Page 81 of Guilty as Sin
Worthington cleared his throat again, consulted his notebook, and Paige could feel Jace trying not to laugh beside her. “Thank you,” the sergeant said. “That’s about what we’ve got, but we’ll keep working it.”
“One minute,” Jace said when Worthington appeared to be about to stand up. “I’m concerned about the possible link between Paige’s attacker and the person who’s been targeting me. Somebody watching me would know that I’d spent the night here. The last letter referenced my not ‘waiting for them,’ if you remember. The person threatened a knife at her throat.”
“We’ve considered that,” Worthington said stiffly. “Of course. We’re following that up, in fact. We put a trace on the initial call to you.”
“This morning,” Jace said. “That’s when you did that.”
“Do you have a problem with that, sir?”
“No,” Jace said. “I’m just glad you finally did it. Where did it come from?”
“A public phone. Local. Unfortunately, there’s no security footage available in that location, and nobody remembers seeing somebody using the phone a week ago. If you do get any more messages, though, or any other contact, please let us know right away.”
When he left, Jace shut the door behind him, looked thoughtfully at Paige, and said, “He’d rather believe that, anyway. Which means I hope you’re right. I hope thisisone person, and it’s my person. Because that’s the one he’s looking for.”
“Yes. And everything he said about what happened to me was just that. Whathappenedto me. Like… disembodied. The switch ‘was tripped.’ I ‘got hit’ by a weight. If it’s his sister, if it’s anybody invested in my selling, anybody who might be involved with his sister or that she might know about, he doesn’t want to know.”
“I agree,” Jace said. His grin started slowly, then grew.
“What?” Paige asked. “It’s funny now? How?” She hadn’t imagined that tension in him. He’d been holding himself back. He’d wanted to explode.
“Changing your pad,” he said. “Clots.Drippyclots. Maybe you should’ve described them better. ‘Quarter-sized.’”
He was laughing, and she was trying not to. “Liver-like,” she suggested. “Dark red. Hemorrhage. Men are such babies. I thought he was going to throw up. And by the way, it’s not true. In case you were worried.” She picked up her ice pack again, but it had melted.
Jace grabbed it, still smiling, and said, “Switching it out. Hang on. And no worries. You can’t put me off that easily.”
When he came back with the cold pack, she said, “We should go to the meeting tonight. You and me.”
He switched gears just like that. “Shock them, maybe? Get the town behind you?”
“Maybe. And maybe more. We should make a plan.”
When they pulled up outside the county building, the parking lot was more than half full. Jace unrolled the passenger side window all the way and told Tobias, who was hanging out with his head in Paige’s lap again, “Tobias. Stay.”
“I still think it would’ve been better to leave him at your house,” Paige said, stroking the dog’s silky ears while he looked up at her with his soulful brown eyes. “In case your stalker shows up over there.”
“In which case,” Jace said, somehow managing to pretend she hadn’t already said that twice, “I’ll still be glad I brought him with me instead. Let’s inventory what I’ve got here. I’ve got you, I’ve got my dog, I’ve got my truck, and I’ve got my gun. Yeah, that’s everything important.”
“Montana’s going to beg you to apply for residency if you keep talking like a country song,” she said, and he laughed. “You’re not afraid he’ll jump out with the window wide open?”
“No. I told him to stay. He’ll only jump out if somebody comes along and mucks about where they shouldn’t. Then he’ll make them sorry they tried.”
“Making a car bomb isn’t exactly hitting somebody in the head. Talk about escalation.”
“Better safe than sorry. ‘There are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.’ The bloke who said that was a soldier. Well, an airman. Nearly as good. Also, we’re doing some more of that deterrence. And do you want to stay out here and have a chat about my dog, or would you like to go inside?”
“I want to go inside, of course. I know this is a good idea.”
“Yes,” he said, sounding much too patient. “It is. That’s why you thought of it.”
“I’m just balking at the thought of going out of my way to look weak, now that we’ve come to it.”
“But it won’t be you doing it. It’ll be Lily, who isn’t in the business of projecting authority. If you’re going to carry on being Lily, you’d better get some practice. Sorry to say it, but you’ve slipped up a fair few times so far.”
“Right,” she said, and opened the door.
He said, “Bloodyhell.What did I just say? Wait for me to come around.”
