“She knows the name Wren.” Emery’s nerves twitched until she had to fight the urge to fumble around as she looked at him. “Just that. I told her the day after we met and I . . . well, she’s the only one I’ve told.”
Emery didn’t expect him to divulge his real name to everyone she knew. In fact, a part of her liked sharing the special secret of his first name and his real identity . . . for now. If their relationship, or whatever it was, continued then they’d have to talk about the name thing in some depth. Until then, she’d call him Brian in public and never say the name Levi to anyone.
“And I haven’t repeated it nor will I. Consider it forgotten, Brian.” Caroline turned to Emery. “But why are you here today?”
“I still have a job, right?”
Caroline frowned. “You were robbed last night. You can take a day off for that.”
“Especially since it was the second time,” he added.
“That’s not what happened.” When Wren started to talk again, Emery cut him off. “Don’t help.”
She half expected him to butt in and this time not accept the role of second chair in this conversation. But he just stood there, taking in the notices pinned to the board on one side of Caroline’s office. The new cases. Then his gaze switched to the whiteboard inside the glassed-in conference room to the left of Caroline’s office. It displayed the status of cases and a list of assignments.
Despite his strength and all his resources, all the work he did to “fix” things, at heart he was the boy who lost his mother by his father’s hand. Standing there, seeing the evidence of so much similar despair, had to have an impact. Emery regretted bringing him face-to-face with pain that might resonate so much with his past.
“You can work from home.” Caroline winced. “Oh, hell. I didn’t think. Forget that. You can come stay with me until you feel comfortable going back.”
That snapped Wren out of his stillness. He shifted his weight and jumped back into the conversation. “She’s staying with me.”
Caroline smiled. “Well, that’s interesting.”
Wren smiled back. “I agree.”
“That’s enough of that.” She’d barely adjusted to the dating thing and the fact he agreed. The last thing Emery needed was to add matchmaking into the mix. “He was just dropping me off.”
He looked at her. “You promise that you will either call me or Keith if you leave this building? He and Stan are right outside.”
“I’m confused.” Caroline leaned against the first of a long row of file cabinets lined up behind her desk. “Who are all these people you’re talking about?”
Emery waved the question away, hoping to put off the ones that would follow as well. “Never mind.”
“Bodyguards,” Wren said at the same time.
Caroline stood up straight again as the corners of her mouth fell. “Emery?”
“He thinks . . .” He cleared his throat and Emery immediately changed course before he could take over. “Fine. We both think the break-ins are tied to me digging around in Tiffany’s case in a more public way than usual.”
Caroline’s gaze flashed to Wren. “You think she’s in danger beyond a simple break-in?”
“Yes.”
That wasn’t going to make her life easier. Emery could just feel it. “He’s being cautious.”
She could almost imagine the safety lectures Caroline would hand down after this. She’d survived violence as a kid and was ruthless in protecting the people who worked for her—the staff and the band of volunteers. Caroline was especially protective of her and she never took that for granted.
Caroline watched Wren for a few more seconds then nodded. “Then we’ll all be cautious.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I can station some of my people here, if you like.”
“Do you do that sort of thing often?” Caroline asked.
He didn’t hesitate. “I do whatever needs to be done.”
She understood him, but that didn’t mean other people did, so Emery offered a translation. “He thinks that sort of statement is comforting.”
“If you have someone outside, I would like to talk to them, though I’m not sure how it will help. It’s an office building with many offices. A lot of people go in and out.” Caroline shook her head. “I’m not sure how anyone would track them all.”
“Keith is in the hall. His job is to stay by Emery’s side whenever I’m not around.”
That was news to her. Emery wasn’t sure she liked it or the thing where the two of them talked about her even though she was standing right there. “When did I agree to that?”
“You can argue about that later.” Caroline searched through a stack of messages on her desk then handed one to Emery. “Senator Dayton’s office called. She wants to talk to you.”
Normally Emery would think that was a good thing and meant something positive for one of her cases. This time, no. “About what?”
“Maybe she can help, or it’s possible she knows something,” Caroline said.
Emery looked at the number and showed it to Wren.
He nodded. “We can go over now.”