AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was about to call a cab when Officer Hayes kindly asked if I needed a ride home.
“I’d love a ride, but not home. To Ivy’s place. She’s not picking up her phone, and I’m a bit worried, but I guess she just could be tired.” I rattled off her address.
“I’ll save you the wasted time, Shane,” Hayes said as we walked out the sliding doors.“She won’t be home. She’s at her sister’s.” The two officers had gotten the quick and dirty lowdown of what had happened with the nurse. “But we can’t exactly drive you there unless they both agree.”
“And if you were there,” Cooley said, “at least until we could spare a cruiser to patrol her neighborhood, it would make me feel better. Just having Ivy there might be enough to deter him, but you never know with these guys.”
“Wait, what? Deter who? Why are you sending a cruiser?” A sinking feeling settled in my gut.
“That guy you described earlier? The girls ID’d him. Picked him out from a bunch of photos. Iris recognized him as an old client she’d had to stop working with when he got a bit stalker-y.” Cooley stopped next to the driver-side door of their cruiser.
Now I remembered. The guy had said something about Ivy looking like her right before he threw the nullification spell to the ground.
“We weren’t able to arrest him,” Hayes added. “Throwing a glass bottle on the ground isn’t exactly an arrestable offense. The most we could do is tag him for littering unless we got some more concrete evidence. These stupid rules and processes need to get updated now that there’s all this magic about.” He took out his phone. “If you can’t reach Ivy, maybe we can reach Iris. We took down her information too, since she seemed to be the real target.”
As he made the call, I prayed that they had her personal number and not her work one. After a moment, his face lit up.
“This is Officer Hayes. Just calling to make sure you two ladies got home all right.” There was a pause, and he gave me a wink. “Good, good. Listen, we’re just heading your way and were wondering if you’d mind if we brought a certain satyr round to your place. There was a bit of a mix-up at the hospital, and he’s been desperately trying to find your sister—” He broke out into a grin. “Perfect! We’ll be there soon.” He sent me and Cooley a thumbs up, then ended the call.
“I don’t mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why are you doing this? I know you two don’t have to help me with Ivy.”
They didn’t look offended one bit.
Hayes shot me a look. “We don’t get sent to every case involving monsters and magic, that would be impossible in a place the size of Darlington. But we’ve been working with you monster types every day since the fall of The Wall. It’s our specialty. We know how crazy this mate bond business is, because we’ve seen it. And you have it bad.”
“I never mentioned she was my mate.”
“Pfft, you don’t have to. It’s written all over your face.” Cooley said. “Trust me, your days of chasing nymphs are over.”
Was it that obvious?
“Just remember this in case we ever end up in your neck of the woods and need your help,” Hayes said.
“Thank you, sir. I will.”
Officer Cooley slapped me lightly on the shoulder. “Come on, then. Hop in.”
Chapter 17
Ivy
“Hey, biatch.” Iris poked her head into the bathroom, where I was brushing out my hair with her brush. I’d been a dummy and forgotten to pack a brush, of all things. Ugh.
“What?”
“Have you checked your phone at all?”
“No. I’ve been trying to avoid looking at it, so I’m not tempted to call him. Why?”
She tossed me my phone, and I barely caught it after dropping her brush onto the counter. I looked at the screen. Six missed calls from Shane.
Oh!
“I just got a call from Officer Hayes. Shane’s with him now, and they’re on their way over.”
“Now?”
“Yup.”
