Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
“You went through the apartment alone?” He was sounding more upset by the moment.
“Gideon, stop. I’m used to handling everything on my own. I went downstairs and stayed in the lounge where I meet with my friends. It turned out that three other apartments were also broken into that night. Janice’s, Pam’s and Cindy’s. All are friends of mine. We hang out together. Janice and Pam, like me, were working that night. Cindy had taken her two boys to her parents, and she spent the night there. Our apartments were unoccupied, so someone had a field day trashing them.”
“Was anything taken from any of the apartments?”
“Not that we could tell. Not that we had anything of real value for them to take. Cindy might have, but the rest of us, no.”
“It isn’t safe for you to stay there, Rory. You should stay here.”
She shook her head. “That’s not safe for you. You know it isn’t, Gideon. We wouldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
“There are several bedrooms.”
“That wouldn’t matter. Maybe we’d be good for a day or two, but then we wouldn’t. I can stay with Lydia. She has a little girl, and I think it makes her feel safer with me there.”
Gideon shook his head and glanced at his watch again. “If Harvey and Tinsdale are looking to use you as a go-between, it isn’t going to be safer for your friend Lydia and her daughter to have you there. We’ll see what the message has to say, and you can decide then.”
She wasn’t taking a chance with his life, no matter what he said. She’d sleep at a motel. She just needed a bed. She could change locations every night if she had to.
“Javier would have gone through your apartment before you stepped inside to make certain no one was there.”
Rory tilted her head but met his gaze squarely. “You have to remember, Gideon. Javier is your family. You trust him. He’s a stranger to me. I don’t trust him. I’m not willing to share my life or my secrets with him. I can barely open up to you. You’re the first person I’ve talked to about anything in years—if ever. It isn’t easy. You can’t push me or expect me to include others because you know them. I don’t know them. I don’t feel the same way about them that you do. I have to talk myself into staying here and not running quite often, because I’m terrified. You have no idea how difficult this is for me. Just trusting you. Putting my faith in you is the hardest thing I’ve done in a long, long time—if ever. If I’ve misplaced my trust, it would shatter me, and I know that. I just hope you’re real.”
It was the first time she’d ever seen Gideon look uncomfortable. He pushed both hands through his dark hair, leaving it looking rumpled and more unruly than ever. Shadows entered his eyes.
“Rory.” There was an ache in his voice.
Her gut clenched. A small little warning. A red flag. Her head went up, and she carefully searched his face, feature by feature. Something in his eyes. Something in those dark shadows. Wary. Worried. Gideon was always confident. Inside, where she caught glimpses, he was frowning where he wasn’t on the outside. What was it? She had never been able to read him fully, but there had been images. Now there was a brick wall. Solid. Thick. Just that frown. That concern. That worry.
She didn’t ask the way she normally would have. Something was off. He hadn’t reassured her. That was what felt off. He should have reassured her. He wasn’t lying about Harvey Matters. She could hear lies, and everything he said sounded true. Like the cops, did he believe she was part of the criminal circle Harvey ran? It didn’t seem likely that he would have known to target her and get her to fall for him.
She pressed her fingers to the spot that sometimes ached and felt strange near her left temple. It always made her feel as if her skin was loose and wanted to slip off. Now it was just plain painful.
“You’re getting that strange feeling again, aren’t you?”
She put her hand down quickly, nodding. Gideon was observant. She wasn’t certain what triggered the reaction. Her uneasiness? Gideon looked genuinely concerned. His eyes had lost that shadow and had gone to the soft, gentle affection that seemed to be real.
“Do you work tomorrow night at the bar?”
“Yes. I’m back to my regular shifts.”
She watched him take the plastic bag from the small bar freezer and open it carefully. Sitting on a barstool, he pulled on plastic gloves he got from under a shelf. While the glue was frozen, he used a knife to pull the flap up. Very carefully, he extracted the single card partway, took a picture of it and replaced it. He resealed the envelope using a sponge to reactivate the glue.