by Cynthia Eden
Maisey stared at her phone as it sat on her desk. Then, heaving a sigh, she snagged the phone and called Odin. Only she got his voicemail, not the man himself. Maisey cleared her throat. “So, hi, it’s me.” Would he recognize her voice? If not, he would have zero idea who me is. “Maisey,” she rushed to say. “I wanted to check in about the case.” Her desk chair’s wheels rolled back across the floor. “See if you had any news and…um, honestly, I was hoping I could help you with the case.” That had been her grand plan when she first went to his office. “I thought we could work together like partners.” She stood and slung her bag over shoulder. Her empty laptop bag.
Odin had hinted to Clay that Maisey had backed up all of the information from her stolen laptop—that she’d saved that data to her computer at work. Technically, she supposed it hadn’t been a hint. He’d just come out and said she had the files at the college. But there had been no attempts on her office. No determined thief who wanted to see if she had more evidence. And she was only hauling around the empty bag now because she did plan to go and buy a new laptop that evening.
She’d also let the silence trail too long on her phone. “Call me when you have a chance, would you?” Maisey rattled off her number. “Thanks, and I—”
His voicemail hung up on her.
Wonderful. She was sure that her rambling message sounded awesome. Or not.
She was about to drop her phone into the bag when it vibrated in her hand. She’d programmed Odin’s number in already, and when she saw it light up the screen, her finger immediately swiped to take the call. “Odin! You got my message?” And he’d responded so very quickly. That seemed like a good sign.
“Your what?”
“My voicemail?” She cleared her throat. “You got the message I left for you?”
“No.”
“Uh…”
“We need to talk.”
Weren’t they talking? She headed down the corridor. The Humanities building was empty. Her last class had been an hour ago, and she’d only stayed because she needed to get lessons set up for the next session later in the week. “I’m leaving campus now,” she told him. “Maybe we could meet up?”
“I’m here.”
He was? Her steps quickened.
“I’m waiting in the parking lot.” His voice hardened. “It’s deserted. Why the hell are you staying here alone? No other vehicles are around.”
Her shoulders stiffened as she grabbed for the stairwell door. She could have waited for the elevator but the thing was seriously slower than Christmas. And she was only on the third floor—she loved sneaking in some cardio. “There’s a security guard who patrols the area every fifteen minutes. I’m safe. I’m—” The line went dead. She heard the flash of static. Dang it! Dead zone. For some reason, that always happened on these stairs. But as soon as she got to the first floor, reception would return. Maisey kept the phone to her ear as she hurried down the steps.
She was on the fifth step down when she realized something was wrong.
The stairwell door hadn’t swung shut behind her.
She paused just for a moment, the phone still at her ear, and she started to turn around and see what was—
Something—someone—slammed into her. The phone flew from Maisey’s fingers and tumbled down the stairs. She tumbled down the stairs right after it.
***
“Maisey?” Odin’s grip on his phone tightened. “Maisey!” She’d just been telling him that she was safe and then—nothing.
The line had disconnected, and Odin automatically called her again even as he took off at a run for the Humanities building. It was a towering, brick building. The bricks had been painted white, and the windows gleamed in the setting sun. He knew she had an office on the third floor. The history department was on the west end of the third floor. He’d done recon work on Maisey and her creepy neighbor. Maisey was on the third floor, while Clay and the rest of the psych department were on the fourth.
Odin rushed into the Humanities building—
“Hey!” A sharp voice called, “Stop!”
He didn’t want to stop. Maisey still wasn’t picking up the phone, and adrenaline pounded through him.
“Campus security!” The voice barked, “Spin toward me.”
Dammit. Odin spun toward him. “I’m worried about my friend. I was just going to meet her.” Then he got a good look at the guard.
Seriously? The man appeared to be pushing ninety. His body curved forward as he studied Odin, and the man’s white hair shot from beneath his gray hat.
His grizzled jaw tightened as the man snapped, “Classes are over. No students are in the building now.”
