Was he mocking her now? Or did that damn British accent just make it sound like that?
Their shoulders bumped as Dominic closed the trunk of the car. He edged closer to her, but she shifted to keep enough distance between them. “Don’t make me regret this,” she warned him.
“You won’t regret it because you’re making the right choice. I knew you’d never resist an offer like this.”
She hated the way that sounded, as if he knew everything about her. “You don’t know that.”
“I haven’t decided anything yet.”
The buzz of her phone made her jump. It was a local number that she didn’t recognize.
“Please don’t answer that.” Dominic frowned at her across the seat. “We don’t have time for distractions.”
“I have to. Operation Respected Elders.”
“What’s that? Sounds dull as hell.”
Ignoring him, she answered the call. It was Holly, her words tumbling over each other, audible even without the speaker. “Kendra! Where are you right now? I need your help, or someone’s help, like a grownup’s, and my sister’s too busy and Jason was a dick to me, and his phone isn’t answering anyway, so I called you. Can you come help me?”
Dominic shook his head in a firm “no.” She ignored him. “How urgent is it? What’s going on?”
“I…I think I need to go to the police. I didn’t want to, because Chloe thinks I’m being a paranoid toxic friend, but I’ve been looking at the stuff her boyfriend is posting on social media and it scares me. I’m worried he’s going to do something crazy.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at home. Jason has the car, and it’s too late to bike around town. I was going to tell Jason before, but we had a fight, sort of, and Chloe says she’ll never speak to me if I tell the police and—”
“Holly.” Kendra cut her off. “What does your gut say?”
“I’m scared,” she whispered. “Scared for Chloe. He said he was going to buy a gun as soon as he got old enough, and he just had a birthday.”
“I’ll come get you. We’ll go talk to Granger. He’s the new safety officer.”
“Her boyfriend lives in another town, so I don’t know if it should be Granger or…”
“He’ll know what to do. We got this. I’ll be right there.” She pulled the phone away from her face and addressed Dominic. “I have to do something before we go anywhere.”
“Jesus, Kendra—”
“Will you take me?” she said sharply. “Or should I drive myself?”
“I suppose we can afford a short detour.”
Kendra turned back to the call. “I’m going to call Granger and give him a head’s up,” she told Holly. “We’ll go see him together.”
“Okay. Thanks, Kendra.” The relief in Holly’s voice made her heart twist. The poor girl. This must be what had been bothering her all this time. Wanting to respect her friend’s wishes versus worried for her safety.
She and Dominic climbed into the backseat and the Honda eased out of her father’s driveway. Night closed around them, enveloping the car in soft darkness.
The Honda sped toward the part of town where Holly and Jason lived. She wondered where Jason was, and why he wasn’t answering Holly’s calls. He hadn’t answered her text either. Was he okay? A growing sense of unease filled her.
In the dark masses of trees, she saw the occasional twinkle of someone’s lights. The moon was about to dip behind the treetops, and already the stars were brighter.
As it turned out, Earl Granger met them at Jason’s house. They arrived almost at the same moment. Holly rushed out of the house and huddled close to Kendra, who kept an arm around her shoulder while she spilled all the details.
Dominic hovered a few yards away, constantly checking his phone and shooting impatient glances their way.
“I kept screenshots of all his posts even though Chloe got mad at me. She says he just talks shit and I’m taking it too seriously.”
“You did the right thing,” Granger told her. He took notes in a little book while she talked. His big frame and stern manner was wildly reassuring. “I can take it from here.”
Holly burst into tears. Her body shook against Kendra’s, the release of weeks of worry pouring out in the form of sobs. Kendra held her tight. “I’m so glad you called me,” she whispered to her. “This is good. Hard but good.”
Holly just nodded, her head buried in her hands.
“Can you keep Holly’s name out of it?” Kendra asked Granger. That would probably be Jason’s first question if he was here.
“For now, yes. We’ll take this one step at a time.”
Holly drew away, wiping her tears. She glanced at Dominic, who was slouched against the Honda. “Are you going somewhere, Kendra?”
Yes, across the ocean, to one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. “Nowhere important. I can stay if—”
“No no. I’m fine. Jason will be home soon. I just remembered that it’s his jam session night and he probably turned off his phone. You can go.”
“But I thought he was being a—”
Holly didn’t let her finish that sentence. “He’ll be great. He’s Jason.” As if that explained everything, which, in fact, it did. “Thank you, Kendra.” She threw her arms around Kendra again, and they shared a long hug.
It was hard to leave her, but both Granger and Holly insisted they’d be fine. So she got back into the Uber.
“I have to stop for gas,” said the driver, a young man named Ahmad.
Why did that fill her with relief? She directed him to the nearest gas station and they sped away.
Dominic scrolled on his phone, his perfect profile illuminated by its blue glow. “I changed our tickets and gave us an extra two hours to get there. Your little detour didn’t cost us too much.”
Little detour. As if that was all it amounted to, rather than supporting a young woman in a moment of crisis.
The “detour” had done something else, though. Kendra no longer felt swept up in the excitement of rushing off to catch a midnight plane.
At the East Lake gas station, which doubled as a video rental and convenience store, she got out of the car and drew in a deep breath of the September air. The sight of Jason’s house—the warm light spilling out the windows, the bicycles leaning under the shed, the brass flowerpot shaped like fireman’s boots—had shaken her up.
How could she leave town without talking to him first? She couldn’t. Why was Dominic rushing her like this?
Dominic emerged from the car, still scanning his phone.
“Is there some kind of deadline coming up?” she asked him. “Why do we have to go tonight? What if I’d needed more time to wrap things up?”
“It’s always best to strike while the iron is hot.” He closed his phone, putting his face into shadow. “Ancient business proverb. I don’t want them to change their minds before we close.”
That was true enough, she supposed. “Who am I going to be meeting with?”
“His name is Colin Atwood. I’ll email you his bio so you can brief yourself beforehand. I know you like to be prepared.”