It didn’t even finish ringing the first time. “Are you okay?”
“Hey.” I tried to keep my voice light. “So, funny story. I maybe... left the hotel? Just for a quick walk. I wanted to experience a little of the city, and I thought… I mean, it’s broad daylight, and I was sure I’d be all right, and?—”
“Where are you?” His voice was so flat, carrying none of the anger I’d been expecting. That might have been worse than hearing him yell again.
“I just left Leadenhall Market. But that’s not— The thing is—” I swallowed all the pride that had me hedging in my explanation and confessed. “There’s a man following me. I think it might be the man from my café. The second guy, not the Russian.”
“Where exactly?” he snapped, but his breath changed as he started to run.
“I came out of the market at Lloyd’s of London. I’m coming up on, um, Lime Street.”
“Take your first left.” His voice had gone cold and precise. “Then take a right. You’ll be on Cullum Street. At the end, take another left. Stay in crowds and don’t run. I’m coming.”
“Garrett, I’m sorry, I?—”
“Walk. Now.”
I took the left turn. Then the right.
Garrett didn’t speak, but his breathing was rhythmic. He was coming for me. And he was coming fast. “How far away from you is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Look.”
I sidestepped around someone heading in my direction, narrowly avoiding a collision. It gave me the chance to look behind me. “He’s still about thirty feet. He’s keeping pace.”
“That’s good.”
How was that good? He wasn’t closing the distance, but not falling back either. Like he was waiting for something.
Or herding me somewhere.
A shiver ran through me, and I had to gulp in quick breaths. “Garrett?”
“I’m almost there.”
I reached the end of the street and took the… “Which way at the end of Cullum?”
“Left. I see you.”
I almost stopped, but forced myself forward. Down the road, past a block of buildings under construction and tall cranes, I kept moving. And suddenly, Garrett appeared and fell into step beside me, his hand finding the small of my back.
“Keep walking,” he said, pocketing his phone. “Pretend we’re out for a friendly stroll.”
I kept my eyes forward, but couldn’t focus on anything, so I let him guide me. We took a narrow, empty alley between buildings and emerged onto another street. It was busier, and Garrett steered me into a recessed doorway barely big enough for both of us.
“Stay here.”
Before I could argue, he stepped back onto the street, heading in the direction we’d come from. I missed his steady presence from the second he left me. But the man in the dark coat appeared. Garrett positioned himself squarely in the man’s path, and they exchanged words. The man’s body language shifted from confident to uncertain. Garrett took a step forward, and the man in the dark coat turned and walked away.
Just like that. No fight, no chase. He simply... left.
Garrett stood in place, watching the man go for a long minute before returning to the alcove. His jaw was tight enough to crack. “Let’s go.”
“What did you say to him?”
“Nothing important.” He took my elbow again, steering me back toward the main road. “We’re going to the hotel, and then we’re going to pack.”
