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Lauren’s heart leapt to the back of her throat and then sank into her stomach. Blake had just arrived. She hadn’t been expecting him, but she would’ve been happy to see him had she answered the door from the safety of the air-conditioned house.
He came to a stop, and two cops went to greet him. “I’ll call Marigold,” one of the remaining ones said, and he ducked back into the cop car. The last remaining man stayed with Lauren, and she didn’t dare go greet Blake.
She could hear his voice as he talked to the officers, but she couldn’t decipher the words. Worry pounded through her, and she glanced back over to the man nearest her.
“Do you have any ID?” the office asked.
Lauren patted her pockets. “It’s in the house.” She realized in that moment that her phone was too. She didn’t have her car keys. Nothing.
“Let’s go get it.” The officer started toward the house, and Lauren didn’t see an option but to go with him. He made it to the front door, reached for the handle, but didn’t go inside. He turned back to her. “It’s locked.”
Lauren didn’t have a key. Her pulse was seriously going up and down on a roller coaster, and she needed this blasted alarm to be silenced. She’d typed the six-digit code for the keyed door into her phone—which she didn’t have.
“I have the code on my phone,” she yelled.
The officer looked one breath away from arresting her and throwing her into a jail cell without a key. The other officers joined him, and blessedly, the alarm went off.
“Thanks,” one guy said.
“The door is locked,” the first officer said.
“The door is locked,” he repeated into his phone. All eyes came to her again, and Lauren swallowed.
“I have the code on my phone, which is inside. I could call Harrison and get the safe phrase too,” she said. Blake came to her side and handed her his phone. Relief poured through her when she saw the texts from Harrison. She said, “It’s ‘the tide is coming ashore.’”
She looked up, and the officer on the phone repeated the safe phrase. “All right,” he said. “Got it. Could you unlock the door for this woman too, please?”
Just like magic, the deadbolt unlatched, the electronic mechanism plain to hear. “Thanks.” The officer tried the handle, and the door swung in. All four of them entered before her and proceeded to fan out through the house.
She stayed in the lobby, door closed, absorbing the air conditioning.
“Hey,” Blake said, his hand touching hers. She grabbed onto it and held it tightly. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, though she felt similar to the way she had when the federal agents had been in her office. Cold inside, fearful, unsure. She hated feeling like this, but she couldn’t just swallow and push it all away. Then, she’d been alone. Now, she wasn’t.
“Why did you come by?”
“Thought you might like lunch,” he said. “I have food in my car.”
She looked over to him and watched his beautiful smile form on his face. “You brought me lunch?”
“Mm, yes.” He leaned down and touched his lips to her temple. He then watched the activity in the house as two officers switched sides. Apparently all four of them would search all the rooms. “I took Tommy home, grabbed that roasted beet salad you like, and came here.”
“Do you have to go back to work this afternoon?” she asked.
Blake looked back to her, interest in his eyes. “I was going to, yes. I have a client call at three.”
Lauren somehow got closer to him, though she stood at his immediate side. “Maybe you could stay here until then.”
“You don’t have to work today?”
Lauren didn’t want to lie to him, but she didn’t have to work today. So she said, “No.”
Blake’s mouth tipped up again. “Where’s Joy?”
“Volunteering at the library,” Lauren said. The main officer in charge approached, and he carried a bottle of water from the fridge. Lauren frowned at him, but he didn’t care one whit.
“We’re good here,” he said. “Mikey got in touch with Marigold. Your story checks out.”
