Page 46 of Crossing the Line
Waverly recovered her speech capabilities. “I’m making us all dinner.”
He ruined their cozy little evening with work. He sat Waverly and Kate down at the table and walked them through the day’s events starting with the Ganim investigation. He’d systematically worked his way through Detective Hansen and was explaining what happened at the gates when his team returned. He met them in the driveway where they reported what he’d expected. Their canvas had turned up no signs of Ganim.
Xavier sent them on their way with orders to knock on a few doors—or security gates—to see if anyone would be willing to share their security footage.
When he returned to the pool house, he carefully spread the photos out on the coffee table for Waverly and Kate to examine.
“That creepy motherfucker,” Kate said, voicing Xavier’s sentiments.
Waverly remained silent as she stared at the proof of the invasion of her privacy. She picked up the photo of her dress fitting. “This is my premiere dress,” she said quietly. Waverly flipped it over.
Tell her to wear red for me.
It was scrawled across the back of the picture in the same handwriting that was on the envelope.
Xavier swore quietly and searched the rest of the photos for more notes, but they were all blank.
“Can we take these to the police?” Waverly asked.
Xavier nodded. “We can.”
“But it’s still not actionable, is it?”
“No,” Xavier agreed. “But it helps establish a pattern.”
“Would it help if I personally went to the police and filed a complaint?” she asked, still staring at the pictures.
Xavier hated to see the vulnerable look on her face and packed the photos back into the envelope. “It still isn’t enough for Hansen to move on Ganim, but I think us going in will help remind him of how serious this is.”
“Okay. We’ll go tomorrow,” Waverly said with a curt nod. “I’m going to stir the asopao de pollo.” She started to rise.
“Waverly?” Xavier’s tone was serious.
She looked at him, and he saw that those green eyes had lost their light.
“Are you a good cook or should I call for pizza?”
A ghost of a smile played across her lips. “I guess you’ll have to stick around and find out for yourself.”
“It’s kind of like to-die-for jambalaya but Dominican,” Kate explained, scenting the air like a bloodhound. “It’s Mari’s recipe, and Wave’s been making it since she was a kid.”
“So, no on the pizza then?” Xavier joked.
Kate waited until Waverly was busy at the stove.
“Couple of questions here. What does this mean for her premiere? She can’t not go. It’s seriously like the biggest film she’s ever done. Do you guys have any idea where he might be? Are the cops even looking for him? Do you think we should add a few more bodies to the detail?”
He waited until she paused for a breath. “Anything else going on in that hyperactive brain of yours?”
“Uh, yeah. Are we not going to talk about that kiss? Was that the first one? Was it the last one? Oh my God, are you guys going to get married and make babies so beautiful that mere mortals can’t look directly at them? Can I start calling you Xaverly?”
“Shut up, Kate,” Waverly and Xavier said in unison.
--------
They all had dinner together and pretended it was nothing out of the ordinary, even though Xavier kept leaving the table to take the half dozen calls that came in from the office. And every time he excused himself, Waverly found herself being grilled by Kate. In fits and starts, she told her friend most of the details.
“So you vowed never to do it again, and then he just storms in here and lays one on you?” Kate wanted to know. Waverly had no answer for her. Getting it out of her system was feeling less and less likely.God. When he touched her everything inside her unlocked and came alive.But she had other things on her plate that needed to be considered. Les Ganim was able to walk right up to her front door to personally deliver evidence that he’d been following her, closely.
