Unlikely.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
Nichols shook herself, as if dismissing whatever was going through her head. She walked toward me, reaching for my cuffs. "You're free to go."
"I am?"
I wasn't one to question my good luck—I rarely had enough of it—but this was an unexpected turn of events.
Nichols's lip curled as she inserted her key and I held my breath, hoping she didn't notice the slight misshapenness of the metal. I hadn't had time to fully escape so they were only partially bent instead of a mangled mass. The cuffs loosened and she wasted no time grabbing them, stuffing them into her pocket seconds later.
"Let's go. Your boss is waiting," she said, stepping back.
Boss, I mouthed silently.
What boss?
There was a reason I worked for myself. People in authority positions and I didn't always get along. One of the best things about starting my own business was I never had to deal with people who thought they could tell me what to do or how to live. Of course, the tradeoff for that was that when things went wrong, I only had myself to blame.
Nichols jerked her chin at me in irritation. "Are you coming? I don't have all night."
I stared at her for a long moment, trying to decide if this was some sort of trick. At last I nodded and stood. "Yup, of course."
With one last searching look at the wall where I'd spotted the shadow monster, I stepped into the hallway, following Nichols through the police station.
It took me the length of a hallway to figure out the likely reason for my sudden release. Liam. It had to be. He must have people watching the police. That, or he'd gotten one of his enforcers—I was betting Makoto—to hack into the databases. I probably popped up on his radar as soon as I was brought in.
The tight feeling I'd had in the pit of my stomach relaxed. Liam might call me an idiot and question my sanity, but he wasn't likely to try to kill me.
Nichols slowed as a woman came into view.
“Crap,” Nichols muttered. “Someone’s going to get an earful later, and it better not be me. She was supposed to be gone already.”
I looked with interest at the stranger, tempted to ask about her even though I suspected Nichols wouldn’t answer.
My guess—the woman was a civilian. There was just something about her that didn’t say cop. Her clothes were casual as was her manner. She’d thrown her hair up into a messy bun. Her eyes were tired and had dark circles under them.
For the most part, she seemed average. Nothing really stood out about her if I didn’t count the extreme shock in her face as Nichols led me over to the desk she was standing next to.
“What is she doing out here?” the woman demanded.
Nichols didn’t answer, swiping a manila envelope with my name on it off the desk and handing it to me. I cracked it open, making sure my driver's license, phone, and the bracelet responsible for this whole mess was there.
At the sight of them, I breathed a sigh of relief. The debacle with the cop might have been mildly embarrassing, and I might have a new assassin after me, but at least it hadn't been for nothing.
As innocuous looking as that bracelet was, returning it to its rightful master was going to ensure I paid rent this month.
In the end that was all I could ask for.
“Wait—you’re letting her go?” the woman asked, finally realizing why Nichols had handed me the envelope. Her expression held alarm as she glanced between us
Nichols glanced at the woman. “Ma’am, I’ll be with you in a moment.”
I didn’t waste time signing my name to the sheet Nichols offered me to verify all of my belongings had been returned to me.
All the while, the woman watched with a suspicious frown that only deepened the longer I stood there. For the most part, I ignored her, not wanting her to see I was as interested in her as she was in me.
It was obvious from the way she spoke that she recognized me.
