Page 54 of Heartsong
Well shit.
If he was bringing Tim up, Ramirez was definitely going through her records. Thankfully, the few things Anna had been caught for had happened when she was a minor. She never did anything more than some community service, and her file was supposed to be sealed. Still, if her name was somehow attached to Tim, the detective had obviously been able to find some things in her past.
Double shit.
Chewing her cheek, she turned back into the apartment, only to find Frey already a step outside her bedroom door, angrily chewing the last of his steak and inexplicably clutching one of her bras.
Deciding to ignore that, she stated the obvious. “He’s gone.”
Frey’s nostrils flared. He tossed the bra back into Anna’s room and then went about cleaning up the remains of their dinner, his movements jerky and agitated.
“I didn’t like how he spoke to you.”
“That’s just their way. They try to trick information out of you.”
Another huff and nostril flare. Anna was kind of touched by his annoyance on her behalf.
“I don’t like it.”
“Agreed.”
She watched him for another moment as he took his frustration out on the dishes, working up the nerve to say what she had to say.
“Frey, this is why I have to go back. That cop is suspicious.” While cops were trained and paid to be suspicious, Annaknewin her soul she hadn’t seen the last of Detective Ramirez.
And while art theft was a difficult crime to investigate and solve (so many pieces had gone missing without a trace and were still missing to this day), this crime happened to rich people in a rich area. Gavin and Carrie would no doubt be keeping on the cops to deliver some answers. And Detective Ramirez and the SFPD would do their best to provide them. Money got things done.
It didn’t help that the detective came right on the heels of her blunder today. God, that was stupid. Carrie had said the detective would be coming to do a follow-up, but what if Gavin had contacted him after what happened? What if Gavin and Carrie were suspicious of her now, too?
“Anna.”
Startled, she looked up to see Frey standing before her, his expression softer, concerned. With a careful claw, he tipped up her chin then pushed her hair behind her ear.
“Don’t let him trouble you.”
“I just…don’t like that he came to the apartment, you know?”
Frey nodded. “Yes. This is your dwelling, where you should feel safest.”
A knot tangled in Anna’s throat, and she fought back a sudden wave of tears. Detective Ramirez had rattled her, and she hated that.
Frey’s chest rumbled again, but this time it was lower in tenor. A purr. He wrapped her up in his arms and wings and warmth. His claws burrowed through her hair, scraping gently against her scalp, and Anna melted.
Slowly, she wound her arms around his thick waist, hands barely meeting at the dip of his spine. A frisson of pleasure sparked across her skin everywhere they touched.
Warm lips pressed into her hair. “I will keep you safe, my Anna. I vow it on my life.”
It was a wild thing to promise given he was stone half the time, but Anna’s heart was lighter for it anyway. The words soaked into her as surely as his warmth, and for a minute, Anna let herself justbewith him. Enveloped in his wings and scent, for the first time in a long time, she truly did feel safe.
16
It didn’t last, of course. It never did.
And it wasn’t just Anna’s paranoia getting the better of her that made her feel unsafe. The next morning, she nearly got taken out by a speeding commuter as she crossed the street. Heart racing, she’d rushed for the sidewalk, turning to flip the driver the bird only to barely see the taillights as it disappeared over the next hill.
She then had computer issues three days in a row, all of which required the museum’s tech guy Dave and then even Gavin to come out to investigate. She didn’t mind picking up extra docent duties, using the time to take discreet pictures and notes about the collection, but it started to feel like anything she touched broke. Two mugs and a carton of half-and-half in the breakroom were all victims, as was every plastic spoon she picked up.
She almost felt cursed after the third day of bad luck.
