Chapter Fourteen
Franny woke up to her alarm and groaned. She turned it off immediately wondering whose bright idea it was to set it for six in the damn—
She sat bolt right up in bed. If her alarm was going off, Royal had…slept on her couch. Had he woken up at some point and decided to stay? Or had he slept in that horrible upright position?
Was she going to have to wake him up? She couldn’t let him be late for work. Not after he’d been so kind as to stay.
God, she’d slept so much better knowing he was there. Did that make her pathetic? Well, she was alive and not kidnapped so maybe she didn’t care if she was a little pathetic.
What she did care about was having to go out there and wake him up. That was just…awkward.
But she could hardly let him be late for work. She threw the covers off her. She ran her hands through her hair, trying to tame it as she moved around trying to find some clothes. She didn’t have a mirror in here. Why didn’t she have a mirror in here?
Six in the morning was never her friend, so running around grabbing random items of clothes and then rejecting them wasn’t what she wanted to be doing, but usually she didn’t have to actually think before a cup of coffee.
She finally pulled on a pair of yoga pants and an oversized T-shirt. She was about to open her door when she stopped herself.
“Bra. My God, Franny, put on a bra.” Thank God there were no cameras in here. She backtracked, put on a bra, and then took a deep breath, let it out.
This was not the panic-inducing moment she was making it out to be.
Rolling her eyes at herself, she opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway. She heard the faint sound of movement and edged into the main area.
Royal was standing, looking at something on his phone—the light from it and the hint of early sunlight from around the blinds were the only things illuminating the room.
Unerringly he looked up at her when she took one more step.
She held her hand up in the most awkward wave of all time then turned the main overhead light on. She managed a smile, hoped it didn’t read as awkward as it felt. “Morning.”
“Morning,” he said, his voice gruff. Which was hot. Because he was hot. And she could not be thinking about that right now.
“I know it’s silly, but I slept way better knowing you were here, so I really appreciate your willingness to humor me.”
He shoved his phone in his pocket and put the pillow on the stack of blankets he hadn’t used. “I appreciate you not waking me up. Probably got a solid eight in. Your couch isn’t half bad.”
“Good.”
He made a gesture for the door. “I better get back to my place so I can be ready for my shift on time. Just text me if you plan on going somewhere. Sound good?”
She nodded.
Before he could move, or she could offer coffee or breakfast or something, a knock sounded at the door. They both looked at it, then froze. Neither making a move one way or another.
Maybe he was as little of a morning person as she was, because he didn’t immediately tell her what to do or do anything himself.
“Well, kidnappers don’t really knock, right?” She managed a shaky kind of laugh and moved for the door. “I’ll look out and see who it is.” She moved to her toes, looked out the peephole.
It was… Copeland. She fell to her heels. She didn’t dare look back at Royal. This looked… Well, surely Copeland wouldn’t jump to weird conclusions. He’d understand.
But she was nervous now. “Uh, it’s Copeland,” she offered. Then disengaged the alarm and unlocked the door.
“Franny, sorry for the…” His gaze tracked beyond her to Royal, his expression immediately hardening. “What the hell are you doing here at six thirty in the morning?”
“Protecting me,” Franny said firmly. She stepped between Copeland’s angry gaze and Royal. “Remember?”
“Yeah, how far is that going?” Copeland demanded of Royal.
“It’s not…going.” Franny couldn’t look at Royal or she’d turn beet red. “And even if it was, absolutely none of your business, Copeland.”
“Look—”
“I know you and Audra have a very sweet meet cute from protecting her, but this isn’t…that. So stop making things weird and explain to me why you are here at six thirty in the morning.”
He was still glaring at Royal, kind of like the older brother she never had, which was almost sweet. If she didn’t feel so damn embarrassed. He stepped inside and she closed the door behind him.
Then his gaze moved to her, and there was an alarming kind of…
regret there. “I just got some…disturbing news. I wanted to tell you in person. Both of you. Didn’t imagine you’d both be together, but—” He sighed.
“There was a fire this morning at the library in Sunrise. The fire department called me once they saw what was being burned.”
“Which was?” Royal demanded, speaking for the first time since Copeland stepped in the door.
“A stack of your books, Franny.”
She leaned against the door, slowly let out her exhale as if she could control her breath she could control the jump of fear in her chest. “Well, that’s not good.”
