Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 111278 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111278 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“I think it might have been the same man that I saw with her the other day by the diner. But I can’t be completely sure. Maybe her boyfriend?”
“Well, if he is, she’s not telling us. But I think she cares for this guy and is helping him.”
Gwen sighed and nodded.
“Is that all I can help with?” Ed asked.
“Um, no. Not really. I found this outside my hotel door just now.” She drew out the envelope. “I picked it up and opened it. Sorry.”
He used gloves to open and examine it. Then his gaze hit hers. “A threat.”
“Yes.”
“Any reason someone would threaten you?”
“The only reason I can think of is what happened last night.”
Ed grunted. “This isn’t good.”
“I mean . . . it seems pretty harmless—”
“No such thing as a harmless threat. There should be cameras in the hotel, though. I need your room number.”
“Uh, yes it’s room 202.”
He nodded. “I’ll get the camera feed. But we need to move you to a different room.”
“Wouldn’t we have more chance of catching the person if I stayed where I was?”
His gaze met hers. “I won’t be using you as bait. Perhaps you should move in with Dominic for a while.”
“Move in with Dominic? No, that’s not happening. And he’s not here.”
“He’ll come back as soon as he hears about this.”
Which sounded like a good reason not to tell him. Shit. She didn’t want to lie, though. She worried at her lip.
“I’m sure Kent would find you somewhere to stay at Sanctuary, even if you’re not comfortable staying with Dominic.”
“Uh, no. That won’t be necessary.”
“I’ll get one of my deputies to stand outside your door tonight.”
“Whoa. You have that in the budget?”
“I’ll make it work. Although we’re down a deputy with Jace away.”
“You . . . you’re a very good man. And quite protective over a stranger. I’ll be fine.”
Ed stared at her. “This could be a very real threat.”
“Or it could be nothing. I’ll move rooms. And I’ll be careful.”
“You will tell me immediately if anything else happens,” he ordered.
“Of course.”
“I’ll escort you back and talk to the hotel management. If you feel at all threatened at any time, I expect a call on my personal phone. Understand?” He grabbed a card and wrote down a number. Then he added another number. “That’s Kiesha’s. Don’t call her in an emergency, though. She’s terrible in an emergency. She tends to Taser first and ask questions second.”
25
Gwen stumbled toward the bed in her new room, her head throbbing mercilessly.
This sucked.
She glanced over at the clock and groaned as she saw it was nearly seven at night. Shit. All she wanted was to go to sleep.
Crap. Where was her phone? Dominic would be calling soon.
Getting up, she stumbled around and found her handbag. At least it hadn’t taken her long to pack up. The deputy that Ed had been going to assign to her door had called in with the stomach flu.
But she’d been moved onto a key card entry only floor. So she wasn’t worried.
Damn it. Her phone was dead.
Where was her charger?
She searched through her suitcase and found it, plugging her phone in. She also needed to put Ed and Kiesha’s numbers in.
But as soon as her phone powered up, it started buzzing with a number of missed calls and texts.
Uh-oh.
Dominic had tried calling her. Several times.
She scrolled through the texts, gulping as he urged her to call him. Each message more stern and serious than the last. She hit his name in her contacts and he answered it almost straight away.
“Gwen I-don’t-know-your-middle-name-but-I-want-to Anderson, you have some explaining to do.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that my phone had died until just now. Um, so you’ve heard?” How had he found out so quickly?
“Yes. I heard. It’s all everyone can talk about. I received three phone calls today about it. I couldn’t take them, but they left voicemails explaining what was going on. What I want to know is why you haven’t called me.”
“You’re working.”
“Try again,” he growled.
“My battery died, and I was so busy moving rooms and dealing with everything that I didn’t notice. I’m sorry.”
“Why did you move rooms?”
“Because of the threat, of course. I’m on a more secure floor now. No one can gain entry to this floor without a key card. And apparently, there isn’t anyone else staying on this floor at the moment.”
“What. Fucking. Threat?”
Uh-oh.
Dominic was losing his mind.
And a certain redhead was the cause. Here he was stuck in LA while she was back there, getting involved in fights and being threatened?
What. The. Fuck.
“Oh, you weren’t talking about the threat before, were you? Oops. Okay, before you get all upset, it wasn’t much of a threat.”
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
“Gwen. I’m going to need you to start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
“How much time do you have?”