Page 135 of So Wild

“No.” Julia slapped the closed door. “No, no, please no.”

She froze. Digging through her bag, she pulled out her phone, which was hovering at a terrifying one percent battery. She called Ash. It rang once, twice, three times. Julia held her breath, sheer panic boiling inside her like liquid insanity.

“Jules? What’s—” Her sister’s voice disconnected.

“Shit!”

Before Julia knew what she was doing, she’d flung her phone across the room. It shattered against a shelf of power tools with a tinkling crash. She gripped her hair. How many years of bad luck did you get for smashing your phone? A million? She forced away thoughts of herself going utterly insane and tried to think. There was still a chance someone was in the building. Julia flung down her satchel and banged on the door like it was a war drum. “Hello? Hello? I’m trapped in here!”

Long seconds passed and her palms and neck grew slippery. There was no food in the property office, no bathroom…Christ, was there even enough air? She bashed at the door, trying not to scream like a victim in a horror film. She couldn’t die in here, not when Scarlet Woman was painfully close to completion. Not when the best relationship she’d ever had was one night when she was eighteen.

Throwing caution to the wind, Julia screamed. How had this happened? How could she have been stupid enough to agree to work alone in a lockable room? She screamed again and this time she kept going until her throat burned and her eyes watered. She was breathless, teetering on the edge of blackout when she heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Footsteps, blessed human footsteps.

“Hey! Hey! Is someone in there?”

It was a man’s voice, calm and controlled. Instantly she knew it was a cop and relief blasted through her so all-encompassing, she could barely speak. She slapped at the door trying to tell her would-be rescuer she was alive and in need of evacuation.

The cop rapped on the door. “Hang on a second. I’ll go get the spare keys.”

There was a pounding of feet as her rescuer dashed away. Julia inhaled, trying to calm her racing heart. The footsteps returned. Whoever this cop was, he was quick.

Julia wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead. “Oh my God, please let me out!”

“Don’t worry, Henri, I’ve got this.”

Ooh, the cop thought the actual property administrator was the one entombed in Brenthill’s evidence room? That was awkward. Then again, who cared? He could think she was Humphrey Fucking B Bear if it got him to let her out. There was an agonizingly long rattle of the keys, a muttered curse, and then the door clicked open. Julia didn’t think she’d ever heard a sexier sound. She and the cop both turned the handle at once, jamming the door once more.

Julia laughed and let go, allowing him to pry the door open. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m going to nominate you for Cop of The Ye—”

Her mouth went dry. It was him. Of course it was him. She was locked in a room, making a total dick of herself. Why wouldn’t it be him?

Senior Constable Max Connor’s gaze moved over her. His eyes were as dark as Julia remembered, so black you could barely make out the pupil. “Julia? What are you doing in here?”

“I-I…” She stared blankly at him, wondering if she’d remembered to wear mascara today.

“Seriously, what happened here?”

Max’s facial expression was a study in amusement and condescension, both things Julia could have happily gone without seeing. She felt her cheeks heat up. If only she’d been given the choice, she’d have gladly starved to death in the property office to avoid this.

“I was, uh…I was helping Henrietta file some computer stuff and someone kicked away my encyclopedia, which was holding the door open because I don’t have a key. Although it’s not my encyclopedia, I found it in here, which is weird because that means someone committed a crime using an encyclopedia. Which is weird.”

Max’s brows drew together, as though he couldn’tquitefigure out how someone could be so ridiculous. “You shouldn’t be in here unsupervised.”

He braced his hands on his hips, the meeting point between broad chest and muscled thighs. The silver wedding band on his finger glinted at Julia accusingly.

“I know I shouldn’t but Henrietta had to go,” she said. “Her daughter was stung by some kind of…” Julia stared into Max’s face and completely lost her train of thought.

“Some kind of…?” Max prompted.

“A bee? Yeah, it was a bee. Sorry, I’m all over the place. I thought I was going to die.”

Max frowned. “Okay, well…do you want to leave? Or should I hold the door open and wait for you to finish whatever you were doing?”

His expression said he’d rather saw off his arm.

“Nope, I’m done, just let me grab the bits of my…just let me grab my phone.”

Without feeling her feet touch the ground, Julia walked to where her phone lay in pieces, the shards glinting at her like tiny black knives. She squatted down, collecting bits of metal and plastic as fast as she could, hotly aware of Max’s gaze on her.

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