Page 170 of Push

I dumped the portacotby the front door. Two suitcases and the overstuffed baby bag sat stacked and waiting. A duffel had been tossed on top. Gwen must have packed that one. I tugged back the zipper to see her laptop, the printed copies of the clinic books, and wads of paper stuffed inside.

I darted a look at Gwen. She slumped on the bottom step, her phone pressed to her ear, still on the line to the police.

I pointed to the duffel and whispered, “No working this weekend.”

Gwen mumbled, “Excuse me,” and held the phone away from her ear. “It’s not work. It’s to cover our asses. It’s all our legal and personal papers. The trust documents. The books. I even dumped the crap from my bill’s drawer in there. Weird shit’s happening, Tobes. We shouldn’t take any chances.”

The adrenaline that had burned through my body only simmered now, but even if I was calmer and could stringtogether coherent thoughts beyond a whirlwind of“Go, go, go!”we were still going on our surprise vacation. Gwen was right—we shouldn’t take any chances.

She waved a hand at me and held up three fingers.

“The cops are three minutes away?” I asked.

She nodded.

Go Time.

I could be useful for once. It was time to pack the car, talk to the cops, and sort out the wanker still hovering outside my yard. Grimacing, Gwen had suggested I might be overreacting about Romeo. He’d stepped in to help diffuse the situation with my mother and gotten Marnie home safely.Whoop-de-doo.A stalker with a hero complex.

With the duffel slung over my shoulder, I opened the front door, grabbed the portacot and a suitcase, and headed for the driveway.

“Buonasera,” Gwen’s new friend called out to me.

I flipped him off. “Buonasera.” What did that even mean? Hi? Piss off? I hoped it meant piss off.

Vaguely amused, Romeo’s eyebrow went up. “Going somewhere?”

“Yeah.” I slid the portacot into the trunk and called back to him over my shoulder, “Your mum’s!”

He laughed, but his calm demeanor shifted when red and blue lights lit up the street. Scowling, his eyes narrowed on me before flicking back to the police car pulling up outside.

I grinned at him. “Well, what do you know? Looks like the party’s at my place tonight!” His scowl deepened, which only made my smile bigger. “You planning to stick around? I can’t wait to introduce you to a couple of my friends—Sergeant Go Fuck Yourself and Constable Keep the Fuck Away From My Wife.”

Romeo’s lips twitched, but instead of tossing a barb back at me, he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and called someone. Better be his lawyer—he was toast.

I had a brief conversation with the two officers before pointing them to the penis extension parked past my driveway. When Romeo started bullshitting about going for a drive and stopping to stretch his legs, I rolled my eyes and made my way back to the house for the rest of our bags.

My phone rang. Not one of my contacts, so I ignored it. I’d had enough of unknown numbers for one night.

A message buzzed.

Unknown

Answer your phone, sweetheart.

Oh, great. My Christmas sweater buddy was the last person I wanted to talk to in all this chaos. Why was Liam calling me anyway? Had Gwen given him my number? Against my better judgment, when my phone rang again, I answered it.

“Sweetheart.” Liam’s drawl was a little more slurred than usual. He sounded almost drunk.

“What in the actual—?” I scrubbed my palm down my face. “What doyouwant?”

“I’ve missed you too.”

“Look, now’s not a good time—”

“No, I suppose it isn’t. A visit from the police is always most inconvenient.” He gave me atskof disapproval.

I scanned the street. It was empty except for the mess outside my place and one nosy neighbor craning their neck over their front fence to get a good look. “Where are you?”

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