“She’s not a student.” He still had the phone in his hand. “She’s a professor. Maisey Bright. She’s—”
“Maisey!” A delighted smile stretched the guard’s face. “Plays a great game of poker, that woman does.”
He filed that away for later. “Listen, Maisey was just talking to me, but then we got disconnected. I’m worried something happened to her.” And talking to you is stopping me from finding her so…
The guard waved at him. “She’s probably in the stairwell. Signal is crap there.”
The stairwell.
“Give her a minute,” the guard assured him. His gold name tag identified the guard as Sandy. “She’ll be along soon enough. She always takes the stairs. Says it gives her extra steps and cardio time.”
Odin did some quick calculations. If she’d been on the stairs when her phone went out, she should have already been on the ground level. He’d had to run across the parking lot and dodge across about fifty yards in a common area before he’d burst into the Humanities building.
An unlocked building. Maybe the guard said students shouldn’t be there, but there had been nothing to keep them—or anyone else—out.
He shot for the stairwell. Threw open the door. Took a fast step inside and—crunch.
“Do you see her?” Sandy called out. “Told you,” he said, before Odin could answer. “She likes her cardio.”
Odin lifted his shoe. Stared down at the cracked screen of a phone. Fuck. “Maisey!” he roared.
“Damn, man. Calm down.” Sandy had sidled into the stairwell. “Why she—oh, that’s her phone. She has that cute dragon phone case. Told her I wanted one for myself—”
Odin had just lunged up three steps when he stopped. He looked back. Looked down. He’d come in on the first floor, and he could see stairs leading even lower. There was some kind of bag on those stairs. A laptop bag? “Where do those go?” Odin pointed.
Sandy followed his pointing finger. “The basement. That’s where we get our deliveries. There’s a big garage area that opens and the trucks can come right in and—”
The trucks could come in down there. If they could come in, that meant someone else could get out.
With Maisey?
He bounded down the stairs and straight for the basement.
“I’ll keep the phone for her!” Sandy promised. “Maisey will not like that the screen is broken, that’s for sure.”
Odin shoved open the basement door. “Maisey!”
The scene before him had rage exploding within Odin.
A black pickup truck had been backed into the garage. The passenger door hung open, and some prick in a ski mask was trying to haul Maisey—an unconscious Maisey—toward that open door. “Let her go!” Odin roared.
The guy’s ski-mask-covered head jerked.
A weak moan slid from Maisey. Blood dripped from a scratch on her cheek.
The sonofabitch had hurt her. An inhuman snarl broke from Odin, and he launched forward.
“Crazy bastard!” The ski-mask-wearing man yelled. “Want her? Then take her!” He shoved Maisey toward Odin. Or rather—just shoved her. Because Odin was rushing as fast as he could, but he wasn’t close enough, and Maisey was hurtling straight for the cement.
“No!” he thundered and leapt for her. He caught her inches from the cement and spun
so that his arm scraped over the rough floor of the garage. His hold tightened around her. I’ve got you, it’s okay. She was safe. Safe, but barely moving. “Baby?” he brushed back her hair.
He heard the slam of a door. His head whipped up. The SOB who’d tried to take Maisey was in the truck and preparing to rush away. The hell you will.
Odin carefully lowered Maisey to the cement. He saw a long, black pole propped near the wall. He grabbed that pole even as he flew toward the driver’s side of the truck. The wheels squealed. Odin slammed the pole into the door. Into the window.
The truck lunged past him.
He slammed his pole into the left taillight. The light shattered. The truck fish-tailed as it roared away.
“What in the world is going on down here?” Sandy’s voice boomed. “This is a private area, and you don’t get to just run in here whenever you—wait…Maisey? What did you do to Maisey?”
Odin glared after the truck. I will find you, asshole.
A radio crackled. “I need backup!” Sandy ordered. “Humanities building. We’ve got an employee down and—”
Odin grabbed the radio from him. “A black Chevy pick-up truck just left the scene. He’s got a busted left taillight, a cracked driver’s side window, and a dent in the driver’s door. That perp just tried to abduct Maisey Bright, and whatever the hell you do, do not let him leave this campus, do you understand me? Do not.”
