Page 120 of That Time I Accidentally Became A Serial Killer

And immediately want to sit down.

“Yes, Miss Hartwell,” the chipper agent says. “We picked it up earlier today—around noon. Someone called and said toretrieve it. If you still have the key, you can drop it in the return envelope.”

“My jaw drops. “I didn’t call you.”

After a pointless back-and-forth, I hang up before I get myself banned from customer service for life.

Declan watches me like a hawk that already sees the blood in the water.

He crosses his arms. “Everything okay?”

No.

I paste on my best I’m-fine smile. “Yep. All good. I’ll just… call a rideshare.”

“No.” His tone leaves no room for argument. “Where do you live?”

I blink, ready to argue but he beats me to it. “I’ll be driving past anyway.”

“I can totally grab a ride?—”

“Poppy.”

I surrender, shoulders slumping. Mostly because I’m exhausted. Slightly because I don’t want to be alone in a near-empty lot.

And weirdly… I trust him.

“Okay. Fine. But I’m apologizing the whole way there.”

“Oh, goody,” he says blandly.

Ilast three minutes before I open my mouth.

“So… how long have you been on the force?”

I expect him to grunt. Maybe glare. I definitely don’t expect him to answer.

“Sixteen years.”

I blink. “Wow. That’s… longer than I’ve been filing taxes.”

He huffs something that might be a laugh.

He keeps talking, gruff but steady. And I like listening.

His dad was a cop. Rourke was his partner. Says he’s known him his entire life. Literally. Rourke is his godfather and held him at his christening.

Explains why he and Rourke trust only each other in this case.

He doesn’t volunteer much, but I can tell there is something deeply personal that motivated him to move into homicide, but I don’t press on it.

And for a moment, I stop seeing just the badge. Just the scowl.

I see him.

The way he’s leaning slightly toward me, resting his elbow on the center console.

The way he looks at my floorboard and it makes me shuffle my feet.

---