* * *
“I appreciate you doing this, Teo,”Aidan said again as we pulled up in front of Our Lady. “I’ll just run in and—” He broke off, frowning at the door handle that would not open the car door for him. I’d locked them all from my side.
“Yeah, I’m coming with you. Sit tight, A. I’ll come round and let you out.” I did as I said, making sure to check up and down the street before I let him out of the car.
“I would have let you come with me, you know,” he told me as he stepped out, slightly pink in the face. “If you’d asked.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m really not in any danger. I’m sure whoever he was, he was probably after Finch—oh!”
I’d put my arm around his shoulders and pulled him close again. This morning he seemed less inclined to accept my protection, but he was getting it whether he liked it or not. I was under orders from Mr. D, after all.
“That door supposed to be open?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as I stared at it from across the road.
“Yes, the choir comes in to practice on Saturday mornings, so our Music Director will have come in earlier.”
I hustled him across the road, checked inside the church foyer, then pulled him through the doors and yanked them shut behind him. “That’s not what the Boss thought,” I said, while I checked both sides of the church. “About Mr. D being the target,” I added. There were too many damn pillars in this place. Too many hiding spots.
“Well, Luca was just raising a few discrepancies—wait, how do you know that?”
“Stay here,” I instructed him, and pulled out my gun. Aidan’s eyes bugged out. “I’mma scout the place before you get any further in.”
“Teo!” He grabbed at my arm. “Please. This—thisisthe house of God. Last night was an anomaly, and there are going to bepeoplehere—”
But as he said that, the front door pushed open again, and I swung around, pushing Aidan behind me.
Chapter Six
Aidan
“Oh, mysaints!” squeaked a plump, gray-haired woman. She was wearing an apron and pulling a wheeled bucket and mop behind her as she came nose to nose with Teo.
“Mrs. O’Reilly!” I exclaimed, hurrying forward. My pulse rate, which had skyrocketed between the door opening and Teo shoving me behind him, began to return to normal and I had to swallow down a sudden, inappropriate desire to giggle. “I’m so sorry we startled you.” I turned to give Teo a stare, but he’d already holstered his gun, thankfully, before she saw it. “Mrs. O’Reilly is good enough to come and help clean on Saturday mornings, Teo.”
He gave a nod. “Ma’am.”
She returned him an uncertain smile. “Hello, Aidan. What afrightyou gave me.”
“I’m very sorry. We just arrived ourselves—”
But she had already recovered, bent on her mission to mop and dust. There were some ladies in the church who had taken on cleaning duties, due to our budgetary constraints. “Well, I’ll be getting on, now,” she said, bustling past.
“We’ll be perfectly safe,” I hissed in Teo’s ear.
He just nodded. “Where’s the security room?”
“Upstairs.” I led him to the side, where there was a locked door that led up some narrow stairs to an administration area. But there was a problem. “The door’s unlocked,” I said, pausing as the handle turned under the weight of my hand.
Teo put his hand on mine, pulling it off the handle, and silently took out his gun again. I hated the sight of it, couldn’t help thinking about how many people it had wounded, maimed, killed, but right then I couldn’t help feeling a sense of relief as well. I was still jumpy, scared about what—who—we might find waiting for us upstairs, but Teo’s cool competence helped calm me.
“You stay behind me, six feet back. Understand?” He didn’t wait to see if I actually did, but pushed past me up the stairs. I watched him moving up the steps, the way he put his feet carefully, silently, the muscles of his thighs working to keep him in a slight crouch, the curve of his—
He looked down at me where I stood still in the open doorway. My mouth was hanging open. I shut it. He gave a jerk of the head and I began to follow him up.
He got upstairs much faster than I did, because I was concentrating on staying the mandated six feet behind. That seemed like a lot, and it was extra difficult because every so often he’d stop and listen, so I had to stop as well. But when he got to the top he motioned for me to stay where I was, and disappeared into the rooms above.
“Clear,” he called back after a minute or two. I hurried the rest of the way up.
