Page 29

Bishop

The call to pick up Eden and Magdalena came earlier than I expected. I didn’t expect to hear from either of them until closing time at the mall, but Eden texted around two to ask me to collect them.

They were standing outside the mall, bags stacked around their legs, when I pulled up. I popped open the trunk, then climbed out.

“Do you know whose is whose?” I asked as I placed the bags inside.

“We do,” Eden replied. “Most of them are the shopaholic’s over there.”

Magdalena laughed. “You did your own fair share. Don’t let her convince you otherwise. I’m beat. I’m going home to take a long soak in the tub, and then see if I can convince Rook to order takeout for dinner.”

“I doubt you’ll need to try very hard.” Rook didn’t like to cook, so it would be takeout or go to a restaurant, if Magdalena didn’t want to cook.

“Probably not, but it’s fun when he pretends to need convincing.”

“I don’t need that visual in my head, thank you.”

She pulled open the door to the back seat and climbed in. Eden took the front passenger seat. I slammed the trunk closed and walked back around to the driver’s side. “What about you? Do you want to order takeout tonight?”

In the middle of clipping her seatbelt into place, she looked at me. “We can do that if you like. Unless you want to go shopping to fill the refrigerator up, and I can cook something.”

“Let’s drop Magdalena off and decide then.” I started the engine and pulled out into traffic.

The two women talked the entire way back to Rook’s place, and I didn’t really pay much attention to their conversation until Eden mentioned how she saw the same security guard three or four times in different stores. I turned my head.

“Did he say anything to you?”

“No.” There was a hint of concern to her tone. Not strong enough for the other woman to pick up on, but I did. “He just walked by a few times. I think he was watching for shoplifters.”

“Hmmm.” I couldn’t push for more details with Magdalena in the car, otherwise she’d want to know why I was so interested, so I filed it away to revisit once we were alone.

Rook was standing on the steps leading to his front door when we pulled up, and he walked down to meet us and help Magdalena with her shopping.

“Did you buy the entire mall?” he asked, and she laughed. “You don’t buy this much when I’m with you.”

“I don’t like dragging you around all the shops.” She leaned against his side, sliding an arm around his waist. “I had fun today. It was a nice change.”

“Me, too.” Eden smiled. “We should do it again. But not for at least a week. I need to recover from today!”

The other woman laughed. “I have your number now, so we’ll work something out.” She turned to me. “I like her, Bishop. Don’t mess it up.”

“No, ma’am.” I looked at Rook. “I’ll see you at Crosby’s on Saturday.”

***

We opted to stop at the grocery store on the way back to my house. Eden didn’t want to eat out and offered to cook. I was going to argue, until she told me that she’d spent the last year mostly living off fast food because she was never sure how long she could stay in one place.

Back at the house, I sent her to unpack her bags and took the groceries into the kitchen. I had no idea what she was planning to cook, but she had taken such obvious delight in walking around the grocery store and selecting various ingredients that I hadn’t even thought to ask. I assumed it was going to be a pasta-based dish since she’d picked up a large bag of the stuff. I wasn’t a fussy eater, so it didn’t matter too much to me what she decided to prepare. I emptied the bags, put the groceries away and opened a bottle of wine.

She came through the door just as I poured the second glass. I slid it across the counter toward her.

“You look like you need this.” I waved a hand toward the door she’d just come through. “Why don’t we go and sit down in the other room and talk.”

“Talk?”

I walked across the kitchen and rested my hand against the small of her back to urge her into movement. “You were worried about the security guard.”

“I was just being overly cautious.”

“What did I say to you?” I opened the door leading into the living room and guided her inside. “Take a seat.”

Clutching her wine glass, she perched on the edge of the couch. “I know. But I honestly don’t think he was doing anything other than his job.”

“What did your gut tell you?”

She didn’t answer me, burying her face into her glass.

“Eden.”

Her shoulders moved as she sighed. “I caught him looking at me at least four times. But it didn’t mean he was really watching me. We were laughing and being noisy. That would make anyone look.” Her protest was weak.

I sat down on the coffee table in front of her. “Describe him to me.”

“Bishop—”

“Did you or did you not tell me that no matter where you went, your ex always managed to find you? Do you think it’s only the police force he has contacts in?”

“But we’re not even in the same state as New York! He can’t have people all over the country.”

“You’d be surprised at the lengths some people will go to in order to get what they want.”

“So, what am I supposed to do? Will changing my name even make any difference? Do I need to get facial reconstruction surgery to escape him? Shave my head? Where will it end?”

From the mild hysteria in her voice, I decided it wouldn’t be wise to tell her that many of my clients did just that. It was something I was planning to discuss with her closer to the time. I wasn’t sure why I was putting it off, other than not liking the thought of her altering her appearance so drastically that she would never be recognized as the woman I’d found in the trunk of a car again.

“That’s what you think I should do, isn’t it?” Her question warned me I’d stayed silent for a beat too long.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You don’t say a lot!” she snapped. “Is that why your fees are so high? Why you laughed when I told you I had fifty thousand and told me it wouldn’t cover your costs? Do you have plastic surgery in the fine details as part of the fee?”

“For some people, yes,” I admitted. “Those who are in real fear for their lives will take whatever step necessary to ensure their safety.”

“ Real fear?” She leapt on the words I used. “You think I’m not scared? That I think this is all some joke?”

“That’s not what I meant.” It wasn’t like me to speak out of turn. “I know you’re scared, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here right now with my ring on your finger.”