Page 30 of Blake

She released a breath of relief.

See? You’re fine.

Her car sat four rows over. She was halfway there when she saw him.

Black Hoodie stood near a dark SUV at the far end of the lot. Devon’s steps faltered. The man wasn’t looking at her. At least, she didn’t think he was. His head was angled down as he stared at something in his hand.

Probably his phone.

Her fingers tightened around her keys.

There were dozens of cars in the lot. Several people coming and going. It wasn’t out of the question for someone who’d recently left the gym to still be out here, by their car.

She kept walking. When her car was only a few feet away, she hit the unlock button and glanced over her shoulder. The man was still standing by the SUV.

Devon opened her driver’s door and slid inside. She tossed her gym bag onto the passenger seat and hit the locks. Starting the engine, she backed out before looking that way again.

Her stomach tightened when she saw the man was gone.

Her gaze swept the rows as she drove toward the parking lot’s exit. Black Hoodie was nowhere to be seen, but the dark SUV he’d been standing next to was still there.

“Stop it,” she ordered herself sharply before turning onto the street. “You’re fine.”

Not everything was about Billy. Not every stranger was a threat. And not every uncomfortable feeling meant there was actual danger.

Devon repeated those facts in her mind for most of the drive home.

Several minutes later, she was back inside her apartment. The deadbolt was locked, and so was the chain.

Devon stood with her gym bag still hanging from one shoulder as her gaze moved toward the living room window.

Locked.

The small decorative box she’d positioned on the narrow table near the door sat exactly where she’d left it. Its front edge aligned perfectly with the seam in the wood. An easy way to see whether it had been moved.

But nothing had changed.

“See?” Devon looked at Willow, who’d just wandered around the corner. “Everything’s fine.”

The fluffy gray-and-white cat saw Devon and let out a demanding meow.

Devon dropped her bag near the hall and bent down to scratch her beloved pet beneath her furry chin. The cat immediately began to purr, and for a moment, everything felt normal.

Her apartment was exactly as she’d left it. No one had been inside, and Black Hoodie hadn’t followed her home.

“I’m taking a shower.”

Thirty minutes later, Devon sat behind her desk with damp hair hanging around her shoulders and a cup of coffee steaming beside her keyboard.

The report she’d run from the information Carol shared yesterday filled one monitor. Her script occupied the second. But she promised herself she wouldn’t look at any of it until after she finished the client work already waiting.

That promise lasted forty seconds.

Maybe less.

“Just one more pass.”

Willow jumped onto the corner of her desk.