911 seemed like an odd choice, but who else-
Oh! Her last call was to McCrae from the night before. Maybe she could-
“So, they brought you in for this… art project?”
Wow.
She’d had people dismiss her before, but to do it with a big smile and that kind of syrupy sweet voice was one of the worst.
“I’m… I’m a consultant for the Rangers.”
Before she could lift the ID he reached out a hand to pick it up.
She flinched back almost stumbling when the back of her thigh came into contact with the rounded corner of the table.
Her heart lurched up into her throat.
She worried that she might knock the skull off of the table.
That would be catastrophic for the investigation.
Even worse, the man reached for her with both hands, the paper he’d been holding falling down toward the ground at her feet.
“Douglas! Get the fuck away from her!”
Noelle sucked in a breath, instinctively trying to get as far away from him as she could, but he seemed to keep coming at her.
And then he was moving in the opposite direction.
“What the hell?”
Douglas, the name echoed in her head, swung to the side and she saw why he was moving.
“McCrae?”
He had a fistful of the man’s shirt in one hand and as she stood there staring, he clamped a hand down on Douglas’ shoulder.
“What are you doing in here, Douglas?”
The ranger McCrae was holding onto turned one way and then the other, probably trying to get free, but McCrae had a grip on him that wasn’t going to turn loose.
As the tide of fear rushed away, draining from her body, she felt like laughing.
Not just because of the rush of anxiety in her veins but because the way McCrae was handling the other man it looked like he was the puppeteer and the other ranger was an oversized ventriloquist dummy.
McCrae turned his head toward her.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Words, Noelle. Tell me.”
She nodded and tried to smile. “I’m fine.”
He narrowed his gaze at her for a moment, looking at her as if he could see straight into her head.
It was strangely comforting for her, but she didn’t say that, not with that other man in the room.
