“Okay,” Wyatt wrote, and then raised his head and asked, “What happened next?”
“She went to bed,” Alex answered for her.
“So the next day, did you do anything before going to the Enforcer House?” Wyatt asked.
Elspeth pulled the now empty bag away with relief. “Yes, I did. I went furniture shopping and met a very nice salesman. But other than cashiers and salesmen, the only other mortals I have encountered since coming here were the moving men and the wife of the mentally ill patient who stabbed me. But she’s female, and no doubt still in the hospital from her husband’s stabbing her, so it can’t be her.” She crumpled the empty bag in her hand, walked to the garbage, and tossed it in, adding, “This is a waste of time. I hardly think I managed to piss off a cashier, salesman, or even the moving men to the point that they’d start stalking me, trail me downtown, and push me into traffic.”
“Probably not, but that only leaves your mother controlling someone and making them do it,” Wyatt pointed out, and then frowned when she headed for the door rather than the table. “Where are you going?”
“To change my clothes before the bloodstained side of my pants dries and glues itself to my skin,” she muttered, pushing though the swinging kitchen door.
“Elspeth, wait!” Julianna cried.
Pausing halfway through the door, she swung back wearily and raised her eyebrows at her sister. “What?”
Much to her surprise, the twin hesitated, looking anxious, and then swallowed and begged, “Please, can we stay here? We’ll sleep in the guest room, or on the air mattress in the dining room to be out of the way, and I promise we’ll behave. No attitude, no drinking or eating anything without asking first. Just please don’t make us go down there with her.”
“Please,” Victoria added.
Elspeth didn’t even hesitate. She simply nodded, then let the door swing closed and continued on her way. She hadn’t even taken two steps before the door swung open again and she was suddenly in a sister sandwich, Julianna and Victoria forcing her to a halt as they each hugged her from either side.
“Thank you,” Julianna whispered, squeezing her tightly. “I’m sorry for being such a brat since we got here. Mother just makes me so crazy.”
“Me too,” Victoria said.
“She makes us all crazy,” Elspeth murmured, hugging them back. “Now, go grab your suitcases and take them into the guest bedroom.”
“Thank you,” Julianna and Victoria repeated, each kissing a cheek and giving her another squeeze before releasing her and slipping away.
Elspeth turned to watch them slip back into the kitchen, and stiffened slightly when she saw Wyatt standing silent and still next to the door.
“I’ll see you to your room,” Wyatt murmured, moving up beside her now and taking her arm as he had while escorting her through the different stores.
“It’s not that big an apartment,” Elspeth said with weary amusement. “I’m sure I can get there on my own.”
“I’ll walk you to your room,” he repeated firmly, but this time added, “You’ll wait just inside the door while I check to be sure the windows and doors are closed and locked and that there’s no one inside.”
The words were said in a tone of voice she could only describe as businesslike. He wasn’t being chivalrous or polite. He was being the professional bodyguard, she realized, and merely nodded.
Elspeth expected to have to wait in the doorway. Instead, he ushered her into the room, closed the door, and urged her up against the wall next to the hinges.
“Stay right here,” he instructed, his gaze shifting around the room. “If there’s trouble in the room, leave and run back to the kitchen with the others. If the door starts to open unexpectedly, stay here behind the door and out of sight until you know if it’s friend or foe. If it’s a foe, let them come after me and then slip out and return to the kitchen while they’re distracted, but make sure they’re far enough away not to be able to grab you before you move. Understand?”
Elspeth stared at him wide-eyed, but nodded.
Apparently satisfied, he turned away and moved directly to the French doors. She’d left them unlocked when she’d left earlier, and he opened one to peer outside, then quickly closed and locked it.
“I expected you to make me wait in the hall,” she admitted as he closed the blackout curtains.
“I can’t watch you in the hall if I’m in here,” he pointed out, moving to her closet next.
“Yes, but I should have been safe in the hall,” she pointed out as he opened her closet door and poked around briefly before shutting it.
Much to her surprise, Wyatt shook his head. He didn’t explain, however, but moved to the bathroom and pushed the door open to look around. He disappeared inside, and she heard the screech of the metal hooks of the shower curtain being opened before he called out, “Someone could have broken in through the guest bedroom window and be in there right now. They could have snuck up and snatched or attacked you without my knowing it if I’d left you in the hall while I searched your room.”
Elspeth gaped at the empty bathroom door, shocked at the thought that someone could break into her home and attack her as he was suggesting. She’d thought of her apartment as her safe haven since moving here, but it was quickly proving less than safe. First her mother and sisters showed up and gained entrance, and now he was suggesting whoever had pushed her into traffic could break in?
“All clear.”
Elspeth glanced up at that announcement to see Wyatt coming out of the bathroom. Letting her breath out, she nodded and moved to her closet to gather a clean pair of black jeans and a red shirt. Carrying them with her, she stopped at her dresser to collect a bra and panties and then headed for the bathroom.
“Leave the door cracked open so I can hear if you have any trouble,” Wyatt ordered as he stepped aside for her to enter the bathroom.
Pausing, Elspeth turned to him with surprise. “What?”
“The lock on the window in there is iffy,” he explained gently. “I promise I won’t look, but leave the door open just a crack so I can hear if you have a problem.”
“Oh,” she breathed and then nodded, and muttered, “Right,” as she turned to continue into the room. She almost closed the door all the way behind her by habit alone, but caught herself at the last moment and made sure it was open an inch or two. She then placed her clothes on the hook on the top of the door and set her underwear on the counter before moving to the shower and turning on the water.
The shower was in the corner of the bathroom on the hinge side of the door. Wyatt would have had to open the door further and stuck his head in to see anything. Still, she was self-conscious about stripping with the door open even the little bit it was. Turning her back to it, she quickly stripped off her bloodstained pants and the rest of her clothes and then pretty much leapt into the shower, yanking the curtain closed as she went. Big mistake. She should have checked the water first, Elspeth realized as ice-cold water poured over her.
Gasping in shock, she tried to back quickly out of the water, forgot about the need to step over the lip of the shower base, and tumbled backward through the shower curtain. Elspeth instinctively caught at the sheet of vinyl, trying to save herself, and heard the plink, plink, plink of the curtain holders snapping up to hit the shower rod as the vinyl tore free. The next thing Elspeth knew, she was crashing to the bathroom floor with the vinyl shower curtain as her only cushion. It didn’t do much to protect her head when it hit the tile floor.
“El!”
Groaning, Elspeth reached up to cover the back of her head and rolled onto her side into a fetal position as she tried to ride out the pain. It felt like her head was splitting in two, and she was positive the dampness under her fingers must be blood. God, it hurt!
She was vaguely aware of Wyatt’s concerned voice, and then her hands were forced away so that he could examine her head. It couldn’t be as bad as she’d feared, Elspeth decided when he released a relieved sigh and slid one arm under her legs and the other around her back.
“How is it?” she asked with a frown. The pain was beginning to recede now, surprisingly quickly, Elspeth noted. Still, it had been terrible just a moment ago, so she kept her eyes closed as he lifted her up off the ground.