Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“We don’t know that they were trying to kill me,” I argued, mostly because I didn’t want to agree with Eli and his eye roll.
He just shook his head, and I didn’t bother to say anything else. I wanted answers about Emily Shaw. I wanted whoever had blown up my van to pay for it. But I wasn’t planning on dying to make any of that happen. In which case, letting Eli protect me and staying in the Sinclair safe house seemed like the best move, even if I didn’t like being told what to do.
“Well then, I’ll cross a fob for the garage off the list,” Alice said. She handed me a notepad with a pen that she pulled from one of the kitchen drawers. “Write me up a quick grocery list. I’ll have some things delivered, so you’ve got food in here. The shower has basic toiletries, so you can clean up. I can probably scrounge up some clothes for you to change into,” she said, eyeing my mud-stained jeans and scraggly hair.
I lifted a hand to smooth my hair, then dropped it, not wanting to feel how gross I was. I’d been trying not to think about it since fixing the situation was temporarily out of my reach.
“Do the grocery list,” Eli said to me, then looked to Alice. “Forget the shower and change of clothes. We’re headed to the police station in Midtown. There’s a big box store over there. We’ll swing by. She can stock up.”
“Eli, at least let her shower and change before—”
“No time. The detective assigned to the case has a short window, and it’s better if I bring her to him than if he has to track her down later.”
It felt like I was covered in layers of filth, but Eli had a point. I knew well how quickly an investigation got stale. If we had this detective’s attention now, we had to jump on it.
I finished jotting a few things on the grocery list and handed it back to Alice. “It’s fine. I can deal with being dirty a little longer. I want to find out what they know about my van. Do you think they’ll let me see it?”
Eli shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see when we get there. Let’s go.”
Chapter Five
SYLVIE
Eli’s tone didn’t leave a lot of room for argument. I followed him to the elevator, wondering if he ever pulled the stick out of his butt and chilled out. On the surface, he looked like an easygoing kind of guy. His chocolate brown hair was thick, the waves just a little long, like he’d been putting off getting a haircut. With eyes a perfect match to his hair and broad shoulders stretching his black T-shirt, he looked ready to take on anything that came our way. Given how exhausted I was, it was nice to know he was looking out for danger. I was starting to get a little fuzzy-headed from lack of sleep and maybe shock.
I relaxed a little as I got in Eli’s big black SUV, the tinted windows hiding me from anyone outside. As we exited the Sinclair Security underground garage, I saw why Alice would have had to issue me a special fob to get in, as two metal gates were blocking our exit.
“Your office building is like a bunker,” I said as the closest metal gate rose, allowing us into a holding area. The first gate closed behind us, the second rising only after the first was secured.
Eli didn’t respond, turning smoothly onto the street, navigating through Atlanta traffic to move us from Buckhead to Midtown. The traffic wasn’t too bad, meaning that cars were moving, but it wasn’t fast.
I didn’t think I wanted to know the answer, but I had to ask. “Are you okay with this setup?”
“You mean you tagging along while I investigate?” he asked. The side of his mouth curved up the tiniest bit. A smirk or a grin, I couldn’t tell.
I didn’t take the bait of the “tagging along” comment, though it burned just a little. My work was important to me, but I knew a lot of people thought podcasters were just attention-hungry people yapping into a mic to listen to themselves talk. I wasn’t a trained detective, but some of what I’d done had helped people. Maybe this would too.
I stared out the window for a minute before I said, “Yeah, that’s what I meant. You seem like the lone wolf kind of guy. Can you handle having a partner?” I wasn’t above poking back at him a little.
He glanced at me long enough that I wanted to remind him to keep his eyes on the road before he turned his attention back to driving and shook his head. “Alice assures me that you won’t get in the way of the investigation.”