Evershaw’s expression darkened. “Calm down. No one means her harm.”
An odd tension seized my insides. I’d figured that Dodge was surprised, just like I was, by the two people appearing out of nowhere. But Dodge hadn’t retreated from the threat. He’d faced it. He’d gotten between me and it and growled like he meant to fight whoever tried to get in. My mouth dried out. I couldn’t have spoken even if someone had asked me. Why would he do something like that?
The dark-haired woman standing next to Evershaw fixed her attention on me, and ignored Dodge completely. She wore jeans and a blazer, and managed to look more professional and put-together than I did wearing a full suit. It made me suddenly jealous. She had her life together. I would have bet she never ran into bullshit like Ms. Bridger and her horde of killers.
Evershaw stepped sideways so he could peer around Dodge’s wide stance to see me. “Persephone, this is Detective Greer O’Brien. She’s... part of the community. When someone in the community runs afoul of the law, O’Brien is the person we talk to.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it, boyo,” the detective said, and I caught traces of an Irish accent. She gave Evershaw a sharp sideways look. “You run off and make your own justice, then leave it for me to clean up. Not this time, you hear?”
Evershaw rolled his eyes and waved her toward the armchair next to where Todd still sat. “I think you’re mis-remembering a lot, but I doubt we’ll agree on anything. Sit and Percy will fill you in on what she saw. Then you can deal with Bridger.”
“We don’t know that a crime was committed,” she said, and fixed her intense gaze on me. “But I’m sure Ms. Lawson can give me a place to start investigating.”
I gripped my knees to keep my hands from trembling. “I don’t think I reallysawanything, it was just...”
“We’ll start at the beginning,” she said, and flipped open a notebook. She attempted a smile, though the way her teeth were a bit pointy made me think of Smith. Maybe she was the same sort of thing he was? The detective frowned at Dodge. “You can go, wolf.”
The thought of Dodge not being there made my stomach sink. He couldn’t leave. He’d seen more than me, and he no doubt actually remembered the details that a cop would need to unravel what happened. All I remembered was panic and the sour taste in my mouth, and the dull squish of a human foot hitting the floor.
I wanted to ask him to stay. I needed him to stay, needed to feel his warmth next to me. But my lips wouldn’t move. I couldn’t unlock my jaw to articulate how much I needed Dodge to sit next to me and lend me some of his strength. It felt like I’d completely lost the ability to exist on my own. The alligator was too close to the boat and I didn’t want to face it alone.
Todd shoved to his feet and jerked his chin at Dodge. “Let’s go. We’ve got to check on Silas and help Deirdre mess with whatever is wrong with him. She’s still mixing potions but we need to make sure Silas is secured before the witch tries anything.”
Dodge tensed, then strode off stiff-legged without a backward glance. I watched his retreat and struggled to breathe normally. It was okay. It would be fine. It was just me and the detective in someone else’s living room.
O’Brien’s head tilted as she watched me. “I know this must be overwhelming. Evershaw said you had something of a shock when you were here the first time, and it was followed by the events that Smith called me about. Just take a deep breath. We can take as long as you like, take whatever breaks you need.”
I wanted at least a week’s break. I wanted it to be over with without any input from me. Couldn’t she just go snooping around Ms. Bridger’s businesses? It seemed like everyone knew she was a loan shark and master mobster, but no one had done anything about it. None of those powerful, intimidating people had bothered to hold her accountable, and they expected me – a weak, terrified human – to step up and do the hard work?
I rubbed my temples and struggled to find something to say. I started shaking my head and then couldn’t seem to stop. A band tightened around my chest until I couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t see much. I don’t think I’ll be very helpful.”
“That’s okay. We’ll just go over what you saw and heard, then I have some questions about the sanctuary that Bridger set up and what you’ve observed there.” She sounded so confident. I envied her her certainty. She had a badge and a gun to protect herself. I didn’t have anything.
She still watched me, waiting for something, so I took a deep breath and nodded. I could tell her some things and try to answer her questions, then I was definitely curling up in a dark room and hiding under the covers until I figured out what the hell to do.
O’Brien nodded back and wrote something in her notebook. “Okay. Let’s start with when you arrived at the sanctuary yesterday. Walk me through what happened.”
I stared at the coffee table between us instead of trying to meet her intense gaze. “I wasn’t supposed to be working, but Geordie called me in to handle a delivery, and...”
She interrupted me occasionally to ask for more details, like Geordie’s full name and how long he’d worked there. I didn’t mind the delay. I didn’t want to think about what happened in the kitchen. I didn’t want to have to describe that. My heart pounded faster as I described everything leading up to it, though I slowed down a lot as it got closer. I curled up tighter on the couch, drawing my legs up and wrapping my arms around my knees, wanting to hide behind a cushion or something solid. I couldn’t forget that some of Bridger’s guys still lurked outside, trying to decide if I was a threat to their boss.
O’Brien studied me with her head tilted, weighing and measuring, and eventually she attempted a smile. “Why don’t we pause for a second? Maybe Mercy can make us some coffee.”
I didn’t want coffee. I wanted to hide. But I forced myself to nod and agree, all the while wondering where Dodge was.
Chapter 20
Dodge
He followed Todd through the kitchen to the back of the house and the external entrance to the storm cellar. Dodge didn’t like leaving Persephone there in the living room with the nosy detective, who would no doubt ask hard questions that would be difficult for the architect to answer. Not that he could have stood by while O’Brien caused Persephone distress.
Todd jerked his chin at the doors to the storm cellar. “Silas is down there. Evershaw gave him a few tranquilizers when we got back from the restaurant, so he’d be relaxed in case Deirdre needs to go down there and interact with him. He’s thinking that any spells she has to cast might not be... comfortable for Silas, and if they backfire, he could lose his mind entirely.”
Dodge turned around to go back to the living room to protect Persephone. “Then why the fuck do you want me down there? I can’t do shit about –“
“O’Brien has to talk to her alone,” Todd said, catching Dodge’s arm to keep him from storming back through the house. “You can’t be in there.”
“Fuck that,” he snapped. “She’s going to upset Persephone. There’s no reason.”
