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Or maybe even Gawen, with some new insight on the case.
But it was Mari’s name on my screen.
There was no accounting for the way my stomach flip-flopped at seeing it there.
Or the way I almost accidentally ended the call when I swiped with anxious fingers to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Wells?” she asked, voice tight and high. Panicked.
“Is everything okay? What’s going on?” I asked.
“I, ah, I think someone is following me,” she said, her voice shaking.
“Following you?” I asked, glancing at the clock. “From work?” I asked, remembering that she didn’t have a set schedule, and sometimes worked late.
“Yes,” she said, sniffling hard.
“Where are you now?” I asked, striding toward the door.
Boss picked up on the change in my mood, taking his toy over to his bed to nibble on it instead.
He’d come a long way from the puppy that gutted each new toy with gusto in the three minutes after being gifted it. Though, inevitably, I would walk in the room one of these days to find little clouds of fluff scattered all around the room, and Boss sitting there looking shocked at the destruction. Like he hadn’t been the one to cause it.
“I’m in my car,” she said. “Driving,” she added.
“Drive to the police station,” I told her, grabbing my keys, and making my way out the door. “I will meet you there.”
“I’m probably being silly,” she said, and I could hear her trying to take slow, deep breaths to calm herself down.
“It’s not silly to be vigilant. Better safe than sorry right now. Go to the police station. I will meet you there,” I told her.
“I can’t ask you—“
“You’re not,” I cut her off. “Or, if you want, I can meet you at your house. We could hang there until you feel better,” I told her as I climbed in my car. “Or you could grab Matilda and come to my place for a while.”
What?
No.
Damnit.
That was exactly what I couldn’t say, couldn’t allow her to do. Not if I wanted to keep my job. And my reputation I’d worked so hard for.
But, I rationalized, my job and reputation weren’t as important as herlife.
“Really?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
“Really,” I said, trying to shut down the negative voices in my head.
She needed a place to stay.
I had one.
I would keep my hands to myself.
No one else had to know.
