Chapter 7

The words reverberated through my head at least four times before I could choke an answer past the lump in my throat. “Out? How? It’s only been like half an hour.”

“Forest and Joss pulled up at the precinct, opened the back door, and she was waiting. Hit them both instantly. Somehow she had her cuffs off.”

I registered Phoebe’s gasp through a haze.

“Are they okay?” Phoebe asked.

“Yeah, banged up a bit, but no hospital trip like this one.” He stuck a thumb out in my direction, then kept going. “The fae knew not to stick around. Even someone who can fight like her can’t take on an entire L.A. precinct. I think the captain had every off duty cop in for the transfer, but once she was out of the squad car, there was no stopping her.”

Grayson had been right. I should have sat down.

How did a person just deal with this? My throat tightened and I started for the living room, mostly to put my back to the other two.

I was a cop. A L.A. cop. No one could see my fear. No one could know how my mind raced a million miles a minute, going through every possible scenario, every option, every choice.

“Jay?” Grayson asked from the doorway.

“Shoo, shoo,” Phoebe waved her hands at him. He backed up, and she shut the door in his face. “You wait there,” she yelled through the thin wood. “I’ll come get you when she’s ready.”

She bustled after me, but I’d already fallen back into my chair.

“Do you want him in here? Because if you want him here, I’ll go back and get him.”

“Just give me a minute, please.” I closed my eyes, but that just made my entire body hurt. I reached to get my boot laces, but couldn’t stay bent over long enough. Tears of frustration welled up.

“Oh honey, let me get those for you.” Phoebe leaned down and untied by boots, then slipped them off one at a time.

My feet had to reek. I did know if to give her a grateful smile or die of embarrassment, so I settled on a, “Thank you.”

“You should have mentioned this earlier. I got you.”

Now I did give her a grateful smile. I didn’t have people I could count on in my life. Maybe that was changing. She was here, and Grayson… “Uh, maybe let Grayson in now.”

“If you say so,” Phoebe marched toward the door. I’d probably told her too many stories about how Grayson had been tough on me in the beginning. She didn’t seem to like him, and she had just met him.

Grayson awkwardly shuffled in, past Phoebe. This was the first time he’d been in my house. He wrinkled his nose, but I was pretty sure his house wasn’t any better. “I’ve got people on your house tonight.” Unnecessary. Ghira didn’t know where I lived, or really have any reason to come after me now that she was free. “I can sleep on your couch, if you’d like.” His face was red as he got the words out. He was still in uniform, and looked so tired. He’d been through the wringer today too.

“Nah, I’ll be okay.” I waved him over to the couch. “You bought me way too much food though.” I moved to go grab the bag, but Phoebe clicked her tongue at me and brought it over. “I think there’s plenty for all of us.”

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Grayson’s eyes lit up at the mention of food. It didn’t really matter when the last time he’d eaten was. If it was offered, he was eating.

I pulled a burger out, followed by way too many fries for one person, then a grilled cheese. It probably was minus the tomato, like I always ordered it. Someone had thrown in cheese sticks and chicken from Arby’s as well as unlabeled tacos.

“Grayson! This is so much food!”

He swiped the burger, held it up and waited until I nodded in approval. “I didn’t know what you’d be craving. So I just had people pick up some of your favorites.” He held up the burger to Phoebe. “You want this? It’ll be gone in a second.”

Phoebe checked out the fast-food-smorgasbord. “I’ll take the grilled cheese.”

That saying about was it a bad day, or a bad five minutes popped into my head as I watched my only two friends get to know each other over a fast food buffet, sitting on my old couch.

This one could go either way. A homicidal fae had almost killed me multiple times, and now was out on the run.

Phoebe laughed at something Grayson said, and I realized I hadn’t been listening to them at all.

But seeing them happy took the edge off the stress. We’d call it a bad day with a good ending, and hope for better things tomorrow.

* * *

My phone went off at five a.m., same as every morning. But this morning, instead of groaning and rolling over in bed, I groaned and sat down my Ps4 controller. Normally I didn’t let myself game on a weekday, because I got too caught up in whatever I was playing and didn’t get any sleep, but I wasn’t getting any sleep last night anyway and needed something to distract me from the fact that there might be a crazy fae woman hiding in any shadow around the house.

The electric bill next month was going to be through the roof if I started a pattern of keeping every light in the house on overnight.

I checked my stitches for the fifteenth time, poking at my skin. So far so good. The grittiness in my eyes was actually almost as irritating as the wound at the moment.

I pulled my phone over by the cord to shut off the alarm. There were several notifications on the screen.

The stupid thing had gone off all night. But I hadn’t been able to deal with it. I scrolled through the messages. One from my captain, telling me I could have the day off. Nope. I wasn’t sitting around here all day.

Some funny memes from Grayson, his way of checking on me. A message from Phoebe. And four from my estranged husband, Travis.

“Ah, nooo,” I groaned and rubbed my face with my free hand. I’d never called Kenzie last night. At least Travis wasn’t being petty in his messages, just trying to make sure I was alright. But that made me feel like an even bigger pile of crap.

I struggled to my feet and the balance of pain between my stitches and my blurry eyes shifted sharply. I hissed in pain, glad no one was around to see it, and straightened up most of the way before grabbing my service belt with my pistol and shuffling to the bathroom.

“Ugh.” One look in the mirror, and I was ready to go back to the couch and hide under a blanket. But the smell was bad enough to stop me. Fear was a strong smell, and though it had faded, it had left behind a terrible odor that didn’t mix well with the hospital smell and sweat.

And I couldn’t even take a shower for another twenty-four hours because of the stitches.

It took me forever, but I finally got to where I found myself acceptable. My uniform pants rode too high and rubbed my stitches, so I had to change into jeans. I swallowed the pills the doctor from last night had given me on an empty stomach, which was supposed to be a no-no but I didn’t want food right now and knew from experience that I shouldn’t let the pain get ahead of the pills.

By the time I was shambling out my front door, it was after 7:30. Unacceptable under normal circumstances, but decent for a morning like today.

The sun was already partly up, beaming on the sidewalk. Good. I paused outside my door, hand on the knob, not closing it until I had a good look at my surroundings. Everything seemed okay. A squad car sat with two cops at the road. One of the officers I didn’t really know from another shift raised her hand in a half wave.

I waved back even more half-heartedly. I started down the sidewalk on my daily routine of taking the train, but the officer waved me over.

“Hey. Want a ride?”

“Thanks.” I walked over to the car and paused, deciding if the train or the back of the car was worse. Ah well, this car looked fairly new. Hopefully no one had puked or peed in it yet. I slid awkwardly in, trying not to use my core.

“Where we headed?” the other cop in the front seat asked.

“The precinct.”

The two of them exchanged looks, but neither argued. The woman shifted into drive, and I collapsed back against the seat. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

It was time to find a fae murderer.