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“You have a soda stream?” She stares at me in awe.
I smile shyly. “What can I say? Sometimes you just need bubbles.”
“Sweet! Do you make fizzy cold brews?”
“I do, and I’ll make you one as soon as that water disappears. You’ve been through an ordeal and it’s a pretty hot day. You don’t want to get dehydrated on top of everything else.”
“Thanks, Eliza.” She sips at the drink. “I mean, for everything today.”
“What are friends for?” I say, reaching over to muss up her hair. “Can I get you anything else? Are you hungry?”
“I’m good.” She sucks down the water in less than a minute.
“Hey, did they take your phone?” I ask, before remembering they couldn’t have—she was taking selfies in the back of the cop car, after all.
She shakes her head and reaches into the handmade Hawaiian purse that hangs over her shoulder, holding the phone up. It has a cracked screen but the display lights up fine. “Dad’s gonna kill me. Another screen bites the dust.”
“But it still works. So, why weren’t you answering my calls? I could have gotten there sooner,” I say, throwing together another seltzer water for myself.
“It was on silent and I was a little messed up. It fell pretty far in the scuffle. Took me a minute to find it.”
I stop mid-sip, frowning around the straw.
I don’t know. Something about this just seems...off?
A second later, I realize what.
She’s still got her phone. A top notch iPhone, no less, usually a prime target for any thief with a brain.
Random robbery? Why doesn’t it feel like it?
“Dess, you need to stay close to your dad for a few days. If he’s not with you, keep me or Kate around.”
“Why?”
“Because. They took your necklace, but they left an expensive smartphone and your purse... Don’t you think that’s weird?”
Destiny turns her face up to the ceiling with a strained laugh and soft, “Oh my God.”
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“You’ve been around Dad way too long. You’re getting almost as paranoid as he is.”
“Eliza!” Cole barks, banging his fist on my door like a sledgehammer.
“Guess who.” Wincing, I look at Destiny.
She laughs as I walk over and open the door. Cole stomps past me and goes straight to my sofa. He scoops Destiny up in his arms, pressing her against his chest with a muffled curse.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Destiny, did they...” he trails off, even as she wriggles away from him.
“Dad, calm down! I’m not seven. I just scraped up my leg.”
He sets her down with a reluctant sigh. “I’m going to take these damn bandages off so I can look at it, okay?”
“What? No, really I’m fine and—”
“I’ll be careful,” he growls, his hand already reaching for her leg.
He rips the bandage off so loudly I grimace. Poor kid.
I head into the bathroom and grab a couple fresh bandages. They never stick as well the second time around.
“Looks rough. I don’t think you need stitches, though,” he says, relief in his voice.
“Jeez Louise! I told you, it’s not that bad. Eliza cleaned it up hours ago. Give her some credit.”
“It wasn’t Eliza’s call to make,” he says coldly.
My breath stalls.
I’m right behind him when he says it.
Not that he cares, though, judging by the edge in his voice that’s all overprotective papa bear.
I don’t want to be mad at him. She’s probably never had anything this serious happen before so yeah, he’s panicked.
“Here.” I hand him the bandages since taping her up probably isn’t my place either.
He peels them and helps place them on her leg, passing me the dirty ones to discard. I start walking, but this time he follows me to the trash.
“What the hell were you thinking, Eliza?”
I stop, stomping the trash can pedal, and stare at him, too shocked to speak.
“How did this happen? You were watching her. You let this happen while you were with her?”
Oh, boy.
I have a sneaking suspicion I’m about to break that promise we made just days ago, when he loved me to mushy pieces and left me deliciously sore the next day.
That Cole, I could trust forever.
But the angry man with blue storms for eyes who’s staring right through me?
This Cole is a stranger.
“She was on her way to volunteer with me at the homeless camp. I wanted to come meet her, but she told me she was walking over from the library. She never showed up, so I went looking for her. Someone knocked her down and took her necklace before I ever showed up.”
“Fuck!” His face tightens into a grimace before his gaze resettles on me. “Why would you let her walk through a homeless camp alone? I know you’re not stupid.”
“Cole, it’s a park. You know the place. You had Dess and her friends working with us before, so I didn’t think it was an issue. It’s fine during the day, too. Plenty of people around. For the record, she was ambushed a few blocks away...”
