Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
COLE
I t’s for the best that Hannah Grace hides back in her room. That she hates me.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Strickland .
I’d stayed awake for hours last night, poring over the information I had. Reading and rereading her file until I had most of the information memorized. Until I’d passed out. Even then Hannah Grace wasn’t far since she decided to star in my dreams.
If we had the same relationship we had seven years ago, I’d ask her if she was tired from running through my dreams last night. But dream Hannah had let me catch her. Real-life Hannah was an enigma. She looked at me like she wanted to kiss me in one breath and like she was ready to strangle me in the next.
Can you blame her ?
“No,” I say with a sigh.
I toss the notebook toward the bed and walk to the dresser to grab my clothes and get dressed now that the cold registers. Funny, I hadn’t been cold when Hannah Grace was in the room. Neither had she based on the heat in her expression.
Even now my dick twitches at the memory.
“Knock it off,” I mumble and dress quickly before tossing the towel back in the bathroom.
It doesn’t take me long to finish getting ready even after I decide to shave, and twenty minutes—and one serious lecture in the mirror—later, I’m knocking on the now-locked door that separates my room from Hannah Grace’s.
“Hannah Grace?” I call through the door and wait.
After several heartbeats, I’m still waiting and I try again.
“Hannah Grace?” I knock louder in case she didn’t hear me the first time.
This time, I don’t have to wait.
“What?” Her voice is muffled by the door, but still full of suspicion.
“Are you going to open the door?”
“Are you dressed?”
Her quick question has my lips twitching.
“Why? Worried you won’t be able to control yourself?”
The door flies open and her hand snaps out, her index finger digging into my chest.
“You don’t need to concern yourself with that, you egotistical asshole. You’re not that attractive.”
I can’t help the flare of amusement and continue to push her buttons.
“Not that attractive means you think I’m at least a little attractive.”
“I’m not going to argue with you or deny anything. In theory? Sure. I have no doubt that you have plenty of women who are more than happy to tell you how attractive you are.”
Not as many as she thinks there are. Or were.
But none of them are you .
Fuck. The amusement fades and suddenly I want out of this conversation as fast as I jumped into it. This isn’t my girlfriend who I used to joke around with. She isn’t even my friend. Not anymore.
Hannah Grace is a client. And I need to act like a professional. But I can’t stop the question before it pops out.
“What about you?”
She sighs and closes her eyes. Taking a step back, when those dark lashes flutter back open, her blue eyes have a mask in place that I hate. I don’t want her to hide what she feels.
Maybe it’s for the best .
“It doesn’t matter what I think, Cole. The only thing that matters is getting through this and…”
She trails off, but the resignation of what she hasn’t said is written in her expression.
“Moving on with your life,” I supply for her.
She nods.
It’s true.
That should be all that matters.
So why does that create a hollow ache where my heart beats in my chest?
“Can we go to school now?” she asks.
“Let me just grab my bag.”
I’m already at my desk when she speaks again.
“I want to drive myself.”
Last night, I’d followed her to the hotel. My plan had been to use her car if we needed it for a distraction, but the separation will do us some good.
“Okay. Just don’t lose me.”
“You know where I work,” she grumbles and turns into her room.
I’m smiling again before I realize it.
“And wipe that grin off your face,” she says louder, calling me out.
It’s probably a good thing I don’t have to hide my smile on our way to the school since it’s almost impossible to completely wipe away my grin—although I do manage to bite it back when I’m with her in the hotel elevator and walking toward her car. I only let her climb in once I’ve done a sweep of the outside and don’t notice anything different from when she parked it last night.
She gets in without another word, but does wait for me to back out behind her. I keep a healthy distance between my car and hers as we drive toward her school and allow her to park where she normally does while I grab a spot in the back of the lot, backing in so I can keep an eye on the school from my car if the administrators don’t want me inside. Not that I plan to stay inside much. Once school starts for Hannah Grace, I’m going to head back to her place—with her permission—to see if I can find anything at her house. She was too upset for me to spend much time there checking things once the police left and I’d taken my own photographs. Once the lock was changed and the flowers were cleaned up, we had soon left for the hotel.
I had sent the photographs to Sawyer and Sydney late last night in hopes that they would see something the police and I missed.
Hannah Grace’s friend Zach is already in the parking lot, and I have a front row seat to the way she smiles at him. Fuck.
I rub at my chest as jealousy and something else creates a physical pang.
I give myself the moment before leaving my car to join them.
“Zach, right? Good morning.” I extend my hand even though I’d rather deck the man on the receiving end of Hannah Grace’s smile.
“Morning…”
“Cole,” I remind him.
“Cole.” He nods once, gripping my hand before releasing it.
I don’t like you either, dude.
But for Hannah Grace’s sake, I’ll deal with him. He’s her friend.
“Cole’s going to come see my classroom this morning,” she explains, leaving out the part that we’re staying at a hotel.
It was something I told her last night—keep it to herself.
“How’s Principal Green going to feel about that?” Zach asks, leading her toward the school.
