Page 60 of Where Angels Hide

Abby nearly choked. She coughed to cover it. “Um, yeah.”

“Well, I’m on my way over. Do you need me to pick anything up?”

Shit!She sprang to her feet. “No!”

“What?”

“Sorry, I mean, that’s not a good idea, coming over.”Shit, think of something!

“Why not?” The concern in his tone turned to suspicion.

“Mum has a friend.” She screwed her face up. “Friendscoming over and I think we should leave them to it. If the doctor’s right, she won’t have too many more good days where she can entertain like this.” She shook the image—both images—of her mum and Zep, and her mum not being well enough, from her head.

“Right… well… I guess I can visit this afternoon.” He didn’t sound convinced.

“I’m heading home now. Why don't you pick up some croissants and we can have brunch on the back deck?” She pressed her lips together, hoping it would be enough to convince him.

“Okay, sure.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Yep.”

She ended the call and hoped against all hell she’d managed to avert a crisis.

Usingthe very real excuse that she needed to call her clients, Abby made a hasty retreat out of Rachel’s cottage—after she’d waited the two minutes Zeb had insisted on while he made a call to ensure one of his goons followed her and watched the house. A light-haired man with a snarl indented into his face nodded at her from across the road as she got into her car, sending an involuntary shudder through her.

The conversation with Scott had convinced her that the police and Taskforce Ricochet had no idea what the connection was between Kypianos, The Devils and her. Or the war that was coming, according to Zep. Abby couldn’t even conceive of what was the right thing to do. Scott wasn’t working the case. In fact, he was on leave. Did that absolve her of telling him what she knew? He was also her partner. What was her obligation in this instance?

Scott was her boyfriend and a police officer. In what world could the two roles not be related? Sure, Abby could break up with him and that would solve the dilemma. But that wasn’t what she wanted.

Marriage and children weren’t on her agenda, and she wasn’t sure if they’d ever be. Was it fair to stay with him if he did want to walk down the aisle and start a family sooner rather than later? The way he was talking after he got back from Sydney made that scenario seem likely. Why couldn’t he just be happy with the way things were? Like she was.

Short of breaking up with him, Abby remained conflicted. She didn’t see how she could tell him about Zep without compromising him as a police officer. And right at this moment, she didn’t know if involving the police was in any way sensible. If Zep’s man hadn’t been tailing her, God only knows what Kypainos would have done. Then again, if Zep wasn’t her father, none of this would be happening.

Abby drove the short distance between Rachel’s cottage and her house on auto-pilot. Pulling into the driveway, she was no closer to figuring out what, if anything, she should tell Scott. Maybe she would decide when she was looking him in the eye—decide if she could keep lying by omission to him.

She spent the next forty minutes phoning her clients and explaining her mother’s sudden health crisis. Thankfully, they were all very understanding and were happy to delay the work for a while. Abby would still do some work when she could, but knowing the pressure was off certainly eased her mind.

Her stomach protested her lack of food and she realised she hadn’t heard Scott come home. “Scott?”

There was no sign of him anywhere. It didn’t take that long to buy croissants.

With the snarly man watching her, Abby knew Zep didn’t have anyone watching Scott. Her legs turned to jelly. Zep had warned her that people she cared about could become a target. Did they get to Scott?

She snatched up her phone, but Face ID wouldn’t recognise her. Clumsy fingers refused to cooperate as she tried to unlock her phone. It hurt to breathe.

Finally, the phone opened, and she called Scott, pacing the length of their living room as she waited for him to pick up.

“Hello.”

Relief washed over her, despite the lack of warmth in his greeting. “Scott, where are you? I thought you were coming home?”

“I really wanted to see how your mum was doing, just for a moment, so I popped in.”

All the oxygen rushed from her body.Fuck!

“You and I need to talk. I’m on my way.”