“I’m not sure it’s him,” I admitted. “But I need you somewhere safe in case.”
“I should go with.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Cole—”
“No, Trina. Absolutely not. You’re not seeing him unless you’ve called a lawyer and had divorce papers drawn up, and I know you haven’t done that, and you’re absolutely not seeing him at all, in person, if I have anything to say about it. And honestly, Chief didn’t say who was there so I need to go and get it figured out, but in case he knows where I live, I don’t want you alone right now until I can get things figured out. So just…trust me. Please?”
I was asking a lot considering a week ago she’d been exercising in case Jonathan came back for her and took her, but that was all the more reason not to leave her here alone, too.
I wasn’t exactly hidden and difficult to find.
“You’ll tell me everything that happens after?”
As she said it, she stepped back. I let her go, hating the doubt in her eyes. “You’ll know what you need to.”
“No.” She shook her head and ran a hand through her long, straightened hair. “I need to know everything. Every word or I’m coming with you.”
“That’s not safe for you.”
“It’s not safe for me to not know what’s going on. Please…I can’t explain it, but I have to know. Every word.”
Panic was rising, making her breathing come ragged and color her cheeks.
“Okay. I promise. I’ll tell you everything.”
It took me twenty minutes,and while I’d hurried to get Trina to Robbie’s and then double-backed to the station, I’d kept one eye on the road and one eye on my rearview mirror to see if anyone was following. I’d moved quickly to get this done, but hadn’t rushed enough to make whoever was waiting for me think I was scared of them.
Screw Wolf and his money and his southern prestige and all the things he had and the parts of him that made him evil.
I pulled into the station, taking note of the few patrol cars that were there and a black, nondescript Tahoe. The urge to slide my own truck’s keys down the side of it hit hard and fast and I quickly quelled it. Wouldn’t do any good to damage a car that was probably a rental anyway. And I didn’t need Wolf any more upset.
I’d dressed in jeans and a Carolina Ice Kings hockey T-shirt for the day, intending to be relaxed and normal for my daughters’ introduction to Trina and had only thrown on my Carhartt coat on over it along with my own personal 9mm handgun. That might have been overkill, but when it came to this man, I wasn’t taking chances.
The roads were quiet, the town gloomy. More snow was on the way and the slopes would be open any day. This was the calm before the tourist storm, but there was another storm rising inside of me as I opened the doors to the office and was buzzed through the secured door in the front entryway by Eline, our weekend office assistant.
“Chief’s office,” she said as the buzzer sounded, and I yanked open the door. Considering the size of our town, our station wasn’t large. In fact, I could see the empty desks for all the officers and the offices for Captain and Chief on the far end.
My lip curled as I went straight to Chief’s office. His door was closed, but the wall around it facing the bullpen was all glass so while I’d normally notice his mess of piles of first, this time it was the enraged look on his face while he leaned on his desk, arms crossed over his chest and the back of the man facing him.
A man dressed in a suit, hair well-styled and side-swept, and a body I’d seen before, not only on television, but right before he stopped into an elevator at the hospital.
This monster had nearly beaten the life out of Trina, and for him to have thenerveto show up in this town, demanding time with me, forced every single one of my de-escalation tactics to the surface.
It was either that or end up in one of my own jail’s cells for assault. I had no doubt this man would press charges to the fullest extent of the law. Men like him who got what was coming to him always believed they could do no harm and didn’t deserve a moment of pain.
I didn’t bother knocking but went straight to the door and opened it. Keeping my eyes focused on our chief’s face, I didn’t spare Mr. Jonathan Wolf a single look.
“Chief. You wanted to see me?” I should have been given an award for how nonchalant I sounded.
“Mr. Wolf here has come because you have something that belongs to him.”
“Huh.” I settled my hands at my hips and shrugged. “Can’t say I do.”
The man next to me bristled, and I turned to face him head on.
There was no life in the man’s steely and oily gaze. If this was how he’d looked at Trina for so long, it was no wonder she felt so beaten down. The problem was, he was the one covered in filth, not her.