“I don’t know. I…” She started to hyperventilate, puffs of air whipping out of her chest.
He forced his voice to gentle. “Tilly—look at me.” It took her a moment, but when she did, her eyes were wide with vulnerability. “Breathe.”
He sucked in a long, exaggerated breath, and she followed, breathing in deeply before releasing it. They did that three times before she finally spoke, this time with less of a tremble in her voice. “Someone was in my office. My head was down because I was looking at my phone, so I barely saw them. They were wearing black and they ran past me, shoving me against the doorframe.”
Shit.
He pulled out his phone and hit his brother’s number. Eastern answered on the first ring. “Kayden—”
“Someone was in Tilly’s office. They shoved her and ran.”
“I’ll be there in ten.”
The second he hung up, he helped Tilly to her feet and onto a chair before grabbing a first aid kit. As he dabbed the wound, he noticed she wasn’t looking at him. She glanced over his shoulder, but he was almost certain she wasn’t seeing anything.
“Does it hurt?” he asked.
“A little, but I think it was more the shock than anything else. I don’t understand what they were doing in my office or why they ran.”
Who the hell knew. If this was the same person who’d stabbed Macy, opened the safe, and shot Jake, then what the hell were they doing in her office? And if it wasn’t the same person, then who was it?
“I’m sorry I left the door unlocked,” he said quietly.
She glanced back at him again. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who came in because I’m a workaholic and I don’t know hownotto work.”
“I’m the same. Guess it’s something we have in common.”
Several minutes later, the door behind him opened and his brother walked in, closely followed by three deputies.
Over the next twenty minutes, Eastern both got his and Tilly’s version of events while his deputies checked the building. When they were done, Tilly searched her office to see if anything was missing, but when she came back out to the foyer, she shook her head.
“I didn’t see anything gone.”
Eastern nodded, and by the expression on his face, Kayden knew he wouldn’t like what was coming next. “We’ve taken some prints, but unfortunately, the door was left unlocked, so the perp didn’t break in. Because you didn’t get a good look at the attacker, and we don’t even know if they were male or female, there isn’t a whole lot we can do.”
“You can keep the goddamn visitors center shut until we know who’s behind these attacks,” Kayden growled, more force than he’d intended behind his words.
“Kayden, we don’t know if the same person’s responsible for Macy, Jake, and today. It could have just been a crime ofopportunity. And I can’t keep the center closed. We don’t know how long this investigation’s going to take.”
Kayden damn well knew that. But he also knew there shouldn’t be a risk to the safety of staff or the visitors.
Eastern sighed. “I can put some guys on the center.”
“That’s not enough!”
A smooth, warm hand touched his arm, then Tilly’s soft voice said, “Kayden…it’s okay.”
But it wasn’t. It didn’t feel anywhere close to okay.
Eastern looked at her. “You should get that cut checked out in case you need stitches.”
“I’m fine.”
She went to move past him into her office, but Kayden grabbed her arm and stepped close. “I don’t want you working here until the place is back up and running and there’s a full staff.”
“Kayden—”
“And even then, I don’t want you leaving late. If you need to do that, you call me, and I’ll accompany you.”
