Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“Do you have a cell phone?” None of the incredibly short conversations he’d had with the mom had covered her occupation. They’d pretty much nodded and gone their separate ways. He got the feeling she wasn’t very friendly. He was also pretty sure she was single because he’d never seen a dude go in or out of her place. Maybe the dad should have considered the name Emily.
Lou frowned. “I do, but I kind of left it in my locker at school. We’re not supposed to have them on us in class, so I leave it in my locker, and I forget it a lot of the time. Mom gets mad because she’s supposed to be able to get in touch with me, and today it would have been nice to have because of the guy who followed me home from school.”
“Did he follow you into the building?” Boomer asked, looking to MaeBe. It probably was nothing, but he would take her concerns seriously.
“I’ll pull up the security cams.” MaeBe set Sprinkles down and smiled at Lou. “I’m MaeBe, by the way, and you came to the right place. Boomer and I both work for a security company. We can help you out. I’m going to hop on my computer and pull up the security cameras around the building while you tell us everything that happened this afternoon.”
Boomer got down on one knee, putting himself at Lou’s level. He needed to stop worrying about how things might look and do what he always did—help. Lou was scared, and that was more important than her mom being freaked out that she was hanging at his place. “Are you okay?”
Lou’s eyes filled with tears, and she nodded. “I was just…he scared me.”
Boomer nodded, feeling so bad for the kid. “It’s okay now. You can hang here with us until your mom gets home. How about we get a snack and you can tell me everything that happened. Even the stuff that doesn’t seem important. We’ll figure this out.”
Lou sniffled, and for a moment, Boomer worried she would burst into tears.
“Wear a condom,” Molly squawked from her cage.
Lou slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes flying open as she looked at the parakeet.
“Sorry about that.” He was going to have such a talk with Tag. “She’s been around some very bad influences lately.”
“Your bird is weird,” Lou said, but at least the fear seemed to be gone. “What kind of snacks do you have?”
Boomer stood again. “Pretty much all of them. Now let’s start with what this guy looked like.”
He moved into the kitchen as Lou told her tale.
* * * *
Daphne Carlton watched the floors go by, praying no one else got on the elevator. She’d gotten stuck in traffic and then it started raining and now some weird guy had her daughter.
Breathe. You have to breathe and find some calm.
The guy had said Lou was okay, but then she didn’t know this man and he could have already murdered her baby girl and now he was about to kill her, too, and she would let him because she couldn’t live without her daughter.
Or you could panic. You could flip your shit and be exactly who they expect you to be.
She forced herself to breathe. She was not this person. She was calm and logical, and that meant that she knew most child murderers didn’t call the mom and invite them to come pick up their child’s remains.
Hey, hopefully this is Lou’s mom. I mean, I hope I’ve reached Lou’s mom. I’m not Lou’s mom. I’m Boom…Brian Ward. I live next door to you. I mean I do if you’re Lou’s mom. She had a little trouble walking home from school, and I’m looking into it. She’s here, so I’ll take care of her until you get back. She’s okay. And I’m sorry about the bird.
What the hell did any of that mean? And why hadn’t that man answered his phone when she’d called him back at least fifty-two times?
It had to be Magic Mike. That’s what all the women of the building called the gorgeous blond giant of a man in 15D. They called him that because they all prayed he was a stripper and they could find where that man worked.
She called him something else. Adonis. The Adonis of the Fifteenth Floor. Not to his stupidly perfect face or anything. She wouldn’t do that any more than she would mention that he’d starred in a couple of good dreams lately. Not a one of those dreams included him sheltering her daughter from…what? A bird?
Had a bird attacked her daughter? And where was Mrs. Callahan during this bird attack?
The elevator doors opened, and she rushed out, not bothering to look calm now. She ran down that hallway. She hadn’t even thought to call the babysitter. Why hadn’t she done that? She’d simply called Lou’s phone and then Adonis’s and gotten nothing. Where was the woman she paid to pick up Lou and watch over her between the time she got out of school and Daphne got home from work?