Twenty-five minutes later as Tilly left Fae's room after getting her settled, and handed her a prescribed pill that Fae's doctor had given her for her extreme stress, Freida sent her a text letting her know that the police were there.
The police she was expecting.
The particular officer, she was not.
Her feet paused halfway down the grand staircase when she saw Freida smiling tightly and looking up at Chief Landry.
He stopped whatever he was saying to the night manager when he noticed, or maybe he heard with his superior hearing, movement on the stairs, and when his eyes touched hers, she felt the touch.
She felt something big and bold coming from him, but like it was being held back, cordoned off, or buckled tightly on a leash.
She shook her head and quickly made her way down the rest of the stairs.
"Chief, I didn't know that they would send you. This is just a simple vandalism case," she waved to the living room.
His nod was his answer as his eyes stayed locked on her.
"I mean, we don't...it's not that big of a deal," Tilly stammered. Her earlier rage, frustration, and overwhelm seemed to have dissipated.
He tilted his head as she cleared her throat. Freida watched the exchange with raised eyebrows and her light green sparkly eyeshadow-painted eyes wide.
Tilly turned to Freida with a tight smile. "Freida, why don't you go do inventory for tomorrow?"
"Sure," she replied, flicking her eyes between the two one last time before she moseyed slowly down the hallway and through that swinging door that Tilly watched every second of. When she looked back at the chief he was still staring at her.
"Um, so-"
"You're avoiding me again."
"I'm not," she said with a frown.
"No?"
"No." She crossed her arms and tilted her chin up as they stared off.
"I rescue you-"
"I had that under control," she interrupted.
"Sure. I came along once you had things under control after being kidnapped-"
"It was hardly a kidnapping. It was like a relocation."
One of his eyebrows moved up the slightest. "You passed out. I carried you to my house."
"Which could definitely be considered kidnapping."
"And then," he continued not acknowledging her words, "I fed you, made sure you were alright, we had a nice night and then I got you safely home. Am I missing anything?"
She thought about him standing behind her in the floor-length mirror, his dangerous mouth doing things to her she'd never experienced before. Just his mouth against the thin skin of her neck, his hands not roaming her body, simply holding her against him. She thought of his dark words telling her he'd been able to see him make her melt against him in the mirror.
He left that out.
And she felt heated at the memory. A memory that she'd allowed herself to think about only when she was alone in bed at night.
A heat began again and she hoped she wouldn't have another hot flash.
"The vandalism," she blurted out, instead of answering his question.
