Page 78 of The Seven Rings
Since he’d ended the call, she sighed and put the phone back in her pocket. “Oh well.”
She decided to sit just where she sat until she felt as calm as Trey sounded.
She didn’t wait long. At home, Mookie rushed in to greet her, Yoda, and Pye. Sonya decided Steady-as-a-Rock Doyle had broken all the posted speed limits.
She’d seen him angry a handful of times, but now she recognized barely controlled rage.
“I know you’re upset,” she began. “So am I, but—”
His gaze shot down to her arm, seemed to burn there.
“You’ve got a bruise on your arm.”
She glanced down. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just—”
“Sonya.”
Her name, in a tone of utter patience with fury banked just behind it, had her swallowing any downplay.
“Let’s sit down, and you can tell me exactly what happened.”
“All right, okay.”
She wasn’t sure if he was in boyfriend mode or lawyer mode. Somehow it seemed like both. Maybe, she realized, he was always in both.
Already feeling she’d blown it all out of proportion, she sat in the parlor.
“You said he sort of bulled his way in. You didn’t let him in, agree to let him come in?”
“No! I told him right off—when I got past the shock of him at the door—he wasn’t welcome here.”
“Those words?”
“Yes. But he sort of nudged me—”
“He put his hands on you?”
“Sort of. I mean he gave me a little nudge and came in. He started talking about the house, and he wanted me to put Pye away somewhere. He’s allergic. I said no.”
When she realized the words tumbled out of her too fast, she paused, breathed in, breathed out while Trey watched her. While he took her hand.
“Take your time.”
“He… said I should offer him a drink. I said no, and I told him, again, to leave.”
“Did he?”
“No. Trey.”
“Sonya, we have good, strict laws regarding trespass in Maine. And if he put that bruise on your arm, that’s criminal trespass. Tell me the rest.”
She did, and watched the rage inch closer to the surface when she told him Brandon grabbed her arm. She hoped to lighten it up with the ghostly assist, but it didn’t seem to work.
“He ran to his car, Trey. Sneezing. ‘You’ll regret this,’” she added, deepening her voice, adding the sneezes with three mockingachoos.
Before she could laugh, Trey nodded.
“And that’s a threat. Criminal trespass, assault, harassment, and verbal threat. Do you have his contact information?”
