Over the last few weeks, I'd been going to the office less and less while delegating more and more. Yeah, I'd been putting in a lot of hours from home, but if I didn't step it up now, I'd be paying for it later.
Besides, I wasn't going to do this – stand outside like some silent creeper, watching her windows in hopes of a glimpse. I felt my jaw tighten. Would the glimpse be of her? Or someone else?
Screw this.
I turned around, only to see Bishop standing a few feet away, with his arms crossed and his gaze on me.
I stopped moving. "What? You're spying on me now?"
He lifted an eyebrow and waited. When I said nothing else, he looked deliberately toward Chloe's place. His look said it all. If anyone was spying, it was me.
I turned away. "Oh, just drop it, alright?" Silently, I began walking back to my own house.
Bishop fell in beside me. "You're losing it. You know that, right?"
I did know it. But hell if I'd ever admit it. So all I said was, "I'm heading downtown."
"Well, I guess that's something."
Something less crazy? Yeah, whatever. I kept on walking.
He spoke again. "Remember. We're meeting back here at seven."
I nodded. He didn't need to remind me. We had Tanya and the hotel room ready to go, complete with camera, sound, and everything else. Or rather, Bishop had gotten all of that together. As for me, I'd been focused on Chloe.
I'd been focused on her a lot lately. Too much? Maybe.
Bishop spoke again, his voice softer now. "By tonight, get your head on straight, okay?"
Like that was gonna happen. "Yeah, seven o'clock. Got it."
But when seven o'clock came, all our plans went to hell, because something else – something I never saw coming – happened on just the other side of my fence.
And it involved Chloe.
Chapter 50
It was Saturday night, the night after Chloe's birthday celebration. I was in the five-car garage out back, doing a final check of our surveillance car when I heard a vehicle pull up outside.
I heard a car door open, followed by the sounds of pounding on the nearby garage door. Through it, I heard Bishop's voice, low and urgent. "Open up."
I shook my head. He had a remote, the same as me. But hey, whatever. I strode to the panel and hit the button. The garage door slid up, leaving me staring at an unfamiliar black sedan.
What the hell? So he'd gotten out of the car to knock in person? Why not just hit the horn? I shrugged. Maybe I wasn't the only one who was losing it.
The car pulled into the open bay, and the driver's side door flew open. Bishop jumped out of the seat and flicked his head to the same garage door. "Close it, will ya?"
The door wasn't even halfway down when he said, "There's trouble."
I wasn't worried. "Isn't there always?" I said.
He strode to the back of the sedan, where he popped the trunk and looked inside. He glanced over at me. "Hurry up. We've got to get these clothes off."
Well, that wasn't something you heard every day. What was in there, anyway? A dead body? Knowing Bishop, it wasn’t exactly out of the question. "What's going on?" I said.
He looked up. "It's Chloe."
"What?" With my heart in my gut, I rushed to the trunk and looked inside. It wasn't Chloe. Thank God. It was just some guy, dressed in all black. Dead? I took a closer look. No. Just unconscious.
