“Then I’m going too,” Ella said.
Paige’s eyes lit up like two glowing embers. “Seriously?”
She’d be leaving behind everything important to her. Mia, Ben, Tobias Campbell’s potential demise. But she couldn’t knowingly let this girl go alone into a danger zone. Ella remembered her first case, and if she didn’t have Mia by her side at the time, she’d have ended up dead.
Ella found her justifications. Mia had guards by her side, Ben encouraged her to do this, Tobias Campbell suffered serious injury last night so he’d be laying low until he recovered. She had a small window before Tobias would attack again.
“Are you sure?” Edis asked.
“Only if you promise to keep Mia guarded like a radioactive Fort Knox. Round-the-clock protection. I’ll be calling her regularly, and if I get word of any sleeping police officers I’m coming home and bringing Miss Ellis with me. Then it’s gonna be boots-to-asses time. Sound fair?”
As recently as last week, Ella wouldn’t dare have cursed in the director’s presence. According to her partner’s stories, the only person who’d ever done it and gotten away with it was Mia.
“Deal,” Edis said. “Ripley’s safety is a priority.”
And now there were two.
Ella stuffed the casefile under her arm and headed for the door. She turned back to Paige, who looked like she was waiting for a bell to signal the end of the meeting.
“Come on, rookie,” Ella said.
The more things change.