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There was nothing. No movement. No noise.
Okay. Now she was the looney person talking to herself.
Getting in the car, she locked the doors and tried to shake off her fears.
Right. She’d drive to the police station and make a report. Then she’d head back to her hotel and hopefully get some sleep.
Gwen groaned as her phone woke her up.
Who would be calling her so early?
Groggily, she reached for it.
“Unless this is an emergency, you’re going to die a slow, painful death.” She hadn’t gotten to sleep until around three in the morning. She felt sluggish and awful.
“Is there a reason why you’re still so tired at ten in the morning?” Reuben asked down the phone.
Ah. Shit.
She blinked, staring up at the ceiling. “I had sex last night.”
She hadn’t meant to say that. And from his silence, she’d shocked Reuben.
Good. She liked shocking him. He needed it to keep him on his toes. Typically, he knew everything before she did.
“With whom?” he asked mildly.
“Oh no. I’m not telling you.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because you’ll turn it into a whole thing. Background checks, threats of mutilation if he hurts me. I don’t want to scare the guy off.”
“If he’s worthy of you, then I won’t scare him off,” he replied smoothly.
“Yeah, no.”
“I’ll find out. I’m surprised I don’t already know.”
“Something you don’t know? That must feel weird.”
“It does. I don’t like it. My spies are failing me and that’s not good. Andy, I want to know who.”
She sighed. “Promise you won’t go into overprotective crazy mode.”
“I can promise no such thing. But you will tell me or I will come find out for myself and have a chat with this lover.”
She rolled her eyes. “You won’t know him, but his name is Dominic Brand.”
“Hmm. I heard you were seen with him at trivia night. I know him.”
“Does everyone know him? Seriously. Please don’t tell me he’s sweet.”
“Why the hell would I say that?” Reuben demanded. “But I have to admit that, from all accounts, he’s a good guy. The sort of person to help someone elderly carry their groceries or stop to change a tire for someone he doesn’t even know. He probably even does that pay-it-forward thing.”
Seriously, if she rolled her eyes any harder they’d get stuck in her head. “Being kind and thoughtful and generous are not weaknesses.”
Reuben scoffed.
He was so full of it. He was so busy acting like he wasn’t all of those things when he was the most generous person she knew. Maybe not kind. But when he cared about someone, he took care of them like they were the greatest treasure in the world.
Sometimes his friendship was the only thing that got her up in the morning. Had she ever told him that?
“Have I ever told you how much you mean to me?”
“What is it? What’s wrong? Fuck. I need to rearrange my schedule so I can fly down there.”
“Reuben,” she said.
“I’ll need a few hours to sort shit out, but I should get there by tomorrow. I’ll let you know what time I fly in.”
“Reuben!”
“What?”
“Why are you flying here?” That didn’t sound like a good idea. “I know I haven’t made much progress on the David Davidson front, but I will get there.”
“What? No, I don’t care about that. You just started to get mushy.”
“So? I can’t tell my best friend that I love him?”
“What did the doctors tell you? What happened? I thought if you managed your stress and ate better, you’d be fine.”
The sheer panic in his voice took her back to that day and she had to take a deep, calming breath.
“I didn’t say I love you because there’s anything wrong.”
“Uh-huh. Only, we don’t say we love each other. We don’t do mushy crap.”
“It’s okay to express your love for someone.”
“Gwen,” he warned. “Tell me you’re all right.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not ill? Or more ill.”
“I haven’t grown more ill. I promise.”
“And you’re not in trouble?”
“I’m not in trouble. I just . . . you’re the only person I’ve ever been able to count on. My parents . . .”
“Are shitheads of the first order.”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “They are.”
“What? You always argue when I call them that and come up with excuses for them. What’s going on?”
“I just . . . I was talking to Dominic about them, and he made me see that what they did wasn’t right. That they might have been abusive.”
“No ‘might have been’ about it, Andy. So are you letting me go after them?” he asked slyly.
He’d been demanding that she let him ruin them for a long time. She’d always said no. Although . . . she had this suspicion . . .
“You wouldn’t be responsible for a few things that have gone wrong in their life since I met you, would you?”
“What are you talking about? What’s gone wrong?”
