“We are so weird,” she shuffles past me and heads upstairs to get cleaned up.
I text Chester at the garage to tell him I’ll be bringing the Buick in today and can he clear out my space in the garage. Then gather everything I need. Cassie comes down dressed in black slacks that taper in at her ankles and a black blouse with small daisies on it.
She doesn’t need to put airs and graces on for the club but I love that she still makes the effort to be the professional she is. I grab her bag and open the front door. As I’m pulling it shut, Cassie gasps.
“Who are you?”
I turn around and pull the gun out from under my cut. I never go anywhere without it now.
“I wouldn’t do that.” The woman gets up from the bench where she was sitting.
“Answer her. Who are you?”
“Eli,” Cassie grabs my arm. She isn’t scared, she sounds pissed. She nods at my chest, and I tip my head down to see a red dot right over my heart.
“Like I said. Please put the gun away, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“What do you want then, what is this?” Cassie snaps.
I recognize her voice. It’s the woman who called me. The one who gave me Singer’s name. Her head tilts knowing I’ve figured it out. Doing as she asks, I slowly put the gun back in the holster under my shoulder.
“It’s okay,” I tell Cassie, but she isn’t going to back down easily. “She’s the Veil Line.”
“What? Oh,” she looks at the woman again this time with interest but she’s still angry. “Call off whoever that is. You might be all-powerful and mysterious but you do not get to come to our house and aim a sniper rifle at us.”
The woman watches Cassie. After a moment she makes a hand gesture and the dot disappears. Cassie lets out a breath beside me but only loud enough that I hear.
“Why are you here? You said I should never try to contact you again.”
“We don’t explain ourselves to anyone. We don’tmeetwith people,” she annunciates the word. “But, you proved you’re the kind of people who will go to any lengths to help women in need. You’re strong, and smart,” she glances at Cassie, then back to me.
Cassie takes my hand, and I can practically read her mind, she doesn’t want praise for what she did.
The woman takes out a black card and holds it out to me. I take it, turning it over to see a PO Box address.
“Name and state,” she says. “We will never contact you, but we’ll follow up. Do not lose, share or advertise that address.”
“You mean women’s names and where they live,” Cassie says.
The woman doesn’t answer, she walks down the steps to the end of the driveway. A black SUV pulls up, and she gets in without a glanceback. It doesn’t have any plates and they’re gone before I could even try to get a picture.
Not that I want to.
“Holy shit,” Cassie sighs when the car is out of sight. “I can’t believe they had a sniper rifle on you.”
“We always suspected they had power behind them.”
She pulls a face but takes the card and looks it over. “To just ask for a name and the state the person lives in, they definitely have power behind them.”
Neither of us say it but we both suspect some kind of law enforcement must be involved.
“I need to show this to King,” I say. “Come on, let’s go.”
Cassie nods and we climb into the Buick. Our maiden drive is somewhat dampened by thoughts of the Veil Line showing up at our door. Cassie has some trauma when it comes to me being in the crosshairs. Not that I don’t feel that too. I hate that she worries.
King is in his office and tells us to come in. He listens as I tell him about the visit from the woman and Cassie hands over the card.
“I assumed they’d moved on from taking phone calls,” he says, putting the card in a drawer of his desk.
