No matter how hard she tried to convince him she needed to go to that party, Garrett wouldn’t budge. They couldn’t seem to get past this one sticking point, but Gillian wasn’t giving up.
The protective look on Garrett’s face had ceased to be endearing an hour ago. “There’s no way to keep one eye on you and attempt to get Brooke out of there safely. Do I need to remind you of what almost happened to you the last time? You could’ve been killed. The women at that party, outside of the victims, will all be law enforcement. It’s no place for a civilian.”
“I get it, but I’m not just a civilian. I’m Brooke’s family and a powerful witch,” Gillian shot back. “You said the agents will also be there to protect me. I’ll be okay. I wouldn’t take such a risk if I wasn’t sure I could pull this off.”
“Gillian, you’d be putting the entire op at risk. You need to let the police and the agents handle this. I’m done with this conversation. I’m sorry, but this is a critical time in the case. I’ve got work to do,” he said and walked to the dining room where his computer sat chirping on the table.
He took a seat in an armchair and began typing. His body language became stiff and unyielding. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get through to him. Whatever progress they’d made over the past few days seemed to fly out the window. His guard was back up.
Gillian tugged at the collar of her sweatshirt, feeling like a caged animal. She needed to get outside and work off this anger. “I’ve been under fake light all day. I want to take a walk and stretch my legs. The fresh air and the trees will replenish my magick.” If she could get close to water that would be even better.
“No, it’s going to be dark soon,” Garrett murmured, not bothering to look up. “It’s too dangerous. You need to stay put for now.”
Something in her snapped. “I’ll tell you what’s dangerous, me staring at these four walls for days. I’m tired of being told what to do by you.” She was done with this whole, ‘I’m in charge’ detective routine. “You can’t keep me here.” She walked to the wall of windows and glanced at the gray, stormy sky and the first sign of the moon looming above the clouds.
“You’re being unreasonable, Gillian.” Garrett came up behind her and drew the blinds. Then, he glanced over at her with a sigh. “I understand this must be difficult for you. We’re so close to getting Brooke back. You need to be patient a little while longer.”
“You’ve been asking me to be patient, and I have, but it’s not about having patience.”
What if the potion or the spell didn’t work and they couldn’t bring Brooke back from the blood bond? Her stomach twisted into knots thinking about the story of his sister going mad. Gillian couldn’t bear the thought of the same thing happening to Brooke. There were too many ‘what if’s’ and risks to calculate. Her mind blurred with all the things that could possibly go wrong.
“This is about me not following your rules.”
“You need to stop right there.” His gaze bore into hers as he took a step closer.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why? What are you going to do? Don’t pretend you understand what I’m going through. This case doesn’t touch you personally. There’s nothing at stake for you, Garrett. No one for you to lose.” The moment she said the words, she regretted them. Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be so callous. I’m not thinking clearly.”
“You’re right. I have no family to speak of anymore.” His voice sounded hoarse. “And while I did experience something similar many years ago with Sadie, I don’t know what I’d do, or how I’d feel in your shoes. All I can offer you is my word. You need to trust me.” His phone buzzed. He lifted it up and glanced at the screen. “I’m sorry. I need to take this in private. Stay put.” He put the phone to his ear and headed downstairs into the basement.
Her skin burned under the thick cotton of her sweatshirt. The sensation of being caged in became overwhelming and sent her in a tailspin. Before she said something else she regretted, she decided to go for a run and clear her head. She stalked to the barstool and grabbed her phone, along with her earbuds out of her purse. With a deep breath, she headed for the front door, risking the chance of a vampire lying in wait, ready to pounce on her. But she desperately needed to do something with the blazing anger and uncertainty boiling up inside of her.
She jogged down Garden Street at a steady pace with Snow Patrol blaring in her ears. Her heart pounded in her chest. But if she didn’t work off some of this angst, she’d lose her mind.
After a few blocks of pulling fresh air into her lungs, she started to feel better. With every step, some of her anger and frustration melted away. Her head began to clear as she edged closer to the river. When she slowed down and took deep, steadying breaths, her mind drifted to Garrett. She didn’t know why he had managed to get under her skin more than any other person. The pragmatic voice in her head seemed to know the reason. A sense of love radiated from her chest, the kind she’d never felt before. The feeling enveloped her entire body and scared the living hell out of her. A sharp pang cut through her and made her ache. Now looking back, she’d been the one who’d been unreasonable.
Darkness fell over the sky, lifting the protective cover of twilight. Coming out here had been a really bad idea; in fact, probably one of her worst yet. She’d been so caught up thinking about her argument with Garrett, that she’d lost track of time. Her gaze darted around the deserted park right off Frank Sinatra Boulevard. From what she overheard Garrett say to Natalya, this wasn’t far from the area where the police had found the body of Serena Bensen. The thought sent a surge of adrenaline rushing through her veins. She fought the panic rising from her throat.
Her music suddenly stopped, and her fear spiked. She glanced down at her phone. Crap, the battery was dead. With everything going on today, she’d forgotten to charge it. Dark clouds hovered overhead. A loud clap of thunder boomed in the sky and she jumped. A sense of dread twisted in her gut. The next moment, rain came crashing down in big, fat drops, soaking her straight to the bone. She ran for cover under a tree.
Through the corner of her eye, a shadow passed and then disappeared from view. She tried to sense if it was a mage, human, or animal, but the rain made it impossible to detect. She crouched into a ball to stay hidden, wishing she hadn’t been so careless and foolish.
The wind picked up, rustling the leaves and her heart began to pound. She wished like hell she could call Garrett. An image of him catching her in his arms at the hotel, and then another of him rushing through the door of Starbucks in search of her, flashed through her mind in a colorful montage. All he ever tried to do was protect her, even from the very beginning. The realization brought tears to her eyes.
Even though she’d only been gone for a short time, she already missed him. If he was willing to try, then so was she. She was done with being scared. And she realized, as she got to her feet, she was running away from him when she should be running toward him. She’d been trying to avoid this very thing her whole life. But she didn’t want to run away anymore. Another shadow passed and the wind began to howl, making her whole body tremble. She willed herself to get it together and figured she had two choices, stay here and cower, or face her fear head-on. So she turned around and headed back to Garrett’s apartment, running as fast she could.
* * *
Garrett paced back and forth across his basement. “We need to get a layout of the house.”
“The moment you gave us the address to the party, we sent the Bat out to do surveillance of the outside.”
The Bat was a fully operational, invisible drone that came with microphones. It could take photos and record video, yet was only the size of a matchbook. One of the many perks of going to work for MBI was that Alex got to play with all the cool gadgets. Once the bat was in place, they could get a feed of the other victims, and then they’d make their bust. He hoped it would be enough to put all of these bastards deep in the bowels of Hellios forever.
“What’s the plan for covers? How will you get the rest of the agents inside the party?” Garrett asked, hoping like hell this worked because there was too much at stake for something to go wrong now.
“Smith did some digging and found the name of the security firm contracted for the night of the ball. He had a little chat with them, and they were more than willing to cooperate. He posed as one of their guards, which allowed him access to the house. He managed to get in and discreetly lay surveillance equipment and microphones, so we can listen to all of Lawrence’s conversations. He cased the property, but sadly none of the women are there yet, or we’d send our guys in.”
“Does Smith know where the women are being held now?”
