drowned out the argument going on downstairs—it couldn’t cover the tension that filled the house.
    And it was her fault—all of it.
    She grabbed a pillow and pulled her arm back to hurl it at something—anything—but the warning stab of pain in her injured wrist made her change her mind. She dropped the pillow to her chest instead and hugged it, tears of frustration stinging her eyes and clouding her vision. “Grow up,” she told herself.
    The song she’d been