“Oh, my.” Sandy gulped. “Oh. My.”
Odin shoved the radio back at Sandy. “Get the cops here.” Not just the campus guards. Then he dropped beside Maisey.
Her eyes were cracking open. A groan slipped from her lips.
Carefully, he smoothed his hand over her cheek. “Baby?” The endearment spilled out. He cleared his throat. “Maisey? You back with me?”
Her lashes fluttered a little more. “Odin?”
His heart shoved into his chest. “I’m here. You’re safe.”
“I…fell down the stairs.”
Sandy sidled closer. “Hate to tell you, but you broke your phone.”
If she’d tumbled down the stairs, she was lucky she hadn’t broken a leg. An arm.
Her neck.
His back teeth clenched. I am going to find that bastard, and he will pay. Quickly, but thoroughly, he did a scan of her body as he searched for injuries.
“Odin? Why are you poking at me?” Maisey asked, all fretful.
“How is your head?” he returned, instead of answering. “You seeing anything odd? Your vision good?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I was…on the stairs.”
“And your phone broke,” Sandy supplied.
Not helping.
“Now I’m in the garage.” Maisey’s head turned to the left. To the right. “How did I get down here?” Her voice rose a notch.
Carefully, Odin curled his hand under her chin. “You are safe. I have you. Everything is going to be okay.”
Her hand flew up and her fingers locked around his wrist. “I…I don’t think I was alone on the stairs,” she whispered. Fear filled her gaze.
“No.” He could hear a siren coming closer. Help was on the way. “You weren’t.”
Chapter Six
“Someone tried to kidnap me.” Maisey was having trouble wrapping her head around that whole horrifying situation. “Me. Someone actually tried to kidnap me.”
Her memories were sketchy. She remembered something being off in the stairwell. The door didn’t close. It always clangs closed behind me.
It hadn’t closed because someone had followed her into the stairwell. She’d realized that, then she’d fallen.
Or been pushed? Her money was on being pushed. She took a swift left turn at the edge of her sofa and paced back toward a watchful Odin.
“If you hadn’t been there…” She seriously owed him. “Where would I be right now?” She stumbled. Stopped. “What would be happening to me?” And had this same thing happened to Whitney? When she’d vanished, had she been taken by someone, swiped right from campus only to never be seen again?
Maisey’s hands wrapped around her stomach. An EMT had checked her out. Except for a few bruises and scrapes, he’d said she was good. He’d called her lucky.
Only luck didn’t have a whole lot to do with the matter. She was alive, standing in her house—because Odin had saved her.
“Don’t.” The word was low. Rough. His expression was all dark and broody. Come to think of it, he’d had that same dark and broody expression ever since she’d opened her eyes and seen him in the garage. “Don’t think about what could have happened. That path won’t do you any good.”
Yes, well, she knew the path was a nightmare, but she couldn’t stop her overactive imagination from tumbling right down it. Once she’d been taken away from campus, her abductor could have tied her up. Tortured her. Used a knife or a—
“Maisey.” Odin was right in front of her. She didn’t remember him rising from the chair. Probably because she’d been imagining her own death scene. “You are safe. I’m here. Nothing is going to happen to you while I am—”
She heard a quick jingle. Knew it was the sound of her new motion sensor alerting her to someone at her front door even before the doorbell rang.
Odin’s lips tightened.
“It could be the cops again,” Maisey murmured. They’d said they would follow up after taking her statement on the campus. The black truck had been found—abandoned—in the Engineering parking lot. Campus security had tracked down the student who owned the truck, but she’d been stunned to discover what had happened. Turned out, she’d reported the truck missing a day ago.
The perp had vanished. Switched vehicles, then driven away. Or, heck, maybe even walked away once he’d ditched the ski mask.
“Maybe they have more questions,” she continued as she tried to steady her still racing heartbeat. “Or maybe…” If you wanted to be really positive… “Maybe they caught the guy!”
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.