Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Not so far,” I admitted.
“You’re, what, in your late thirties?” she asked. “How many wild oats do you have to sow?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that the right woman hasn’t shown up in my life yet,” I said, shrugging.
“So you’re not planning on being a lifelong bachelor?”
“I always figured that might be my path. But then I watched my partners find their spouses has changed my ideas on that a bit.”
I always figured that variety was the spice of life. But there was just something about the way Sawyer and Riya and Tig and Kenzi looked at each other that made me start to want that as well.
That kind of pure, undiluted love and admiration? Yeah, that was something I was pretty sure I’d like to find in life.
“You? Are you married to work? Actually, while we are on that topic, a list of men you’ve seen over the past two years is probably a good idea,” I said.
“I am, to an extent, married to my work,” she admitted with a shrug. “My success is important to me. And not every man is understanding of that.”
That was a common complaint, unless you were dating someone in your social circle, in which case, that opened up a whole other world of problems.
“And the list?” I asked, reaching for my notepad.
“Oh, Michael Richardson,” she said, sighing.
“How’d that end?” I asked.
“Amicably. Two people who were so busy with work that we didn’t realize for a while that we just didn’t like each other,” she admitted.
“Okay. Who else? Come on,” I said when she shrugged. “There’s got to be someone else. In two years, just one guy?”
“One guy that I let into my life, yeah. There were a couple of dates, but that was all they were. Dates. They never even led to anything after dinner,” she clarified.
“Okay. Well, give me those names too. You never know. Some guys can mistake a casual glance in their direction for love, then stalk the shit out of a woman for five years.”
“Ugh,” she grumbled, then reached for the pad to jot down three names.
One seemingly casual fling and three dates. That was all her personal life had to offer for two years.
She really was married to her work.
It was no wonder she was wound so tight.
“Oh, before Lennon gets here, I am supposed to ask you to consider where you want the monitoring system set up. With the screens and such,” I explained.
“Sounds unsightly,” she decided.
“It is,” I confirmed.
“I guess the guest room then,” she said, shrugging. “It rarely gets use anyway.”
“Okay. That works. I am waiting for a call back from a friend about the fact that none of your neighbors remember anything at all about cops or an ambulance.”
“Wait… what?” she asked.
“Yeah, I know. It makes no sense,” I agreed. “So he’s contacting a friend on the force to see if someone was dispatched. If not, we have a whole new scenario to try to work out. If someone showed up here, would you have left with them?” I asked.
“If I knew them, maybe. But only if there was a good reason. I would have thought it was bizarre for someone to show up here, then ask me to leave with them. Without texting or calling first anyway. You think it’s possible that it happened somewhere else?”
“If the ambulance didn’t pick you up from here, then that is the only explanation. Or if someone dropped you off at the hospital.”
“But why would they do that if they’d intended to kill me?”
“Yeah, that’s a great question. I’m leaning toward you left with them, and then they did it somewhere else. I can’t imagine why. But the why comes when we find the who. I couldn’t get into the system today. For the building’s footage,” I clarified. “But that’s my plan for tomorrow.”
“Are you staying over again tonight?” she asked, and there was just something in her tone that made me think she wanted me to, that maybe she just didn’t feel quite safe yet in her apartment, even with a new security system. And, honestly, that was valid considering what may have happened to her inside of it.
Though, yeah, the more I thought about it, the less likely that seemed. There would have been blood. Quite a bit of it, too.
There hadn’t been a drop anywhere.
Clearly, it had to have happened somewhere else, which made the whole ambulance thing make more sense.
I had to get the footage, so I could see who may have gone up her elevator to get her.
“If you want me to stay, I can absolutely stay,” I offered.
Her gaze slid to mine for a second, looking for any signs of reservation.
Finding none, her gaze slid away again, going to the door to the hall. “I’d like you to stay. If there is a service I can add on to my bill that would include you staying here until the case is solved, actually, I would like to do that.”