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CHAPTER 21
Evan
I steppedinto my apartment building elevator. The only other occupant didn’t live in the building, but I recognized him. Skinny, early 20s, acne along his jawline, dark hair with bleached tips, black and red motorcycle helmet tucked under his right arm. I’d be able to pick him out of a lineup. That’s the way I’d catalogued him the first time I’d seen him six weeks ago, the night I’d been headed to the Grand Plaza Hotel. That night, I hadn’t known I was about to meet a woman who would change my world. Today, I knew damn well the woman I was meeting would impact my future. Maybe this kid was a good omen.
I was still suspicious of him.
The kid cleared his throat. “Excuse me, um, Mr. Prescott? I’m Betty Sanderson’s great-grandson. Betty from the 12th floor?”
I nodded. “Okay.” I mean, I didn’t know whether the kid wanted my approval or what, so that seemed to fit the situation.
“I’m a senior at University of Chicago,” he said quickly. “My great-gran told me you work with a vet crisis hotline.”
I narrowed my eyes, failing to see the connection between those two statements. He cleared his throat again and shifted his weight from side to side. Silence made him nervous. Always good to learn about someone you didn’t know.
“Anyway, sorry to bother you, but I’d like to volunteer. For the hotline, I mean. Oh, I’m a psych and social work double major and I’ve worked on the student hotline on campus.”
I raised my eyebrows, understanding suddenly dawning on me. “You’re asking me for an internship.”
He shook his head. “No, nothing for credit. Just a regular volunteer. I like helping people.”
I assessed him again, and blew out a long, steady breath. The kid sure didn’t look like a threat, and his story would be easy to check out. Which I would do. Although, actually, I wouldn’t. That would fall to Sentinel Security, and I was about to be an ex-employee there. I pulled out my wallet and extracted a business card, which I handed to him.
“Call the main line, not the cell,” I said. The cell number would be disconnected when I turned over my work phone to Bennet. “Ask for Taylor. Joey Taylor. He’ll set up an interview for you.”
The kid took the card and grinned. “Cool. Thanks.”
The elevator doors slid open on the lobby level. I hung back and let the kid exit before me. He waved as he headed toward the parking garage and thanked me again. I greeted the doorman and continued out through the glass door front exit. Bennet’s black Suburban was parked at the curb. I climbed into the passenger side.
“Found a new recruit for you,” I told him.
He pulled into traffic. “Your replacement?”
“No. A volunteer for the hotline. He’s a nice kid, I think. Taylor should be able to confirm with the background check.”
Bennet smiled. “That’s a ringing endorsement. And we can always use more volunteers.” He glanced sideways at me. “Any chance he has security or ops experience, though?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, old man. You’ll have to do your own recruiting for that position. Or maybe not. LeBeque hasn’t offered me the job yet.”
“We both know how this is going to go,” Bennet said. “She’s going to torture you a little, then hire you, then torture you a lot more.” He sighed with feigned drama. “I suppose Sentinel’s loss is Chicago’s gain. Glad we could do our part to keep up your skills until you got your head out of your ass and went back to the work you really want to do.”
“About that.”
“Nope. Don’t say it, Prescott. Don’t make me pull this vehicle over and put you in a head lock.”
What he really meant was don’t make him tear up by expressing my heartfelt gratitude. I’d been thanking him and he’d been getting something stuck in his eyes for the past couple of weeks.
“Fine,” I said. “How about I tell you my old job sucked and I had the worst boss ever and he was so anxious to get rid of me, he actually drove me to my final interview for my new job, because that’s the kind of asshole he is.”
He grinned. “That’s more like it. And it takes one to know one. Now, how about a more pleasant topic. How’s the doc?”
Now I grinned, too. It was hard not to when Red was in town, which was the happy reason I was without my own SUV, which she’d borrowed to run errands. “She’s great as always. And she and Kerri have really hit it off.”
Bennet nodded. “They have a lot in common. Both in medicine.”
“Neither can cook,” I added.
“Both are under the mistaken impression you’re not an asshole.”
