Page 35 of Dr. Do-Right
“Mal, will you stay with me? While I get there?”
“Always, Love. Always.”
Chapter 11
A soft knock sounded at the door. “Dr. Dobrev? Miss Sanchez? Miss Dobrev is coming up now.”
Mal stirred underneath me. I was curled up on top of him on our bed. Air pressed around us, warm and stuffy. The RISI team had sealed the apartment and was methodically checking every possible entry point. The trash chute had been unsealed (“Too steep to be a threat,” Asher had assured us.), but they were still checking the vents, so we’d been stewing all afternoon without any air conditioning.
The inside of the apartment was eerily quiet, except for Siggy’s snores, the soft movements of our security guard in the living room, and Mal’s shallow breathing. We hadn’t spoken a word to each other in hours, not since I’d come home and he’d spilled the whole story to me.
“Malachi. Cariño,”I’d whispered. His arms had enveloped me the second the elevator doors opened. He’d held me tight enough that I’d had a hard time taking in a full breath of air. A shame, since now I was with him, I felt like I could finally breathe again. He hadn’t let me go since.
“What time is it?” I murmured now, rolling to a seat as Siggy stretched to follow. Time had taken on an odd sort of flow. Hours passed by in a blink, but it seemed like we’d already been here for days. All the curtains were drawn. In rooms where we hadn’t hung them yet, Asher and our other guard from RISI, Grayson, used sheets and moving blankets to block the windows.
“Interrupts lines of sight from below. For shooters.” I’d shivered at Asher’s explanation. That was when Mal had taken me back to the bedroom for some privacy. We hadn’t slept, hadn’t turned the TV on. Just laid here, Siggy nestled at the small of my back.
Mal’s phone flashed in the dark. “After midnight.”
I yawned as I made my way to the hallway. I was exhausted. I hadn’t been able to sleep. Not while Sonia was still out there, dealing with a flight delay as she made her way home. I had a sneaking suspicion that even when she got here, I still wouldn’t be able to shut down completely. I was too wired. On edge, despite the many assurances I got from the RISI team that they had everything under control. I believed them, but everything still felt out of control and surreal.
Asher and Grayson, who was a few years older and seemed to be in charge, were in and out of the apartment constantly, rotating between securing the apartment building and doing something on computers in our living room. They both had guns clipped to their belts and the coiling wires of earpieces snaking out of the collars of their black shirts.
I really was living in a movie.
Siggy and Mal padded behind me. I picked up my pace when I heard the elevator doors open with ading.
“Sonnie?” I yelled, my feet skidding on the wooden floors when I took the hallway corner too fast. Mal was right on my tail.
“Rija? Malachi?”
I clutched my chest when I heard her voice, barreling past Asher and careening straight into my best friend, all but ignoring Grayson, who had taken one of the RISI Rovers to pick Sonnie up from the airport.
I was sobbing before we’d even closed our arms around each other. We all rocked, tipping precariously when Malachi slammed into my back, gathering us both up against him.
We laughed and sniffled and shuffled to stay upright, clinging to each other like one of us would die if we let go.
“Sonnie, I’m so sorry.” Mal had apologized so much tonight that I’d barred him from saying it again to me. Sonia was equally disinclined to put up with his bullshit.
“Mal, it’s not your fault that some psycho is stalking you.” Her voice wavered in a way I’d only ever heard a few times. I hugged her closer. I couldn’t stand to hear my usually bubbly, irreverent friend so close to tears. She continued, voice strained. “If anything, it’s my fault—”
“It’s not. You can’t…” Mal squeezed us tighter. “We can’t blame ourselves.”
“Deal.” Sonnie pulled back, palming both our cheeks and looking at us like we’d been apart for years, not just two weeks. Her face collapsed, and I saw the first tear fall just before she yanked us back into the group hug. “I’m so glad you’re both alright.”
“We’re fine. We’re all safe. Grayson and Asher will make sure of that.”
“Yes. Right.” Sonia pulled away, swiping at the mascara from under her eyes. I wanted to pull her back, but she was already stepping away, approaching the two men where they stood huddled together, giving each other hushed updates. They broke off when Sonia approached.
“You’re Asher?” she demanded.
“Yes, ma’am.” Asher stepped forward. Sonia kept walking closer, studying him.
“You really are as hot as you sound on the phone.” Her voice shook even as she made the joke. Asher’s mouth twisted into that wry grin.
“Back atcha, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am.” Her command lost its power since she sighed it and simultaneously launched herself into his arms. He caught her around the waist, brows pulling down in confusion when she pulled him into the same sort of full-body, full-drama hug we’d just had with her.
