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“If you ever find yourself in trouble and don’t know what to do, hit the button. But make sure you’re serious.”
She stared at it, and her thumb hovered over it. “What does it do?”
“It calls the cavalry, and they’ll come in guns blazing. Three phone numbers are saved in the contacts. Me, Ridge Jefferson, and Drake. Their numbers are strictly for business.” I don’t know why I said the last part except in that small second, I had a hint of jealousy. I didn’t want Hazel having friendly chats with anyone besides me.
It was an absurd thought. Ridge Jefferson was married, but Drake was a wild card. He was unattached and had that white knight syndrome women found themselves attracted to when they were in trouble.
A knock rattled the door, and Hazel froze. Her gaze found mine and I saw panic etched in her eyes as if she’d stopped breathing.
I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, not only to provide her comfort but to wipe away the spot Detective Anderson touched earlier. “It’s okay, babe. You’re safe.”
Just to be sure, I peeked behind the white ruffled curtain over the window on the door before opening it. Drake waited on the other side with a large pizza box and the laptop bag containing my computer. I went nowhere without it, but that afternoon I’d been so concerned about Hazel’s safety and getting her to the bakery that I left it behind in my trunk.
With the phone situation figured out, I tossed my bag on the floor and pulled off the white drop cloth from the old table, making room for the pizza box. A thick layer of dust shot into the air and then floated to the tile floor. My hand hesitated before lifting the top flap. What if she had an allergy to bread or cheese or pepperoni or pizza sauce?
“I hope you’re okay with pepperoni and cheese?” I asked, throwing the top back.
Hazel licked her top lip and nodded. “Perfect.”
We each pulled back one of the metal chairs and took a seat at the table. Dishes sat in the cupboard, but who knew how long they’d been there? We used the box top as plates and ate in silence.
Two pieces later, Hazel leaned back in her chair and stared at me for a moment. “How are you so calm right now?”
How? It wasn’t something I could put into words for her. I just knew. We had no other option than to succeed, so why stress? I refused to let anything else happen. Not to Hazel or me. I just wouldn’t. And when I set my mind to something, I did it.
“I have faith,” I eventually replied when it became obvious she’d wait for an answer.
“Do you believe in God?”
I shrugged. “Sure, and also the Kensington name. I believe in myself.” There’d never been a situation I hadn’t been able to get myself out of, so I had no reason to believe this would be any different.
“Do you have family or friends you should check in with to let them know you’re safe?” The last thing we needed was Hazel to pop up on a missing person’s report, but I was asking more than that. I wanted to take care of her concerns.
She shook her head and tossed her pizza crust in the box, where I stole it and bit off a sizeable chunk.
“No, my mother and father are vacationing. They spend most of the summer up in Canada and Alaska. My younger sister is in school. We don’t talk often. It will be awhile before anyone notices you killed my phone.”
Our conversation grew from there. Hazel filled me in on the mundane facts of her family, and I shared stories of the Kensington clan. We finished eating and quiet grew between us as we each wondered what to do next.
I made the first move, pushing my chair back and standing. I shoved the left-over pizza in the fridge. “I’m proud of you, babe.”
“Me?” she asked, hovering between the kitchen and the living room. As if my compliment surprised her.
“Yeah,” I said, making my way to the living room and pulling the white sheet off the couch. Dust flew into the air and I sneezed from the sudden onslaught of it.
The ugly floral pattern belonged to the ninety-year-old woman who lived here before we bought the home. “A lot happened to you today. I keep waiting for you to go into shock, but you’ve kept it together.”
Just as I suspected, Hazel was a strong woman who didn’t easily lose her shit. I admired that. Most of the women my brother and I associated with in public would lie on the floor and cry at this point. Hell, I’d have had to carry them out of the parking lot after being shot at.
I knew we needed to be done, break the encryption on Hazel’s thumb drive, and see what we were looking at, but a part of me hated for it to be over so quickly. I wanted to know more about the woman. What made her tick?
I didn’t want to rush my time with her, but I also shouldn’t keep her in danger any longer by hesitating.
The encryption would break easily, and after we reviewed the documentation, I’d call Ridge and decide who to contact next. I stepped back into the kitchen for my laptop bag and slid it onto the coffee table in the living room.
The house had an old TV with a DVD player and a stack of movies from the nineties with an entertainment center next to it. We really needed to remodel this place. Who watched DVDs any longer? And from the titles, no one added to the collection in at least twenty years.
“Let me have the thumb drive and we’ll see what’s so important someone wanted to kill you over it,” I said, holding my hand out to Hazel.
