“Excuse me? He was arrested. Was he not? You don’t know where he is?”
The agent removes his sunglasses, placing them on the table before eyeing me as if to see through my lies. “You know he’s out. I know he’s made contact.”
Keeping calm, I sip my coffee. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You can play coy all you want, but I know something more went on between the two of you while he had you captive, and I also know that since you were taken away from him, he hasn’t been behaving normally. You being the link to his recent behavior is why I find myself on your doorstep.”
“What agency did you say you worked for again?”
“I didn’t.”
“Can I see your badge?”
He sighs. “Listen to me and listen to me good, Ms. Allen, if you can’t rein Koen in, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands.”
“As I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen or heard from Mr. Grady since he was arrested, and I was brought home.”
He nods, shaking his head and standing. “You’d make a hell of an agent, you know that?”
Grabbing his sunglasses off the table, he turns for the door, which starts up Bear’s growling all over again.
Looking back at me, his face changes. “Give him a message, will you? Tell him to get the fucking job done, or I’ll take away his toy.”
I’m shaking by the time the front door shuts. I don’t immediately move, ensuring I hear the agent’s car pull away from the house before I scramble to the living room and call Allison.
I frantically relay every bit of what happened, and she listens before losing her shit on the other end of the phone.
“Who the fuck is this guy? First, he evades all charges and is released before being completely wiped from the system. Now, this? Something isn’t right.”
“I know,” I tell her, sniffling.
Peeling back the curtain, I peek outside.
He’s gone.
Bear leaps onto the couch, spinning in circles before lying down.
“Did you tell Koen?” she asks.
“He texts from a blocked number. I don’t know how to call him.”
“Sure you do.”
“If he’s the reason this agent or whoever he was came here, you really think it’s the best idea to play into his hand and contact Koen?”
“If this asshole weren’t afraid of Koen, he wouldn’t have come. He showed his hand. That fucker is nothing if not obsessed with you. I bet if you called, he’d come running.”
A giddy thrum flips through my stomach at the thought of not being alone in this.
I place Allison on speakerphone before opening the text thread Koen used to taunt me last night.
I need you. It’s an emergency.
“Okay, I texted him. I still don’t?—”
The front door opens and cuts off my words, and a very angry-looking Koen steps through.
“What? What’s happening? What was that sound?” Allison asks.
