Aidan:Love you too xo
My smile refused to die as I headed into the living room where I found Cassie waiting for me. She wore a smart black and white chevron shirt dress with an oversized electric blue purse. Matching pumps peeped out from the long hem.
"Will I do?"
"You will. Come on, let’s go."
I’d cut it tight, but Queens of Heart wasn’t that far away.
"Probably be quicker to walk it if that’s fine with you?" I asked her as we made it out of the elevator and into the lobby.
"Whatever."
Seeing them appear from out of nowhere, I cast Cade and Lucas a glance, watching from the corner of my eye as they followed us out of the building.
It was an unseasonably warm day, and we were quiet as we walked, so I kept an eye on my phone, making sure Aidan didn’t send me a message appertaining to my meeting with Grainne, but we were halfway there when Cassie sucked in a deep breath.
I turned to glance at her, saw she’d stopped on the sidewalk and, turning to her, asked, "You okay, Cass?"
Swallowing, she straightened her shoulders and took another deep breath. "It just hit me."
"What did?" I asked warily.
"I could have died yesterday."
Grimacing, I muttered, "Happy thoughts, then, huh?"
Not that I could blame her; I’d been in her shoes.
"Thatisa happy thought," she retorted. "I could be dead. Instead, I’m alive. I’m with an old friend who saved me by reaching out at a time when I thought I was totally isolated. I’m in the city and I don’t have to be nervous."
"Nervous?"
"He timed me," she admitted, her gaze darting to the sidewalk. "H-He knew Ihadto come to the city for work because, when he lost his job, my blog was paying our bills.
"But even after he started waiting tables at a restaurant nearby, he wanted an itinerary of where I was going, and if I didn’t get back in time, there’d be repercussions."
My throat felt as if someone had it in their grip. "How did you live like that, Cassie?" I whispered, my hand reaching out to clasp hers.
"I don’t know. I just did. It got to be normal." She shook her head. "Normal.Can you imagine?"
"No. I can’t," I admitted gruffly.
"Me either." She sucked in a breath. "I don’t want to see him again, Savannah."
"You don’t have to," I told her immediately.
"He’ll come for me."
The stark answer made me swallow. "Not if you put his ass in jail."
"I’d see him in court."
"Rachel could make it so that you go via video conference."
She reached up and rubbed her brow. "Do you think she’d be able to do that?"
"I do. I think she’ll make it so that you never have to see the bastard again." And if that wasn’t possible, well, I knew people…