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Eden

“Ms. Marshall?” A uniformed female officer walked into the bedroom, after tapping on the door. “We’re here to take you home. Is there anything we can do for you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. What do you mean take me home? I’m home already.”

She wrapped a hand around my arm. “If you’ll come with me, we have a car waiting for you.”

“Wait. Where’s Bishop?”

“Mr. Chambers will meet us at the station. Do you need to bring anything? Are you hurt at all?”

“What? No. I’m fine.” I pulled my arm free. “We were going to come to the station tomorrow. Can’t this wait until then?”

“It’s okay, Eden. I can call you that, can’t I? You’re safe now.”

I blinked at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I know it’s confusing, but if you’ll come with me, we can get you settled somewhere comfortable and then we’ll talk about everything. We have a doctor at the station waiting to check you over, if you’re comfortable with that?”

Her soothing voice grated on my nerves. “I want to see Bishop.”

“We’ll arrange that, I promise, but first let’s go down to the station, okay?” She drew me out of the room, pausing to scoop up a pair of shoes from near the door. “Are these yours?”

I nodded.

“Do you have a jacket anywhere?”

“Hanging near the door.”

“Okay, good. Why don’t you put that on, and we’ll go out to the car?”

I found myself ushered down the stairs. Police lights flashed outside, and three uniformed officers were standing near the door. The female officer handed me my shoes and coat. I slipped both on.

“Can I ride with Bishop?”

“I’m afraid not. He’s already left. You’ll see him at the station.”

I followed her outside.

“Here, this is your ride.” She opened the back door of an unmarked police car. “We thought you’d prefer not to have attention drawn to you.”

“I ... umm … appreciate that.” I climbed into the back of the car and settled onto the seat. She slammed the door, sealing me inside. “Wait …” I reached across to the handle, my intention to open it, but nothing happened, and there was no way of lowering the window. “Damn it.”

The driver’s door opened, and someone climbed in and started the engine.

“Can I go back inside and get my phone? I need to call someone.” I wanted to call Magdalena who could tell Rook what was going on, just in case.

I didn’t get a response, the car rolling forward past the police cars. One lifted a hand to wave, and then we were sailing down the drive.

“Excuse me, officer? I need my cell. Can we go back please?” I leaned forward and tapped on the security bars separating me from the front of the car. “Officer?”

“Don’t worry, Eden. You don’t need your cell phone. I have everything you need right here.”

My heart stopped beating.

“Chester?” The word came out as a whisper.

“Hello, darling.” He glanced back at me. “You’ve been a very bad girl. We’re going to need to have a long chat when we get home. I’m not impressed that I had to come all this way to get you. What were you thinking?”