Chapter Fifteen
Nyrene sat in the car, parked in the gravel driveway in front of her small, rundown house. It was a cozy little place and she’d been fixing it up as best as she could on the paycheck she brought home each week, but she was under no illusions about her home.
She didn’t need illusions, either.
It was home and it had been a warm, comfortable sanctuary. But right now, it looked ominous, as if a shadow had fallen across the small, single-story, two-bedroom house.
With a hand that shook, she pulled out the pay-as-you-go phone Joss had pushed into her hand only an hour earlier. There were only two numbers programmed into it. One was for an identical phone that was now in Ben’s possession. The other was for Joss.
As much as she wanted to call Ben, she didn’t.
She punched in a call to Joss and he answered on the first ring.
“Yeah?”
“Somebody’s been in my place,” she said in a low, hushed voice.
“How can you tell?” he asked.
“I…I don’t know. I just feel it.”
To her relief, he didn’t brush it off. “Okay. There’s nobody in there now. If there was, I’d know. We don’t have much time so you need to get inside. Your cop has already contacted his captain so she’s on her way now. He’ll be on his way, too. You need to be inside that house when they get here.”
She nodded, then, feeling silly, said, “Okay. Um…where are you?”
“I’m close,” he told her. “You’re safe, Nyrene, okay?”
She didn’t know how she could be, but she didn’t argue with him. Disconnecting the call, she slid the phone into her purse and climbed from the car.
Cold chills raced up and down her body as she made her way over the busted sidewalk and her hands shook as she fit the key to the lock. Frustrated, she took a deep breath and managed to still that telltale tremor long enough to unlock the door and slip inside. Once in, she flipped all the locks and stood there, her back pressed to the door as she looked around.
She didn’t know what to do now.
She didn’t even want to walk through her house, knowing that some unknown stranger had been inside her place, doing who knows what.
Why had somebody been in her house?
Who had it been?
The phone rang and she jumped at the sound of it.
She had no idea who could be calling, and she definitely wasn’t in the mood to chat, so she stayed where she was, staring at absolutely nothing.
How long would it take for somebody to get there?
Who would get there first?
Easing away from the door, she peeked out through the curtains, once again feeling foolish, but unable to help herself.
The phone went to voicemail and a woman’s voice, unfamiliar, filled the air.
“Hello, Nyrene.”
A chill raced down Nyrene’s back and she jerked away from the window to turn and stare at the phone.
She’d swear that the speaker knew she was there.
“I know you’re in the house and I know you can hear me.”
Nyrene swallowed, fear suddenly coating her tongue and turning her limbs weak.
“It’s Phantom from the Portal. I’ve been trying to get in contact with you. You’re in big trouble and I want to help. Will you pick up the phone?”
Nyrene gave an involuntary shake of her head and shrank back against the door.
A sigh came from the machine next to the phone and Nyrene closed her eyes.
An image flashed across her closed lids.
A woman with short, pale blonde hair and equally pale blue eyes, leaning against a car. She had a phone pressed to her ear and her mouth opened. Words came from the speaker, but to Nyrene, it was as if she was standing next to the woman, not in the small entryway of her little house.
“I’m trying to help you, Nyrene. You reached out to us, remember? What changed?”
You sent a bunch of goons after me, that’s what.
The woman’s voice tightened and Nyrene instinctively checked the bricks in the mental wall she had erected. They were all tight and secure.
But the woman had sensed something.
Nyrene could tell.
“You’re nervous.” The words were soothing. The woman’s face, still flickering like a blurred TV screen in Nyrene’s mind, was not. “I get that. It’s difficult having this shit come on you so hard after a lifetime of being normal. That’s why you need help. Plus all this crazy shit with this cop you’re on the run with. Honey, he’s big trouble, trouble you don’t need. You need us. Will you just stop running?”
Nyrene had to fight the urge to fling the door open and rush to the car, and take off yet again.
She was here for a reason right now, and she’d made a promise.
“I’ve got men on the way to your place. It’s going to take a while but please, just stay there. We’ll take care of you.”
The call disconnected.
Nyrene grabbed the phone once more and punched in a text to Joss.
The people who’ve been chasing me know I’m here. They’re coming.
His response was not the one she was hoping for.
Hey…that’s some cool news. We’ll make it a party. Taige is coming, too. Guess she had a feeling.
Nyrene resisted the urge to text him and tell him he was a crazy bastard.
Head’s up, Nyrene. You’ve got a cop coming up the walkway right now. I’m already heading over, ETA two minutes. Calling Dev to let him know. Do not open that door.
Nyrene closed her eyes just as somebody knocked.
* * * * *
Dev read the text and swore.
Then he punched in the captain’s number. “There’s a cop about to knock on her door,” he said in a cutting voice. “Where are you?”
“Less than five minutes away,” she said. “Where are you?”
“Same.” He felt only slightly better, knowing that Joss was on the scene. He was approaching on foot, but said he was less than two minutes away.
“You got back-up coming, too?” he asked.
“Three officers that I trust,” she assured him. “Not including you.”
He grunted. “Hurry.” Without another word, he ended the call and gripped the steering wheel.
When sirens went off behind him, he ignored them and hit the gas.
Didn’t it just figure that somebody would recognize him?
And he had no doubt that had been the case. He’d intentionally been driving just a little above the speed limit so he wouldn’t catch anybody’s attention. He was also in a rental, the keys turned over by Joss just a few minutes after Nyrene had been provided with transportation, so nobody had recognized the car.
Behind him, the unmarked police car gunned its engine and drew closer.
He ignored it and floored it, whipping around the car in front of him and hanging the right that would take him to Nyrene’s place. Tires squealed as the car he’d cut off barely managed to avoid slamming into him.
The cop car stayed right on his bumper and Dev had no doubt the only reason he wasn’t now dodging bullets was the fact that he was in the middle of a fairly populated area of Clary. People watched wide-eyed as he whipped the car around another corner, then hung a left, finally on Nyrene’s street.
He saw an unmarked car parked in front of Nyrene’s house and almost on the heels of that, a big, unmarked Escalade came around a corner at the end of the street.
The captain’s ride.
But he didn’t breathe a sigh of relief.
Not yet.
Because while he saw the unmarked cop car in front of Nyrene’s house, he didn’t see the cop.