over to the clinic when you’re done and I’ll take you home.”
“No,” she laughed. “I’m sure he’s just trying to freak me out. I’ll be fine.”
Another look passed between them, this one more of a “Now what?”
“I have my phone,” she said, herding them both toward the door. “If something happens, I promise I’ll call, okay? So thank you very much, but you both have jobs, so away you go.”
“You’ll call?” Nick repeated.
“Scout’s honor.” And she would if she thought it was absolutely necessary, but she sincerely hoped it wouldn’t come to that. The last thing she needed was either one of them going caveman because they thought a woman was in peril.
The two of them were a little over the top about things like that.
She didn’t see Kurt again that day, though as closing time grew nearer, she couldn’t deny she felt a prick of worry. Not enough that she’d call Nick or Carter back, but enough that she’d keep her keys clutched between her fingers in case she needed a quick weapon.
With everything secured in the back, she shut the lights off and headed out, making double sure the door was locked. As she turned to go, a white Interceptor with the distinctive RCMP emblem on the side pulled up.
The driver’s door opened, and without so much as a hello, Dudley Do-Right walked around and opened the passenger door.
“You can either get in or I can follow you home—the choice is yours.”
“Oh, for…” Ellie huffed out a hard breath. “Are you kidding me?”
His left eyebrow lifted slowly. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“Not usually, no.” After a brief stare-down, she finally picked the lesser of the two embarrassments and strapped herself into the passenger seat. “Never got to sit up front before. Can I play with the siren?”
“No.” After letting a kid on a bike cross ahead of them, he wheeled the car out of the parking spot and headed down the road. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Is there…hmm…Ooh, I finally sold that pair of jade earrings I’ve had in the store for like a year and a half. That was exciting.”
“Ellie.”
“I read ahead in our Drive Safe workbook, so I’m all set for the test on traffic signs.”
Boy, with a glare like that he was probably terrifying in an interrogation.
“Oh, come on, Ponch, we both know you won’t do anything about him being here, so what’s the point?”
“How can we do anything if we don’t know there’s a problem? You should’ve called us, not Bylaw.”
“And said what?” She readjusted the bag on her lap, folded her hands over the top, then toyed with the handle. “That there’s a guy sitting outside on the bench drinking coffee?”
“How about letting us know that the guy sitting on the bench is a drug dealer from your past who’s getting up in your face?”
“Uh-huh, and then what? He barely touched me.”
Whatever he muttered was muffled by the hand he rubbed over his mouth, but it sounded an awful lot like the F-bomb. “Did he threaten you?”
“Not outright, no.”
“What does that mean?” He didn’t even look at her as he wheeled the car down Victoria toward her street.
“It means if I told you word for word what he said, it wouldn’t be considered threatening. It was his tone.”
“When we get to your place, you’ll have to tell me exactly what he said. How long has he been here?”
“I don’t know.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“About five years ago, when I testified against him.”
She’d never admit it out loud, but it was kind of impressive the way Brett could fire off questions and absorb the information while still keeping an eye on what was going on out on the streets.
“Has he been here before?”
“Not that I know of.”
He pulled into her driveway, parked behind her car, and shut the cruiser off.
“Thank you,” she forced out as she opened her door. “But as you boys in blue made sure I knew last time, unless he makes a direct threat, there’s nothing legally that you guys can do, so if that happens I’ll be sure to call. Until then…”
He wasn’t even listening. Instead, he climbed out of the car and followed her to the door while talking into the mic clipped on his shoulder. “Dispatch Alpha 3…10-76 at 2-6-4-9 Graemsay Road…10-4.”
She barely had the door open before he pushed past her.
“No, please, come on in.”
Ignoring her, he did a quick search downstairs, including the closets and outside the back door.
“Where’s