“Original, did they tie a note to it first,” I ask jokingly. His eyebrow lifts and he smirks a bit, but my comment doesn’t really alleviate the tension behind his crystal blue eyes.
“Piper, we need to figure out what is going on,” he sighs. Holt is deadly serious. I am kind of surprised, Holt is usually the more lighthearted of the group.
“Well, I didn’t think my coffee was that bad. Maybe they were trying to send a message,” I state casually. Holt sighs. He opens his mouth as if to respond but before he can say anything his attention turns to the phone buzzing in his back pocket. I watch him pull it out and immediately answer it.
“Yeah, thanks Sheriff,” he pauses and looks down at me again before replying. “She doesn’t seem to have any idea who could be behind it,” Holt sounds frustrated. On top of my confusion, I also feel bad that I can’t seem to help him solve this mystery.
“Yeah, we are still here. She is going to close up early today. Right after the lunch rush,” I raise my eyebrow and part of me wants to argue. The other part of me is kind of relieved. I need a little extra time to process this and to figure out how to get the door fixed. I also want to sleep for another 8 hours.
“It will be around 1—yeah, that works,” Holt hangs up. I am waiting for him to fill me in. I look up at him, expectantly. He sighs again.
“He will be before 1 to get your statement,” he explains. My mouth gapes open and words start to tumble out of my mouth.
“A statement—what the hell am I supposed to say? I don’t know what is happening,” the emotions that I have been trying to keep under lock and key try to break free. Holt is rubbing my back.
“Then you say exactly that, it is okay that you don’t have the answer Piper. No one is expecting you to,” he says calmly. I take a deep breath and try to regulate myself.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand what is going on. I should be thanking you for your help. I’m sure you have other things you could be doing,” I’m embarrassed. I don’t normally lose my composure.
My hand automatically goes up to my hair. I nervously start tugging and twirling it between my index and middle fingers-a habit I haven’t been able to kick since I was a kid. Holt’s hand moves up interrupt my fingers from their assault on the poor lock of hair.
Chapter 16
Holt
I softly take her hand in mine. Piper hides her nerves well. Most of the time, if you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t realize she was stressed. I have been watching her for a while now though, and she has a couple of tells. She is either twirl-tugging on a section of hair or abusing her lips by biting on them.
“Have you had anything to eat today,” I ask her. She looks up at me briefly. Then she sighs.
“Does coffee count,” she jokes. I shake my head and pull her behind her counter. There are a couple of pre-made sandwiches back there. I grab the turkey with apples and cheddar and a bottle of water. I pull the stool around and have her sit.
“You know, I can take care of myself,” she sputters a bit. Her cheeks have a pink tint to them, and her bangs are falling in her eyes. I reach up to swipe them behind her ear again and she stills but doesn’t push me away.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” I say as I unwrap the sandwich and hand her half. She takes it from me and bites into it, almost spitefully. I twist the cap off the bottle of water and set it down next to her.
She chews the bite in her mouth and takes a gulp of water. And repeats this process about 6 times. Once she finishes the half of a sandwich, she looks at me.
“There are you satisfied now,” she asks bitingly. Only once the question leaves her plush lips her cheeks go pink again. I grin at her, but give her a pass. I can make anything sound dirty.
“Yes, now eat the other half,” I prod her. She looks at the clock. It is almost time for the lunch rush, but I want her to finish this first. She sighs and nods. I take this moment to lean down and kiss her forehead. She gasps. Before she can say anything, I am backing away.
“I’m going to check in with the guys, I’ll be right over here,” I explain to her. She nods at me with a faraway look on her face. Turning around I reach Carter’s station. I can see the glint in his eyes. He wants to comment about that interaction so badly.
“Shut up, man. What have you got,” I ask. I move us away from the topic of him giving me shit.
“Fuckin’ nothing, that is what I got,” he says tersely. “There are no cameras that I can hack into in a 2-3 mile radius, none of these businesses have any. The camera at the intersection hasn’t been installed yet either. So we have nothing to go on,” his tone has turned grim.
I know what he is thinking. I don’t like it, but more than likely we will have to wait until he tries to do something else, and hope that he fucks up. It isn’t the way I like to do things, and I like it even less when it involves Piper.
“You’ll have to be her shadow man. I can’t imagine that this would be the end of this,” Carter is looking over at Piper as he speaks. I know he is right. While I love the idea of being stuck to her side, I hate the fact that it is because she is in some kind of danger. The door opens and we both look up quickly. It’s Meg, my shoulders relax a bit.
“Piper! Are you okay,” she asks. She is looking at the door wondering what happened. I watch the interaction with interest.
“I’m fine, some idiot tossed a brick through it,” she says easily. She is rolling her eyes and putting the cap back on her half finished water. I see that her sandwich is gone.
“Who would do that,” Meg asks the million dollar question. I see Piper shrug and Meg walks over to her quickly. Their exchange gets quieter. Sterling appears next to me again.
“Well, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this,” he states. He sits down heavily in the chair next to Carter. Carter shuts the laptop.
