Page 87 of Masked

He held Reva tight for several seconds before he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom.

“What happened, Reva?”

She laid her head against his chest and sniffed. “Can I wait until the police get here? It seems exhausting to have to tell the story twice.”

He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. “Of course, little siren. I’m so proud of you for getting away like you did.”

“I’m glad they didn’t search my bag. And it was their idea that I take the backpack out with me so I would look normal.”

He leaned in and kissed her. “Shh. Let’s sit here and be for a few minutes.”

She nodded and closed her eyes.

When Gage and Peter returned a few minutes later, Michael came out of the office and introduced himself.

“I’m sorry Noah made you wait in the office.”

He gave her a kind smile. “It’s quite alright, Reva. If something happened to my Angel, I would want a few minutes alone with her too.”

Reva blushed, and Noah wrapped an arm around her.

“Let’s all go sit at the dining room table and let Reva tell us what happened,” Michael suggested as he pulled a notebook from his jacket pocket.

“Oh. I just put two and two together,” Reva said as she looked at the tall man. “You’re the chief of police. This feels beneath you.”

Peter snorted. “I take it you haven’t given her the ‘we’re all a family’ speech yet?”

Noah stroked her hair. “She’s starting to get the picture.”

Reva offered the police chief a shy smile. “I appreciate you being here. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”

Michael launched into his questions and took down her statement as she recounted what happened.

“I was in a study room with my headphones in, marking up some articles for my adviser to look at. There was a knock on the door and the guy looked like a student, so I thought maybe he had a campus job at the library or something. So, I opened it. He forced his way in and started pulling clothes out of his backpack for me to put on. Insisted that I leave my phone and then picked up my backpack and handed it to me. He had a gun, so it seemed smarter to just go along with him. I’d hoped Gage would see us. But the hat and new shirt made me look like I was his girlfriend or something.”

“And how did you get away?”

Noah squeezed her shoulder when she hesitated. “It’s OK, sweetheart. Keep going.”

“I’ve always been on campus alone late at night, so I keep pepper spray attached to my keys. Today I had them in the side pocket of my backpack. I didn’t remember them until we were almost to the car, he wanted me to get into. I moved as fast as I could and sprayed his face then kneed him in the nuts.”

“Good girl,” all four men chorused, making her laugh.

“I used the hoodie they’d put me in to block most of the blow back, but I was still in pain and I just ran to the nearest building. It was a dorm, but someone was going in and I followed them and ducked into the public bathroom in the lobby.”

She picked up a glass of water and drained half of it while Michael wrote in his notebook.

“How did you get back to Gage?” he asked.

“I had to hide in the bathroom until I thought they had left. I stayed for a full hour at least. Gage can tell you more about how he found me.”

Michael turned his attention to Gage and waited for him to elaborate.

“We noticed Reva missing about thirty minutes after she was taken. The first thing we did was get into security footage. It took us another thirty minutes to dig through it all and figure out that she’d gotten away. We had to talk our way into the residence hall without drawing too much attention to ourselves, but once we got in, the bathroom was the first place we checked.”

“You did a good job, Reva,” Michael said. “But let’s maybe avoid sitting in rooms alone with headphones for a little while until we’re sure the danger has passed.”

Reva smiled. “I’m sure I can manage that.”

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