Now?
The image of the French teacher had her stiffening, then pulling away.
“Tess?”
She gave him her best smile. “If you have him, I’m going to go wait at the door to let the others in.”
“No. Tess. I—”
“It’s okay.” Now was not the time for this conversation. Oh, they’d have it, because Zane wasn’t the type to avoid important conversations, but even he had to know they couldn’t get into this now.
“Princess—”
“I think maybe we should retire Princess, okay?”
The endearment, one she had always loved, cut her deep and she’d responded without attempting to hide her hurt. She didn’t give him a chance to argue, but before she turned, she caught the hurt in his eyes, the pain on his face. And nowshefelt guilty for hurtinghim.
No. That was not how this was going to play out. He’d gutted her today. She knew it was unintentional, but accidental wounds still bled. She was doing what she needed to do to protect herself and to ensure that nothing got in the way of her healing and recovery.
She opened the door and came face to chin with Detective Morris. “Are you always on call?”
Morris gave her his usual “don’t mess with me” look. “I’ll have you know that I heard what was happening and volunteered.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected that. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. May I come in?”
“Yes. Of course.” She stepped to the side and Morris scanned the room, nodded at Zane, and walked through every room in her apartment before joining Zane at Tessa’s bedroom door.
“This my criminal?” Morris sounded as enthused as if he’d been presented with a bag of dirty laundry.
“Yes.” Zane sounded like he needed to yell at someone, and if Morris didn’t watch it, he’d be the lucky recipient of Zane’s fury.
Morris made a call, and the next hour was a circus of police, FBI, Secret Service, and the apartment complex security personnel all vying for their piece of the investigative pie.
They’d turned Tessa’s office space into the interview room. She’d told the story six times. If she had to tell it again, she was going to start making things up like, “Then Mickey Mouse strolled by and blew me a kiss,” just to see if anyone noticed.
She knew the drill. Knew they were doing their jobs. Knew she would continue to cooperate until the last person had left and she was finally, blissfully alone.
But the idea of being alone didn’t hold the appeal it usually did. How could she sleep, knowing someone had entered her apartment with a keycard?
That was the part of the story that had everyone confused and, even though they were trying hard to hide it, alarmed.
Luke, Gil, Benjamin, Jacob, and, for better or worse, Zane were huddled together in her kitchen planning how they would protect her whether or not she wanted them to. She knew that’swhat was happening, because if anyone else had been attacked in their home, she would have been in a huddle doing the same thing.
The CCBI had fingerprinted everything on the assumption that it was possible the assailant had been inside earlier and returned.
Her attacker was in police custody. So far, he wasn’t talking.
Faith was making a strong case that the investigation into an attack on a Secret Service agent fell under FBI jurisdiction. It was unlikely that they would give Faith the lead on the case because of her relationship with Tessa, but by tomorrow, the FBI would be in charge.
Jacob walked in and closed the door. He squatted down beside her and shook his head. “I cannot believe this happened, Tessa. And I’m sorry it has.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s the throat?”
“I’m fine.”