“If it was burned, how do they know they were Franny’s?” Royal asked.
“It’s possible they weren’t all Franny’s titles,” Copeland said. “But…there was enough left of some of the covers it feels…likely they all were. I talked to the librarian. You know Dahlia, right?” he asked Franny.
She nodded. She liked the librarian out in Sunrise. The library was tiny, but they had a lot of information on the Order of Truth, so she had spent some time there researching that book.
“She said all your books that the library carries were checked out the day before by someone who claimed they were new to Sunrise and got a library card. So, we’ve got something to go off of. But it is another threat, and I want you both aware of it.”
“Why the Sunrise library?” Royal asked. “The Bent County library in Fairmont would have more of her books, wouldn’t they?”
“Yes, but if I had to guess, the size of the library worked in the suspect’s favor. No surveillance, minimal security. Dahlia can describe the person who got the library card to us, and she will, but…”
“It’ll be like me describing the kidnapper. It’ll do a fat lot of nothing,” Franny said with some level of disgust.
“Or it doesn’t. We just don’t know.” Copeland glanced at her. “I want you to be aware so you’re always making an informed decision. If you want to come to the ranch, or have Audra—”
“I think we all know and agree that the safest place for me is here with all this security,” Franny managed. “Audra has enough on her plate even with your help, as do all of you. I’m staying put.”
Copeland eyed Royal. “Well, if anything changes, you let me know.”
“Was it a man or woman?” Royal asked, seemingly out of the blue. “The person who got the library card.”
Copeland looked at Royal. There was distrust in his eyes, but eventually he answered. “Dahlia said it was a woman. I’m going to run the information she gave, but I don’t have much hope there. Why?”
“Just need to know who to look out for. Is there going to be a sketch?”
Copeland nodded. “She’s going to come by the police station this morning. I’ll make sure you and Mayfield get a copy of it, and whatever we work up on the ID, even if it’s fake.”
“As soon as you can,” Royal said. “And any other information you get.”
“I will. I need to get into the station. Walk me out, Deputy.”
Since Copeland didn’t say it as a request, Franny felt like she had to step in.
Even if she felt a little out-of-body trying to wrap her mind around someone burning her books, she had to protect Royal from…
whatever Copeland thought he was doing. “He’s not going to walk you out because you’re going to do some ridiculous male law enforcement posturing, and I don’t want any part of it. ”
“That’s why we’re going to do it outside.”
“No, you’re not.” She put her hands on Copeland’s chest and gave him a shove. “Bye.”
He scowled down at her, but she watched him relent. “I’ll have those sketches to you as soon as I’ve got them, Campbell. Franny, if anything changes—”
“Bye, Copeland.”
“Bye,” he muttered, and turned on his heel and stalked out the door.
Franny locked the door behind him, then stayed staring at the door trying to breathe through the tears that threatened. She wasn’t going to cry in front of Royal. She wasn’t going to feel helpless when she had all these people looking out for her.
“Well, that’s…not great.” She turned and tried to smile at Royal. “But I guess it doesn’t change much for me. Does it?”
“It’s a step. Every time they do something, there’s a chance they leave clues behind. So, it’s actually good.”
“Good?” She wanted to believe that, but she knew he was mostly just saying it to set her mind at ease.
“Look, Franny, I have a theory. I’m going to work on getting to the bottom of it.”
“Why didn’t you tell Copeland this theory?”
Royal studied the door, then moved his gaze back to her. “I want to talk to Simmons first. It’s not that I don’t trust…your friend there. I just think we have to be more careful. Sometimes when a lot of people know something, even a lot of well-meaning cops, everything gets too complicated.”
“You trust Mr. Simmons?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m starting to.”
Franny chewed on her bottom lip, trying to work through any of this, but… He had to get to work. And she should probably try to get some work done too. She unlocked the door, opened it for him, and tried to force her mouth to curve upward. “Thanks again for last night.”
He nodded, moving for the door. But he stopped, reached out, but his big hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “It’s going to be okay, Franny.”
“Of course,” she said brightly.
But she figured they were both lying.
ROYAL GOT READY in a rush. He tried not to think about how…down Franny had looked when he’d left. She had every right to be worried and down, and it wasn’t his job to cheer her up.