Not that it would matter. She’d committed most of the Tiffany files to memory. Tiny details, big items. What people said. She was the foremost expert on Tiffany, something Emery never wanted to be.
He let out a frustrated huffing sound. “It’s odd since we saw the surveillance video. Someone was in there and ran when Wren’s people flushed them out.”
The words clicked together in Emery’s head. “Video?”
The detective talked right over her. “Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?”
Wren picked that moment to shift. He stopped staring at her wall and put his back to it. “She can stay with me.”
“No.” She almost screamed the answer because it struck her as a terrible idea. Her common sense tended to fizzle with him around. There, in the small apartment—yeah, terrible idea. “I’m fine.”
“My money is on Brian to win this debate.”
She refused to take that bet. “Wait—”
“The police are going to want to talk to you. I’ll see if I can cut down on some of that, but you both have my number.” Rick shook Wren’s hand then looked at her. “Be safe, Emery.”
She continued to stare at Wren. It was just the two of them . . . in her bedroom.
“What?” he asked.
“You need to tell him.” She knew he liked secrecy, but she didn’t. The idea of living that way made her head spin.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Why?”
“I get you have this need for anonymity, but he’s a retired detective.” She sighed. “If you’re going to work on this case you’ll be talking to him. I’ll be talking with him. When we’re all together I could slip up.”
“Is that a warning?” Wren kept on staring and his voice stayed flat.
This wasn’t about winning or scoring points. “I’m really just being practical.”
After a few seconds he nodded. “If the need arises, I’ll fill him in.”
The importance of his words hit her head-on. “That’s a big deal to you, right? Conceding that?”
“The biggest.”
She didn’t know what to say to that so she jumped to the other topic on her mind. “You’ve been to crime scenes. You know the detectives.”
“Yes.” He drew out the word until it lasted for three syllables.
“You have people watching me and there’s apparently a tape, which we’re going to talk about at some point.” She tried to put it all together in her mind and make the idea of this stranger swooping in make sense. “Now you’re going to step up and work the case, fix it all somehow.”
Police continued to walk around the family room area just on the other side of the wall. She could hear Rick’s voice and someone else’s as they talked. Every light was on in the apartment and every nerve in her body kept pinging, but all she could see was the man in front of her. The one who confused her when they first met and continued to confuse her, but in a very different way now.
“Do you still think I’m a killer?” he asked.
She didn’t. She hadn’t since she talked to the senator. Something about the way people in power knew Wren and talked about him with admiration rather than fear had her opinion morphing. But that didn’t mean she understood him. Trouble was, she was starting to want to. “I can’t get a handle on what you are.”
“Someone who wants to help you.”
“When people say that, I get nervous.” A lot of well-meaning people had messed up cases she’d worked on. They got the facts wrong or came up with wild theories. She waded through all of that noise at work. She hated that the cycle now repeated in her private life.
“Isn’t giving people closure, assisting them through this process, what you do for a living?”
It was as if he read her mind, which was truly annoying. The one defense she had against this guy was to lock him out of her thoughts. That and fake outrage, but it was getting harder to hold on to that. “Don’t be logical.”
“Sorry.” He smiled as he moved in closer. “Are you really okay? Seeing the police cars had to be a shock.”
“I will be once I know why you have me under surveillance. No bat this time. Just a simple question.” It really wasn’t an accusation. More of a curiosity, which was so unlike her. She came out fighting. With him, she relished the verbal battle but couldn’t seem to maintain her outrage.
“Because you were trying to find me and I didn’t know why. It started out for my protection.” He took another step, closed the gap between them. “Now it’s for yours.”
They stood at the end of her bed, in the small space between the mattress and the wall. She should guide them back into the family room. Keep them well away from this part of the apartment.
She moved in closer. “Stop it. I’m not kidding.”
“What are you referring to exactly?”
That was a great question. “Whatever is happening here. The bold way you burst into my life.”
“Actually, you tracked me down.”
They stood just inches apart. Without thinking she rested her hand against his chest again, loving the stretch of his muscles under her palm just as much this time. “Don’t change the subject.”