Page 76 of Killer Blonde

I’d left that go-bag I had ready under the bed. There hadn’t been a chance to grab it. At the time, I thought I needed all the things in there. Now I realized that they were simply things. I still had the memories so I didn’t need to hold onto the pictures to remember.

“I’ll walk you out,” he told me and I didn’t hesitate to get to my feet.

He shook my hand after we stepped off the elevator. He wished me a good day with a warm smile on his face.

It was pretty fucking strange.

But I knew well enough not to question it.

It was clear there were other forces at work here, or at least a few strings being pulled. I needed to tell Silas to thank his friend. If it weren’t for him, I knew it wouldn’t have played out like this.

I nearly ran down the block to the coffee shop where Silas was waiting for me.

His face turned from scared to relieved the second he saw me.

He’d wanted to go with me. He didn’t want to leave my side even knowing it could be dangerous for him. I wouldn’t let that happen. I told him it would be fine and I needed him to be around for when this was all over. He didn’t like it, but he let me go on my own and promised to wait here until I was done.

‘No matter how long it takes,’he had whispered to me and then kissed me before letting me go.

I rushed into his arms not caring that there were a good number of people around. He wrapped me up tightly, crushing my head against his chest like he couldn’t believe that I was really there.

“How did it go?” he asked me.

“Good? It was weird. The agent was nice. He determined that I knew nothing that would help the case and told me I was free to go. Oh, and that he’d get the whole thing cleared up for me.”

“Really? Just like that?”

I shrugged.

“It was all so very strange,” I said. “But it’s over and we should really thank your friend.”

“Yeah,” he said softly, his eyes going a little hazy for a second. “I plan to.”

“Oh, and apparently I have a condo to sell,” I added, still in shock about the whole thing.

“What?” he asked sounding confused.

“Never mind, it’s not important right now. We’ll take care of it later.”

“Um, okay.” He looked down at me for a long moment, both of us lost in each other’s gaze.

“Silas,” I whispered softly.

“Yeah?” He blinked back into focus.

“What do we do now?”

His smile was beautiful as he looked down at me.

“Whatever you want.”

“I like the sound of that,” I told him and then buried my face in his neck. “We should get out of here, I’m sure people are staring.”

He chuckled but didn’t say anything. His arm was around me as we made our way out of the coffee shop and to the car.

“Pick a direction,” he said after I got myself buckled in.

“What?” I asked in a tone that said I thought he was crazy.