I make it halfway to my door before Queenie steps out of another suite with a folded blanket in her arms. Her eyes widen when she sees me. Not in fear. In something closer to alarm.
“Slate,” she says carefully, “you’re back early.”
Something is off with the tone of her voice, and it sets my Spidey senses off. “Where’s Christina?”
When my mom doesn’t answer right away, I know something is up.
I take one more step towards her. “Ma, where is she?”
Her lips press together. Her expression already looks apologetic. “She left early this morning.”
Everything inside me goes still. “She what?”
“She said she needed to run down a lead on the case. Rivera went with her.”
My grip tightens at my sides. It feels like all the oxygen has been snatched from the room. “Are you telling me that she left the compound?”
“Yes. She said it was important and promised to be safe. She said she might be gone all day.”
The woman I love is gone. It takes a second for that to settle in my brain. At least we have the fucker who’s been stalking her so that’s one good thing. She’s safe now.
“What about Katie?”
“She’s in your suite, playing with her puppy.”
Queenie takes a small step towards me, smiling encouragingly. “I’m sure she’ll be alright.”
“She’s got a million dollar bounty on her head. We just found out about it.”
My mother’s face crumples. “What? How can that be? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, we got it straight from her stalker’s computer. We also got the asshole, he’s downstairs in the cells. Gonna be having words with him later.” Taking a step backward, I say, “I’m going to go see my daughter for a bit.”
When I walk into my suite, Tessa is sitting on the floor playing with Katie and her puppy. She shoves up from the floor when I walk in. Catching the look on my face, she frowns.
“Everything okay, Slate?”
“Yeah, long day. I’ll be pleased when Christina gets back. I’ve been an asshole and I need to make it up to her.”
Her expression turns sympathetic. “I’m sure she understands. It must have been a shock for you learning about Katie.”
My eyes go to my daughter who’s giggling with the puppy. Despite my mood I start smiling. “I was mad about all the years I missed. But looking at her now, I realize the important thing is the years I still have to enjoy with her. And with Christina, as a family.”
Chapter 16
Christina
Rivera parks the SUV a block away from the Hydro Relief building, and we sit there together planning our strategy. While he reads through my notebook, I look up Hydro Relief Inc. on my cell phone. It’s definitely a subsidiary of REACH. It says so on their corporate website. Something catches my interest. “It says they give tours between four and five.”
“Are you planning to wait around for that?”
“Yeah, why would I fabricate a pretense for being there when they’ll welcome me with both arms and happily show me around at the end of their workday?”
“Being assigned to protect you is starting to feel like the kind of hurry up and wait assignments I got in the fuckin’ military.”
I glance up at Slate’s best friend and ask, “So, you’re clearly an early bird gets the worm kind of person, right?”
“Yeah, I like to get up early and get shit done in the morning.”
