I give her a quick kiss. “I know. But just today, while they look into the call, and hopefully they’re taking this seriously and will get you a new number quickly.”
“Fine,” she replies petulantly as she pulls the blankets up to her chin. But the softness in her expression puts me at ease.
My phone vibrates in my pocket and interrupts further conversation. I dig it out of my pocket and see Tyler’s name. An annoyed growl rumbles out of me, and I look back at Maggie.
“I have to go. Please call or text me if you need anything. I’ll let you know when I’m done with work tonight. It may be late, but I’m staying with you. Or I can pick you up, and you can stay at my house. I don’t care where we are. But I want you with me.”
The corners of the lips I’m obsessed with pull up in a small smile. “Okay, be careful.”
“Always.”
With one final kiss, I leave her warm in bed. As I trudge out to my car, the sun is already up, since it’s a little past eight, and I squint against its brightness and call Tyler back.
“Hey, Ian.”
“Sorry, I missed your call.”
“It’s all good. I didn’t know if you checked your email or not, but the client changed the location of the meeting this morning.” He names a popular breakfast restaurant.
“I didn’t. Thank you for letting me know. I’ll see you shortly.”
I disconnect and climb inside my Bronco. As soon as I pull out of the parking lot, I make another call.
“Ian. It’s been a while.”
“Carlos, yeah, sorry about that. We all need to get together soon.”
“Let me know when and where, and I’ll be there. I’m assuming you’re not calling me to catch up on this glorious Thursday morning.”
Carlos Martinez is a detective with the Metro Nashville Police Department who’s become a good friend to all of us over the years. We all try to help each other whenever we can. Hopefully, he can do that today.
“Yeah, about that. I have a question for you. Do you have a contact with the US Marshals office here?”
“Uh, I can probably find one. I haven’t worked with them much, just on a couple of cases over the years. But I know a few detectives who would know someone.”
“That would be great if you could.”
“Do I want to ask what this is about?”
I hesitate to answer. I don’t know how this works. The last thing I want is for Maggie to get into trouble for telling me. I go with a half-truth. “It’s kind of a long story. I’ll explain everything later. I’m heading into work, so I don’t have time right now.”
“Gotcha. How urgent is this?”
I know Carlos recognized my answer as an avoidance tactic, but I appreciate that he didn’t push me for more information.
“Somewhat urgent.”
“You got it. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll talk to you later.”
I disconnect the call and drive the rest of the way to my house, lost in thought—the need to find out more about Maggie’s ex’s case nags at me. I don’t have enough information to look up news articles about it, but maybe I can get some more out of her tonight. If she chooses to share more,I’ll be there for her, but forcing her just because I want to know what she’s up against seems cruel. In due time, I’ll find out what I need to know. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me from finding out as much as I can in order to keep her safe. Especially since it seems like the person who’s supposed to be doing that is a fucking idiot.
Thirty minutes after getting home, I’m walking into the restaurant where we’re having a breakfast meeting with a client. Tyler stands inside the door, looking at his phone, and I clap him on the shoulder.
“Tyler, is everyone here?”
“No, not yet.”
