Page 24 of Protecting Christina

“Me, too,” I added and grabbed my purse from the car.

He waited and when I closed the door, he added, “I’ll walk you to the elevator.”

He opened the door for me when we reached the red-brick building. It was an older complex and didn’t have automated doors.

There was no receptionist at the front, so we went straight to the elevators.

“What floor?” he asked.

“Three, please.”

His finger hesitated for a moment, then pressed three. I waited for him to choose his floor but he simply put his hands behind his back and stood sentinel next to me.

His cologne wafted through the small space and I closed my eyes, as though I were still in my bedroom. I wondered what it would feel like to be intimate with a man again. It had been several months since…

“Christina?”

“Huh?”

“I asked how your week has been. Has anyone tried to contact you or bother you?”

Had he asked me a question? I hadn’t heard him, momentarily lost in my thoughts.

“Ah, no. No, no one has contacted me. I did speak with my sister, though. She called me yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

He sounded genuinely pleased, and I sneaked a glance at him. He nodded, but stared straight ahead.

Huh.

What was his game?

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. There were only two offices on this floor.

“What did you say your friend’s name was?” I asked.

“Gabrielle. Why? Is that who you’re here to see?”

I closed my eyes again and swore under my breath, wondering why this was happening to me. Yup. There were only two offices on this floor, and I knew as soon as we passed the first door that my friend Gabby was his friend Gabrielle.

I groaned. “Yes. I think we’re here to see the same person.”

I found my friend behind her second-hand pine desk and three large piles of file folders. Her curly brown hair had a streak of white at the front and she wore her usual, black-framed glasses.

“Hey! You’re both on time.” She stood and walked around her desk to hug us both. Gabby had always been a hugger.

“Sit. Sit.” She pointed to the two thin chairs in front of her desk. They reminded me of the chairs we used in elementary school.

“I thought you asked me here to help with Faye Janoski.”

“Yes, that’s right.” Gabby grabbed a file from one of the shorter stacks.

“Then what’s he doing here?”

“Will? Oh, he’s the one I’ve been telling you about.”

I thought back to some of our conversations and my eyes rounded. Leaning forward, I whispered. “He’s the black knight?”

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