Page 32 of Her Devoted HERO

“You’ve been avoiding my calls for days. I’m not going to see you until tomorrow. Tell me how Saturday went. You told me you’re physically fine. But I want to know how it went with the dashing Navy man.”

“Traffic is horrible this morning. I’ll talk to you tomorrow when I’m at your house.”

“Don’t you dare hang up on me. He came over to your house for dinner. How did it go with Austin?”

“Austin wants to be a SEAL now. Okay? I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“You better.”

Kenna pressed the button on her steering wheel that ended the call. She should have never answered in the first place, not with the rain coming down like it was. God knew that they needed the rain here in Southern California, but having to drive on the freeways during rush hour was not fun. Her cell phone rang again when she was parking her car.

What the hell?

She grabbed her phone to answer it and give Rosalie a piece of her mind.

“Rosalie, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“This isn’t Rosalie,” a man answered.

Kenna dropped the keys to her car as she was getting out. She said eighty million swear words as they hit the water-logged parking lot.

“Who is this?” Kenna asked as she picked up her keys and pulled out her umbrella.

“A friend of a friend.” The man’s voice was low and raspy.

What a strange answer. She looked down and realized she had answered a call that was unidentified. “Seriously, who is this? What’s this about?”

She didn’t hear his whole answer as she fumbled with her purse, keys, and umbrella.

“...for a long time,” were the words he said as she put the phone back up to her ear.

“Can you repeat that?”

“Are you ignoring me?” he asked in that same quiet, creepy tone.

“I just didn’t hear you.”

She was then met by silence.

She looked down, the call had ended.

Huh? Dumbass probably thought he was talking to someone else.

She got to the hospital and was making her way to the elevator when Patsy Harns rushed up to her.

“Did you hear?” Patsy’s eyes were bright with tears.

“Hear what?” Kenna asked as she shook out her raincoat.

“Jean’s dead. She was murdered.”

Kenna dropped her coat on the floor. “What?”

“There are cops here, they’re asking people questions.”

Kenna bent and slowly picked up her coat, hugging it close. “Murdered?” she whispered. “Somebody killed her?”

“It happened over the weekend. When she didn’t show up to her appointments on Monday, they sent Abby to check on her when she didn’t answer her phone. She has a key to her house. It was bad.”