A blaze of cop cars slammed into the apartment complex parking lot as I hit the safety of the first building’s cover.
Emerson was sitting in the passenger seat of the car when I made it there. I strolled up slowly, so I wouldn’t gain anyone else’s suspicion.
“What took you so long?” she asked as she pulled on my shirt. “Were you hit at all?”
“Pretty sure I’d feel a bullet wound, babe.”
She stopped tugging on me and went back to her narrow-eyed annoyance. “Well then, are we just going to sit here all day?”
I chuckled as I started the car and turned it toward the docks. Rex wouldn’t try another direct attack at Calder’s base, and I wanted to check on the wreckage of Emerson’s boat.
We made it six blocks before Emerson spoke again. “Have you had that gun on you this entire time?”
“That’s what you want to know?” I asked with a smile. The longer we were together, the more I figured her out.
She thought of her answer until I glanced at her to make sure she was okay. “I think that’s the answer to a question I can handle right now.”
Maybe she understood the dire situation we were in. “Yeah. South Carolina is a concealed-carry state.”
“Right, right.” She stared out the window. “I don’t own a gun.”
“No,” I said as we pulled into the parking lot for Calder’s team. “I didn’t think you did.”
We were halfway to Calder’s office when she said, “It would be pink.”
“Huh?” I asked as we continued past Calder’s front door.
Emerson stayed in step with me. “If I owned a gun, I’d get a pink one.”
I laughed. How the hell did we go from dodging bullets to her picking out an imaginary pink gun?
And why did it turn me on?
“Oh, no,” Emerson moaned as we approached the marina number where her boat used to live. “Everything’s gone.”
We both stopped in front of her marker. “The storm must have wiped the last bit of it out.”
That’s when I saw the note.
It had been stuck with a thick piece of gray duct tape to her tie-off post. The white color of the paper was a stark contrast against the aged wood.
I ripped it down before she had a chance to grab it and read it.
My jaw tightened as I read it.
“What does it say?” Emerson asked.
Fucking A. I didn’t want to tell her. Once I read the note out loud, she’d know the threats were real. She didn’t deserve that. None of us did.
A seagull flew overhead, squawking as it soared overhead.
“Knox,” she tried again. “What does it say?”
I met her gaze. Her eyes were heavy with worry. “Rex says he knows where you live. As if we didn’t already know that.”
I guessed the killer hedged his bets on which location we’d visit first.
Emerson shivered. “He’s not subtle.”