My molars grind together as his arm wraps behind her. Almost touching, but not quite.
“I’ll introduce myself to him when he gets in,” I speak up from behind them.
I don’t like that Hannah Grace is here almost by herself in the morning. But I’ll bring that up with her later. And maybe a conversation with Zach too. About how close he is to her.
Yeah, because that won’t piss off Hannah Grace .
Pissed off or not, I need someone looking out for her. Even if it means entrusting her to Zach.
“Where’s your lunch, HG?” Zach asks her.
“Oh…um…shoot. I must have forgotten it,” she says.
I want to groan because Hannah Grace is a terrible liar. Same as she always was.
Even Zach sees right through her.
“Why you gonna try to lie to your best friend?”
He bumps her shoulder with his and she shoots me a look over her shoulder.
No . I mouth the word and shake my head just in case she can’t read my lips.
“HG?” Zach asks again.
“I-I’m in a hotel right now.”
Zach stops and spins in my direction.
“What?”
“Hannah Grace!”
Goddammit. I asked her to keep that quiet.
“He’s my best friend and he already knows everything,” she tells me, perching her hands on her hips.
“Not everything,” I remind her.
“What? What don’t I know?” Zach turns his attention back to Hannah Grace.
“Someone—”
“Not out here at least,” I say and usher them both toward the door.
“No one’s here anyway,” Hannah protests but still swipes her ID at the door to go in.
“Where’s your classroom?” I ask.
It’s Zach who leads the way. The fact that he knows and I don’t irritates the hell out of me.
It should be fine. They both work here—of course he knows where her classroom is. But my gut wants to throw a fit. Wants to insist that he stay here and I’ll walk Hannah Grace to her classroom.
But instead I bite my tongue and follow the two of them. We’re barely past the doorway when Zach stops again.
“Okay, what am I missing?”
I close the door and nod at Hannah Grace to tell the story.
“Someone was in my house,” she says without any lead-in.
“You saw them?” he asks.
She shakes her head.
“No. But they left s-something for me. Roses. All over my bed.”
“Living and dead,” I add.
“Hannah Grace, it’s not safe to stay there right now. Not alone.”
“That’s what Cole said. So we’re staying at a hotel for right now. Until Cole can figure out what’s happening and who’s behind it.”
“You need to call the cops!” His tone says he holds little faith in my efforts.
“We already did,” I growl.
“Any leads?” Zach looks to me.
“Nothing yet. I have my team working on it too.”
“Have the police figured anything out yet?”
I shake my head.
“No. They were going to canvas the neighborhood to see if anybody saw anything, but they weren’t holding out much hope.”
“You think it was creepy grocery store guy?” he asks Hannah Grace.
“It’s been a year since that happened,” she says.
“Maybe he saw you again.” He turns to me. “He drives a Dodge Ram and I have part of his license plate in my phone.”
I pull out my phone and open the text thread to Sydney and Sawyer.
“What’s the number?” I ask.
It takes him a minute but eventually he finds the number and rattles it off to me, and I key in the partial plate. I only get the thumbs-up emoji from Sydney and nothing from Sawyer, so I repocket my phone.
“So now you know everything,” Hannah Grace says.
“Except for what’s next,” Zach responds, crossing his arms and looking first at me before looking back to Hannah Grace.
“What’s next is my meeting Principal Green. Hannah Grace won’t be left alone from now until I find the son of a bitch who’s scaring her.”
“Oh goody,” she mumbles and I shoot a glare in her direction.
“Is your principal here yet?” I ask.
She glances at the clock above her door.
“He should be. Come on. We’ll go meet him.”
Zach walks with us in the direction of the office, but stops at the gym. Principal Green is in, and after explaining the situation and assuring him that his staff and students are safe, he agrees to letting me stay as a visitor with Hannah Grace. It helps that Sawyer reached out to him yesterday while I was sleeping to brief him about what was going on.
Thanks for sharing the info, boss .
“School starts soon,” Hannah Grace says as we walk out of the office.
“I’ll be back in a little while.”
I want to take the time while she’s at school to go to her house again.
“Where are you going?”
“Your house. I just want to go check things out again. Want me to bring lunch when I come back?” I ask.
“Unless you want to eat cafeteria food. I thought you said you weren’t going to leave me alone until you found the person doing this,” she says.
On the surface she may appear calm, but I can see the hint of fear she tries to keep hidden. I move closer, reaching out and squeezing her hand.
I try to ignore the frisson of awareness that travels from her skin to mine.
“You’re safe here. It’s a public place. And Zach’s here too. I will be back by lunch. I promise.”
“You better be. I don’t want to eat cafeteria food.”
I bark out a laugh at her comment.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She turns toward her hallway and takes enough steps so my hand loses connection with hers.
“Be good at school,” I call after her.
She stops and shoots me a smile over her shoulder that takes my breath away.
“Be careful,” she murmurs.
It’s still loud enough for me to catch and I nod.
“I will.”
She’s counting on me.