His expression told her that he doubted that particular turn of events. Odin pulled up his phone. He’d linked her security system both to her phone and his. Since her phone was broken, it was good that he had the setup still accessible on his device. He stared at the screen, and if possible, his expression grew ever darker as he saw the person waiting on her doorstep.
“Odin?”
“It’s your neighbor. Guess he came to pay you another late-night visit.”
It was nine. Hardly super late but…
“I’ll deal with him,” Odin promised. “Just…rest or something, would you?”
No, she would not. Resting was the last thing she felt like doing. Maisey was pretty sure she would be jumping out of her skin any moment. She sidled along behind Odin, and he tossed her a frown.
The doorbell rang again.
Odin flipped the lock and wrenched open the door. “Now is not a good time for us,” he snapped.
The porch light fell on Clay’s face. “I heard about Maisey’s attack!” He craned his body and head to see around Odin’s massive form. “Maisey! Are you all right? What can I do? How can I help?”
Those hardly sounded like the words of a cold-blooded killer. Then again, if he was a cold-blooded killer, wouldn’t he be trying to throw them off the scent? Wouldn’t he be acting concerned?
“Maisey has all the help she needs, but thanks for stopping by,” Odin assured him. He started to slam the door shut on Clay.
“Wait!” Maisey jumped forward. What was Odin doing? This was an opportunity for them to question their suspect. “Thank you for checking on me, Clay.”
Swearing under his breath, Odin eased back.
“Of course! Word is spreading through the staff like wildfire.” Clay stepped over the threshold and into her house.
Odin’s body stiffened.
She put her hand on his arm. Easy. “How was your trip?”
“My trip?” His brow wrinkled. “You can’t want to talk about that!”
Yes, she did want to talk about that trip. Very much. She wanted to hear about it and Hannah Martinez.
“Forget my trip. You were attacked! Judith from the English Department said that you were nearly killed!”
“Kidnapped,” Odin corrected in that deep, rumbling voice of his. A voice that sent shivers sliding over Maisey’s skin. “She was nearly kidnapped.”
Clay’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled for words. Finally, he burst out, “But why would someone want to kidnap Maisey?”
“Why would someone want to break into her house?” Odin threw the question back at him. “Because my instincts say the break-ins and the abduction attempt are related.”
“Your instincts?” Clay gave a nervous laugh. “What are you, a cop or something?”
“Something,” Odin replied flatly.
His body was practically vibrating with fury. She could feel it. “Odin is a PI,” she mumbled.
Clay backed. “You…you’re dating a PI?”
Odin’s arm lifted and wrapped around her shoulders. He pulled her closer to him. “Damn straight she is. And this PI is gonna make absolutely certain that no one hurts her.” She looked at his face and saw that Odin’s bright stare was locked on Clay with laser-like focus as he continued, “I will find the person who tried to take her. I will make him suffer.”
Another nervous laugh came from Clay. “Don’t you mean…the cops will find him? Not so sure that’s what you should be doing by yourself—”
“This is personal. I’ll find the bastard who is after Maisey.” The air thickened with dangerous intensity. “He will be stopped.”
Clay gulped. Sweat dotted his brow. “Got a lot of practice tracking down criminals, huh?”
“Enough.”
Clay’s gaze darted to Maisey. “Can we…can we talk alone?”
Why? But before she could reply—
“No.” Odin’s voice was clipped. “Now back up or lose the foot.”
The foot? Maisey looked down. Saw that Clay’s foot was still over the threshold.
Odin was moving to slam the door.
With a yelp, Clay yanked his foot back.
Bam. She stared at the closed door. Odin flipped the locks.
“I think I should have talked more to him.” Her head tilted as she nibbled on her lower lip. “I wanted to grill him about his trip and that would have given me a chance to—”
“You need to stop playing.” He took her arm. Pulled her back to the den. It was a gentle pull, sure, but still most definitely a pull.
At the couch, she yanked her arm free of his hold. “I’m not playing at anything.”
“No?” Again, his voice was a dangerous rumble. “You want to go off and have a private chat with our lead suspect.”
Yes, so she—
“Worst fucking idea ever.”
Anger hummed through her. “No, really, tell me what you truly think.”
“It’s the worst fucking idea ever,” he snapped again.
Her eyes narrowed. “At least I am trying to get more information. I hired you on Friday, and we have not made any progress on the case!”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
She honestly didn’t even know what she was doing. All of the tension inside of her was erupting and words were just sort of tumbling out of her mouth. “You ghosted me.” There. She’d said it. What pissed her off. “I thought we were working on this together.”
“From here on out, we fucking are.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “I’m sticking to you like glue. No more stake-outs down the street. I’ll be here.”
She was lost. “What stake-out down the street?”
“Did you truly think I was just gonna abandon you after the break-in on Friday?”
Yes, she had certainly considered that possibility. That went back to the whole “ghosted” bit that she’d just mentioned.
“I didn’t think you’d like me cramping your style, so I stayed a safe distance back. I wanted to watch to make sure you weren’t having any unwanted guests.”
Maisey needed to be sure she was understanding. “Saturday night…you were watching my house?”
A hard nod.
“Sunday night…you were watching my house.”
“Didn’t I just say as damn much?”
“Why didn’t you come inside?”
His eyes blazed. “Thought it would be better…to have space.”
What did that mean?
“Also, if the perp didn’t think I was here, figured he’d be more likely to make a move.” He heaved out a breath. “Even had eyes on you at the campus. After all, we’d told Clay that you had a backup on your computer there. I wanted to see if he tried to access it.”
“Is that why you were in the parking lot?”
“Clay wasn’t on campus. I’d seen him leave earlier. I thought you were safe. When he left, I went to do some recon work. When I got back, the parking lot was empty, but you were still there. Shit. Do you know how scared I was when I lost contact with you?”
Big, bad Odin had been scared? She found that hard to believe. “I am not a mind reader.”