“Fine,” she eventually says through gritted teeth. “I understand. I will see if he can come.”
I slump back in one of the waiting room chairs and wait very impatiently for him to arrive. I have a feeling that the receptionist is taking longer on purpose, to wind me up. I want to react. I actually want to dive across the desk and pull her hair, but I won’t. That’s probably what she wants so she can kick my ass out of here. Instead, I stare at her, allowing my angry gaze to pierce right through her, and eventually it makes her uncomfortable enough to finally put in the fucking call.
“Cici!” Either that worked faster than I thought, or Will was already on the way, but somehow, he’s beside me calling out my name in shock. “Oh, thank God you’re here already. Sorry I didn’t answer your calls.”
His arms wrap around me and he embraces me tightly. I fall against him, inhaling deeply to breathe in his wonderfully familiar masculine scent. He smells good, I love the scent of him, it reminds me of home. He feels like home to me. All I want to do is cling to him and never let him go. The tension defuses, all the bad feeling between us disappears and for a wonderful moment it’s just me and him, happy and together. When he’s holding me like this, it’s as if nothing can touch me. It’s just a shame that the rest of the world exists.
“I have something for you,” I pant out as I pull back. “It’s all about you. It’s from him.”
“The threat.” His mouth turns down into a frown. “I’m sorry this came to you, it never should have happened.”
“Yeah. That’s fine, it isn’t your fault.” I furrow my eyebrows. “I was just worried about you because you didn’t come back. I didn’t know where you were or if you were safe.”
Will sucks in a stressed out breath as he sees the picture of him with the blonde woman. The younger cop behind him leans across to defend his work mate. “Will was here most of the night, working.” Then he extends out his hand for me to shake it. “I’m Hank, by the way. Hank Jones.”
“Nothing happened with this woman,” Will growls. “She just talked to me, that’s all.”
“I’m not really concerned about that! It hardly crossed my mind. I’m much more concerned with the threat to our lives.” I point to the hand written note. “Don’t you think that’s a bit more troubling?”
Will leans in closer to read it. To anyone else it might look like he’s struggling to see the letters because he’s too proud to get glasses, but I know better. He isn’t just reading the words, he’s looking at the lettering, the type of pen used, the paper… anything else that might give him a clue. He doesn’t just look at the obvious, he wants to see what’s underneath too. He knows that it isn’t ever simple and straightforward.
“Hmm, yeah okay, we need to run this through the examination room. Check it for finger prints.”
“I’ll do that.” Hank takes it from him, seemingly very keen. “You stay here and… talk.”
It feels a little awkward once it’s just me and Will, and that’s probably because of all the eager eyes starting at us. Will must be able to feel it too because he indicates for me to follow him then he starts walking.
“Let’s go into my office,” he says quietly enough for only me to hear. “We can have a proper talk there. This place is a little… well, it’s crazy at the moment, which I’m sure you can imagine.”
“Yeah, sure whatever you need. I’m just glad that you’re okay.” I let out a little laugh. “I was far too worried.”
Thank God everyone is safe. That’s a wonderful start to what I hope turns out to be a good day.
Chapter Twenty Six – Will
“Oh, sorry,” I apologize to Cici as we enter my office. “My phone has been ringing off the hook all day. I better take it because I have a lot of things going on. It might be important. I won’t be long, I promise.”
“No, it’s okay.” She sits herself down to wait for me. “You go right ahead. Do what you need to do.”
“Hello?” I don’t know what it is, but as soon as that word is out of my mouth, I feel odd. There’s something off. It’s almost like a tension coming from the other end of the line. I don’t like it one bit. “Hello?”
Then I’m greeted with the dial tone. Whoever it was has hung up on me, which is odd. Not many people know my direct line number, I prefer to keep it that way so I don’t have to field external calls all day long. Whoever this is must be someone to actually have my phone number. Someone I know. What the hell?
“Hmm, that was weird.” I try to play my fear down a little in front of Cici. “Let me work out who it was.”
I call the number to see who just called me, and to my surprise there’s a number there. It can’t be Kingpin, or anyone to worry about, or they wouldn’t have left a way to track them. Kingpin is smart. This must just be my paranoia playing up. That and lack of sleep is making me crazy. I need to stop it before I do something dumb.
I scribble the number down and then type it into the Internet to find it. Weirdly, it seems to be attached to the laundry mat. I suppose that could be because we’ve been investigating it, but I have that feeling again…
“Your cell phone is ringing,” Cici says quietly to me. “It’s a number I don’t recognize.”
My heart stops dead in my chest. It’s the same number, the laundry mat. This isn’t a mistake, this is Kingpin warning me that he knows all sorts about me. Pretty much everything. This man is the worst.
“He… hello?” I answer it cautiously. I half expect them to hang up again, but this time, they don’t.
“We have your baby,” a metallic, robotic voice informs me. “And the girl watching her. You need to back off. We will not stop taking more and more people if you don’t give up this investigation right now.”
“My… my baby? Are you serious?” The room is spinning, I feel like I might collapse again. “Don’t hurt my baby. You can’t do anything to him. You aren’t that sick… are you?” Is he? He could be, I don’t know!