Page 81 of Under His Protection
“Stay within my sight at all times,” I say. “If anything makes you uncomfortable, just let me know.”
Haley nods. “Got it.” She reaches into her purse and pulls out a parking tag, which she hangs from the rearview mirror. “We can use this to park in a student lot. They’re a lot closer to the buildings than visitor lots.”
When we arrive on campus, I luck out and find a spot in a student parking lot near the building where her first class is held. We get out of the truck, and I sling her backpack over my shoulder.
“You don’t have to carry that,” she says. “I’ve been carrying it for years. I’m used to it.”
“Yes, I do. It’s heavy.”
As we’re walking toward her building, I realize there’s one more thing we need to take care of. “We need a code word.”
She grins at me. “Like a safeword?”
I chuckle. “Not exactly.” I reach for her hand. “A code word. Something you can use to alert me to trouble. Pick one.”
“Like what?”
“It can be anything, as long as you remember it.”
She glances around us. “How about… dandelion?”
Sure enough, the campus lawn is filled with random patches of small yellow flowers. “All right. Dandelion.”
“I can’t believe I have asafeword,” she muses. “It’s just likeFifty Shades of Grey.”
I look at her. “It’s not. Trust me, you’ll never need a safeword. Not with me.” As we continue to her first classroom, she looks amused. “What’s put that smile on your face?”
Her grin widens. “I like having you here with me, that’s all.”
Haley’s two morning classes go off without a hitch. Before each class, I speak privately with the professors, explain the situation, and they both allow me to sit at the back of their rooms.
“Now what?” Haley asks me as she leaves her last class for the day.
“Now we check your mailbox for any new pieces of evidence.”
As we walk into Faulkner Hall, Haley drags her feet. I notice her scanning the lobby and the community room. There’s not much to see right now. The spaces are pretty empty, which makes sense as most students are probably in class.
“Let’s get this over with,” I say, taking her hand and leading her to the mailroom. We locate her cubby. “Do you want to do the honors, or shall I?”
She gestures to her mailbox. “Please.”
There are only a few things in her mailbox, the usual junk mail, plus a sheet of folded notebook paper. I hand the junk mail pieces to Haley, who carries them to the recycling bin.
While she’s doing that, I unfold the note and read it. “Shit.”
“Let me see it,” she says as she returns to my side.
I show it to her.
WHY DID YOU MOVE OUT, HALEY?
THAT’S NOT GOING TO CHANGE ANYTHING.
I CAN FIND YOU WHEREVER YOU GO.
Haley’s eyes widen as she reads the handwritten lines. When she’s done, her stricken gaze lifts to mine. “He can’t really find me, can he? I mean, he seems to know so much.”
He does seem to know a lot, and that makes me think it’s someone close to her—physically close, like someone in one of her classes.
