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Shaking my head, I sigh and try again. “I’m glad you’re both here.” And I firmly command myself not to blush.
“I’m glad to be here, too.” Rylan’s mouth is twitching and his eyes are all crinkled at the corners.
Leo grins at me. “Don’t worry, Charlie. When my fiancée, Georgia, was a client, she was nervous, too. It’s okay.”
Rylan is still smiling at me, but it’s a reassuring one, not judging. “So, Charlie, do you want to give us the grand tour?”
A little snort slips out—my mother would give herself an aneurism if she heard me—and I say, “I’ll give you the tour, but it’s not very grand. It’s only eight hundred square feet.”
“Better than a tent in the desert,” Leo says cheerfully. “Lead the way.”
Three minutes later, we’re back where we started, and Rylan is shaking his head at me. “Charlie, there is no way we’re taking your bedroom. You need your space.”
“But you guys need the space to sleep,” I protest. “And Leo is so tall. So are you. I already feel guilty that I can’t offer you anything better than an air mattress.”
Rylan touches my arm and my skin tingles from the heat of his fingers. “You are going back to your bedroom. And we’re moving all your clothes back there, too.” His features are set, not sternly, but not budging either. “Leo will take the office. That way, he can set up his computers in there. I’ll take the couch.”
I glance at the couch and back at Rylan’s towering figure. Aghast, I blurt out, “You won’t fit!”
“It’ll be fine,” Rylan soothes. “And I’ll order another air mattress. I’d rather be in the living room. It’s safer if I’m between you and the door. Okay?”
Oh. I never thought about that. “Okay. But”—I give him a stern look—“if your back starts to hurt, or you’re not getting enough sleep on the air mattress, we can swap for a night. Just a night, so you can get some rest. Promise?”
A strange expression washes over his face, darkening his eyes and pulling his mouth down. But a second later it’s gone, his easy smile back, and he says, “Okay, Charlie. I promise.”
Sleeping arrangements settled, we all move into the living room and Leo starts going over his part of my case. Which sounds weird to hear—I’m used to cases being something I deal with at work, not something I’m actively involved in.
“I’m going to be installing some additional cameras,” Leo tells me. “Outside your door, by the mailboxes, and in the parking lot. They’re very small, so no one should notice them. But we want to have our own surveillance, instead of relying on the building’s security system.”
“And you’ll have a tracking device to wear,” he adds. “You can decide what type you want. We can do subcutaneous, which would be just a tiny chip under your skin. Or we have earrings you can wear.”
“Under my skin? Do you think that’s necessary?”
Leo’s jaw goes rigid for a moment. Then he exhales and says, “In your case, probably not. The earrings are very unobtrusive, they’ll let us know where you are at all times, and you can trigger a call for help if you need. We can start with those if you prefer. But if we feel the risk warrants it, the subcutaneous might end up being the better option.”
I glance at Rylan, wanting to see his reaction to what Leo is saying. “I think the earrings are fine for now,” he concurs, “but make sure you keep them on at all times. Just in case.”
Well. Now I’m a little freaked. A tracking device? I thought the only things I had to worry about were a complete destruction of my reputation, my career, and my privacy. Although… if I got trapped someplace with that guy from the gas station…
Shuddering, I blurt out, “The earrings sound like a good idea. I’ll never take them off. I promise.”
“I know it’s a lot.” Rylan’s voice is gentle, a hug wrapping around me. “Don’t hesitate to let us know if you need anything. If you’re feeling overwhelmed…”
“I’m okay.” Rylan and Leo are already doing so much; the last thing I want is for them to feel like they need to coddle me.
Rylan’s brows go up, but he doesn’t say anything else. He and Leo just review the rest of their plan, making sure I’m clear with everything and that I don’t have any unanswered questions. There doesn’t seem to be much to ask—Leo will be at the apartment working most of the time, while Rylan will accompany me wherever I need to go.
Which, right now, consists of a weekly trip to the grocery store. Since I don’t have a job, I’m basically a pariah in town, and my parents aren’t speaking to me, there aren’t a whole lot of places I need to go.
And speaking of my parents, my phone is vibrating on the coffee table, my mother’s name flashing onto the screen. My stomach curls into a tight ball, suddenly weighing ten times more than it just did a second ago.
“Do you want to get that?” Leo arches an eyebrow at me, catching me mid-flinch as I stare at the phone like it’s transformed into a brown recluse spider.
“Charlie?” Rylan’s head is cocked in question. “Do you want to get it? It’s okay, we’ve pretty much gone over everything. Leo just needs to grab our stuff from the car.”
It’s going to look weird if I don’t answer my mother’s call. “Okay.” Bracing myself, I pick up the phone and tap her name. “Hello?”
“Charlotte!” Her voice whips at me, the loudest I think I’ve ever heard it. Raised voices are for plebeians, not people like us.
