Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
I grab a light jacket from the hook by the door and step into my hot pink Crocs. Violet knows those are my take the dog out shoes and starts to prance and jump up with excitement. I grab her harness and leash, struggle to get it on her since she’s wiggling so much, and then go out to the courtyard.
Making sure the gate is closed behind me, I unclip her leash and have to spend the next few minutes petting her, reassuring my Velcro dog that I’m just going to sit on the bench like I always do before she turns and trots off to go potty.
We go back inside and I undress, twisting my hair into a carefully twisted bun on the top of my head. The curls will last until tomorrow if I’m careful. I take a lingering look at my eye makeup in the mirror before I step into the shower, regretting that I have to wash it off when it looks this good. It always feels good to wash it off, at least.
After showering, I dress in fuzzy pink lounge pants with a matching crop top. I pull on my favorite fuzzy robe, grab a pair of thick socks, and sit in the living room with a bag of chips, watching a few episodes of a new show before getting tired enough to head to bed.
“Let’s go out one more time,” I tell Violet, slowly getting up. I love my dog but wish so much I could just open the backdoor and let her into a fenced in yard instead of having to go downstairs and then outside. At least we have a dog-friendly courtyard here.
Violet races off, coming back with a tennis ball that I throw it for her to chase after. We play fetch for a bit and then she stops, tail going up. She looks like a poster child for a golden retriever when she does that, but she only takes that stance when she sees something worthy of staring at.
I follow her gaze and see the dark silhouette of a man, lurking in the bushes right behind the fence.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
MASON
“Slow down,” I tell Mira, grabbing the remote to pause the show I’ve been watching.
“There was someone outside and they were watching me,” she rushes out again. “I mean, I think so. They were just standing there and when I stood up they moved but I smelled his cologne.”
Her voice is shaky. I’ve never heard her rattled and everything inside me wants to run to her and keep her safe.
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m inside. At home.”
“Are your doors locked?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, stay on the phone. I’m coming over.”
She lets out a breath. “No, it’s okay. I’m…I’m fine.”
“Mira,” I say slowly. “You’re rattled and I’m assuming you’re talking about Enzo.”
“Yeah. I-I…I just realized I didn’t give you any context to what I was talking about.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her, already getting up. I’ve stripped down to just my boxers and I brush popcorn off my shirt and onto the ground before getting up. “Walk me through what happened.”
“I took Violet to the courtyard to go potty before bed. She noticed someone in the bushes along the fence line. It startled me and when they saw me looking, they took off. But the wind shifted and whoever that was had on the same cologne Enzo was wearing this evening. I mean, he’s not the only one in the city who wears that old-man aftershave, but…”
“But it’s pretty coincidental.” I go into my room and grab a pair of athletic pants. Enzo has already shown us that he has a bit of an obsessive personality and a huge sense of entitlement. It’s not out of the question for him to go after Mira. And if he found out where she lives, then he knows she really is Mira, not Mya. “I’m coming over.”
“You really don’t have to.”
“I know,” I say. “I want to.”
“Thank you.” I can hear the relief in her voice and I quickly grab a few things, including my gun and my badge.
“How long were you able to track him for?” she asks, and I know she means Enzo.
“Farther than we’ve been able to before,” I tell her, knowing the vagueness is annoying. But it is what it is. Whoever was driving left the city and headed toward Indiana. We lost footage but were able they went through a toll on I-80/94 in Northwest Indiana. We lost them from there but the Indiana State Police are on the lookout and will call if they find anything.
Traffic wasn’t bad, but would Enzo have time to make it back into Lincoln Park by now? In theory…maybe. He would have to be driving pretty fast and we didn’t get any more hits from tolls for that particular car, though we can't be certain he didn’t get out at some point. All it would have taken was for them to pull over in a place where they know there aren’t any cameras and for Enzo to jump out and get into another car.