Page 114 of Love What's Left
“Plan any further ahead and you’ll be in a different time zone.”He glances at his watch and the notice that just came through. “Rob is back from lunch,” he says quietly.
Game on. Swallowing down my fear, I put myself in the zone, step over to my old locker, and jiggle the latch.
“Did someone change the lock?” I shout, making sure I sound good and pissed. To be fair, I am.
“They must have,” Gabriel says.
“I’ll get maintenance to take it off with bolt cutters,” I yell.
After I wrecked the lab, the investigators removed my lock. According to security, no one replaced it, since I hadn’t come back, and it held nothing of value in it, except my necklace, which Annabel returned to Gabriel.
“That one is mine now,” a male voice calls from the doorway.
No shit, Sherlock.
Gabriel and I both turn to face Rob Sennett as he enters. Behind wire-framed glasses, his blue eyes hold a wary intensity. I shift my expression to give the impression of surprised welcome. Gabriel’s scowl is a lot less approachable. Anything else would be unbelievable.
“Oh! Good afternoon,” I say with a smile.
He pushes his glasses up his nose. “Syd. No one mentioned you’d be here today.”
“Surprise.” I step closer to him but stop within about five feet, remembering Gabriel’s earlier warnings about not getting too close to people who are suspects in aiding and abetting a horrific crime. There’s no telling what someone could do if they felt cornered. None of them have weapons handy, but we’re in a lab. It wouldn’t be hard to find something that would work in a pinch.
His gazeskips over me to my husband, then my bodyguard, and finally back to my face. “I didn’t know you were coming back to work.”
I’m not. At least, not yet. I may be intellectually capable, but I’m not there emotionally. Not physically either. But he doesn’t need to know that. “I had a little rest and relaxation, but I feel great now.” I slap my hands together, then rub them enthusiastically.
He shifts awkwardly and sets down his cup of coffee.
I make a sweeping gesture with my arm and plaster that cheerful smile on my face. “You made some changes, I see. What was that about?”
A touch of color works up Rob’s face, all the way to his receding hairline. “The changes were a more efficient use of resources.”
I lean forward, bleeding curiosity to mask the burn of fury. “Really? Most of them seem more like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant.”
Gabriel clears his throat. When I glance his way, his face scrunches the tiniest bit. “Easy, sunshine. Too soon,”his face says.
Rob visibly bristles, his mouth tightening and brows lowering.
I twist my lips to the side, then give him a toothy smile. “Just kidding.”
Rob shakes his head. “I’ve never understood your sense of humor.”
“Did you put my stuff in your old locker?” I turn back to the five storage units as though I’m about to find out.
“No.”
I circle back toward him, my head poking forward on my neck like a turtle and wearing that same pleasant smile on my face. “No? What did you do with my things?”
“We didn’t think you were coming back. There wasn’t much in there. Just an old water bottle and a lab coat that didn’t fit anyone else. Amelia threw them out,” he says stiffly.
In my mind’s eye, I can see the interior of my locker like it was yesterday. I didn’t just keep my lucky hat on the top shelf. I kept a pair of sneakers in there that Iwore exclusively in the lab and a cardigan sweater to ward off the chill. Amelia called it my reverse Mr. Rogers routine. Instead of putting on my sneakers and cardigan after work, I put them on when I got here.
My locker shouldn’t have been empty.
“If you believed I wasn’t coming back, why wouldn’t you send my water bottle and lab coat to my home?”
“Amelia said you were moving to a nursing home, full-time,” he says.
