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When she finally emerged from her bedroom, wearing leggings and a long tunic, she found Spence sitting at the kitchen table, looking at something on his phone. He looked up immediately as she opened her bedroom door. “Want a cup of coffee?” he asked. “I’ve wrestled that machine into submission.”
“Yeah, I’ll have a cappuccino.” She waved him back to his seat. “I’ll get it.” She nodded toward the glass beside the machine. “I need to hook up the milk steamer.”
A minute later, armed with her coffee, she slid into the seat across from Spence. “Anything else unusual happen during the night? Besides the crash in the stairwell?”
He shook his head. “Not a thing. And I would have heard if there was anything to hear.”
Taking a sip of the rich coffee, she said, “What’s next?”
“That’s up to you. Do you want to go into work? Or are you okay with working from home?”
“I already told my assistant I’d be home today. But if you want to check out my office and the security there, we can go in.”
Spence drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. Then he said, “Let’s go in. It’ll give me a chance to check out the route to your office. Do you usually drive?”
Even before he finished, she was shaking her head. “I almost always walk, unless it’s raining hard. Or snowing, which doesn’t happen very often.”
He tilted his head and studied her for a long moment, and she wondered what he saw. The frazzled woman from yesterday, who’d been shaken up and frightened? Or the competent businesswoman he’d met last year?
She hoped it was the competent businesswoman.
“We’ll walk today,” he finally said. “I’d like to check out your route. Look for places Davies might hide. Places he could park a car and use it to block us, then ambush us.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Get a sense of the city.”
Zoe frowned. “Are you sure that’s safe? What if Ethan has been watching me and knows I walk to work. He could have an ambush planned.”
“That’s possible,” Spence said. “But improbable, I think. You’re usually walking during rush hour, right?”
When she nodded, he continued, “There’ll be lots of people around, both on foot and in cars. If Davies tried to grab you, you’d struggle. Scream. Fight back and try to defend yourself. People would see that. Hear you. Someone would try to help you.
“Davies would know that. He’d know he’d be taking a chance on getting caught. Taken into custody. That’s the last thing he’d want.”
“Okay,” she said. “Let me get some breakfast, then we can go.”
She ate her yogurt, fruit and nuts. Spence opted for an omelet. He rummaged in her refrigerator and came out holding a small baggie of leftover bacon and a few wilted mushrooms.
“There are fresh mushrooms in the fridge,” she said, jumping up to get them.
He waved her back into her seat. “Don’t worry. I’m going to sauté them anyway.”
She sat down and watched him move around the kitchen like he’d been cooking there forever. He prepared his omelet quickly and sat down to eat it before she’d finished her yogurt.
They both read the news on their phones, and it was surprisingly comfortable to share breakfast with Spence. He didn’t chatter. Didn’t try to make conversation. He scrolled through his phone and let her do the same.
Twenty minutes later, she had her briefcase slung over her shoulder. Spence slid his laptop into his own briefcase. He looked around the condo, as if memorizing where everything was, then glanced at her. “I want you to stay in the living room. Out of sight of the elevator door,” he said.
She nodded and backed up. Set her briefcase on the couch and jiggled one foot as he hurried into the kitchen. She heard the door unlock, then close. Spence engaged the lock.
Her heart pounded as she watched him pull a gun from a shoulder holster, and she tensed when he pushed the button for the elevator. When it arrived, the doors slid open silently, and Spence returned his gun to his shoulder holster. Stepped inside and held the door open.
“It’s clear. Let’s go,” he said.
When she stepped into the elevator with him, she moved to one corner. He stood in the other one, as far away from her as he could get. Neither of them spoke as the elevator glided toward the lobby.
When the elevator stopped moving and dinged, Spence positioned himself in the center of the door. “Get behind me,” he said. “Stay against the back wall of the elevator.”
She positioned herself as he requested, gripping her briefcase tightly as she waited for the doors to open.
They parted silently, and Spence took two steps out of the elevator. Slid the gun into its holster and kept his hand there as he studied the lobby.
