“I have most of my clothes at the condo, Dom. We can go by there and get my things,” Sophia reminds me. “You’re welcome to stay there with me.”
“We should all go stay at the lake house. It’s a little farther out from work for us, but it has plenty of space and is in a more secure location. Plus, not many people know about it,” I decide.
Shadow and Tucker agree while Sophia looks concerned. “What is it, Sophia?” I ask.
“That house is in a more remote location if it’s that far out from Dallas. Won’t that be more dangerous?”
“Not necessarily,” Shadow says. “There’s an advantage to it being a little known asset of Mr. Powers’. We will drive the two of you back and forth to work and can spot a tail in a second. It may actually draw this person out and make them more desperate to find Mr. Powers. When he gets desperate, he’ll get sloppy.”
Tucker agrees with Shadow and that solidifies my resolve. Once Shadow has collected his belongings, we all congregate at Sophia’s condo until Christine can get clothes for Tucker and me. Sophia is in her bedroom, packing all her belongings, when I walk in to check on her.
“The lake house has cable, too, so you won’t missThe Walking Dead,” I tease her.
“I’m glad. I was worried about that for a minute there,” she laughs.
“Are you really okay? All of this is really a lot of stress on you.”
She suddenly stops folding clothes and looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. It’s entirely possible, but not about this. “Dom, this is incredibly stressful onyou. I’m fine, physically, but I am so worried aboutyou.”
“You did an incredible thing this morning, rushing back into a burning building, Sophia. What if you’d been hurt? The smoke could’ve overcome you—should’veovercome you, really.” I still can’t believe she did that—she put herself in danger but she saved me. As her Dom, I’m really having a hard time with this one.
“I covered my nose and mouth with my shirt, so that filtered some of the smoke out. Plus, I was bent over, so it wasn’t like I was standing straight up where the hottest air was. I never had a second thought, Dom. When I realized you were still in there, my only instinct was to get to you.”
Two hours later, our new clothes have been delivered, we’ve all showered and dressed, and we’re now on our way to the lake house. Dana had our cell phones replaced and delivered first thing this morning and she is sending all my urgent work calls directly to me. She’s handling the ones that she’s able to and Sophia is busy on her phone, conducting her scheduled conference calls.
Another normal day on the job.
