When he didn’t speak, her heart started to thud harder, because to her it looked like a smear of…blood. She swallowed. Why would there be a smear of blood goingintohis apartment?
“Royal?”
He stood slowly. He didn’t seem at all panicked, even though that’s what was starting to hammer in her chest. His blue gaze was intense, but she didn’t see even one ripple of fear in it.
“I’m going to take you to… I’ll take you to Simmons. He’s got that big-ass house. He can keep you hidden away.” He’d already grabbed her again and was pulling her back down the stairs.
She jerked her arm away halfway down the stairs. “No.”
He looked up at her from where he stood a few stairs down. “Franny, I’m not sure what’s going on. I need to get you somewhere safe. This isn’t safe anymore.”
“If this is dangerous, and it sure as hell seems dangerous if that wasblood, I’m not going near anyone’skids.”
“Okay, fair.” He shoved a hand through his hair, the first sign this was more than a simple decision for him. “What about your cousin’s ranch?”
She didn’t really want to pull Audra into the middle of this either, but Audradidknow how to shoot a gun. If they were in danger, Audra could at least defend herself. It felt safer than going to Mr. Simmons with his adorable kids around.
“If we’re to our last resort,” Franny said very carefully, wishing she could come up with something else. “We can go tomy cousin’s ranch.” Blood did feel kind of…last resort. A very bad last resort.
“We might just be getting there.” He was back to pulling her along. She could certainly follow him without the hand on her arm, but it was a kind of nice having some kind of anchor.
He wouldn’t like that either, would he? Him being her anchor. He wouldn’t trust it. But right now, in the midst of danger, neither one of them had the time to consider that.
“What do you think is happening, Royal?” she asked him once they were in his car—his personal one, not his cruiser. He was still in his uniform though. He was still acop, but she knew taking this car meant he was acting as Royal Campbell, not anyone’s deputy.
His expression was grim. “I’m not sure, but nothing good, Franny. Nothing good at all. Someone broke into your apartment and mine, bypassing all security systems. There’s blood on my stoop. I have a bad feeling if we’d gone in there, we’d have found…worse.”
“We need to tell Mr. Simmons. It’s his security system. You don’t think he…”
“No, I don’t think he’s got anything to do with this. Not on purpose anyway. You’re right. We need to tell Simmons. And Beckett. Someone was in our apartments for a reason, and I can’t imagine it was a good one.”
“You drive. I’ll handle telling them.”
He flicked her a glance, then nodded. “Text. That way they can’t try to argue with you about what we should do.”
“Good thinking. But what…are we doing?”
He drove. “I’m working on it.”
ROYAL DROVE WITHOUTa full idea of what his destination was. He had to work out what had just happened.
There would have been more blood inside his apartment. Not his. Not Franny’s. That was something. But why blood at all?
He thought about the splintering on Franny’s door frame. It had been obvious—maybe not to a layman, but someone had to know she had police protection. The break-in at his place was way less obvious, the smear of blood inconsequential. He wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t been looking because ofFranny’sapartment.
He couldn’t help but wonder if it had all been a kind of trap. That he wasmeantto notice Franny’s place had been compromised. Rush to his and…
Something bad was inside. He knew that without going in. But what he wasn’t sure of was the purpose. A threat? Maybe he should have checked it out, but with Franny…
No, best to leave to someone else. Beckett could handle it. Royal had to admit he was coming around to trusting Beckett.
“Mr. Simmons is going to check the security,” Franny said, reading from her phone. “I gave him permission to access all the footage. He’ll text me back when he’s gotten something. Copeland, on the other hand…”
“Wants us to come into the station,” he finished for her. No surprises there.
“Yeah.”
Maybe it was best. Maybe it only felt wrong because of his old gang-member, knee-jerk responses, but the sheriff wanting to pull Franny’s security still irked. Going back to a place where they thought she should befinewhether they knew if the kidnapper was in jail or not felt wrong.
