Izzie had returned to W4HAV a week ago. Annie and Nikkie Jean had been with her. Had held her hands while she’d stepped inside.
They’d done it together.
They’d been greeted by everyone in a surprise welcome-back party that had left both Nikkie Jean and Izzie balling. Everyone had been there. The lobby where it had happened had been repainted the softest peach. Izzie’s favorite color, Ariella had made certain to let her know that was deliberate.
So that what she had experienced there wouldn’t be forgotten. They’d even added another emergency exit, right in the spot where Izzie had first landed after she’d crumbled.
There was a plaque dedicated to her in the lobby.
Izzie had never been at such a loss for words.
The windows had new blinds and the furniture had been completely rearranged. It looked different. Deliberately.
She understood why they had wanted to do that, and she really appreciated it. Izzie had needed to do this, to go back. To take control of that again. Nikkie Jean, too.
Nikkie Jean had needed W4HAV far more than Izzie ever had.
The trauma Nikkie Jean had experienced as a teenager was horrific, and the regular counseling she’d received at W4HAV, even before the grand opening—which had been delayed once again because of the shooting—had been Nikkie Jean’s lifeline to sanity, as Nikkie Jean had put it.
Tonight, Izzie was going back on the rotation at W4HAV. Someone always womaned the phones in case someone in need called in. Someone would be there.
It was her turn again. Finally.
She needed to do this for herself. Maybe she was the one most in need now.
It was another check on her checklist.
Izzie’s ten-step plan back to Normal.
The W4HAV sign beckoned her. Even through the rain.
Izzie was so tired of all the rain. It was one of the wettest years on record in the state. She was about ready to move to New Mexico or Arizona just to dry out.
She was halfway to the door when a dark luxury SUV pulled in. A tall man stepped out, but she couldn’t see him fully in the downpour.
She hesitated—there wasn’t anyone else in the parking lot and the rain had turned almost torrential—but she told herself to stop being a coward. She couldn’t live the rest of her life afraid of every shadow or every tall man she didn’t know.
She wouldn’t be that way.
She was fifty feet away from her destination. She was just fine and perfectly safe.
When the man turned, she got a good look at his face and she told herself she’d been an idiot. It was ok.
He wasn’t exactly a threat to her personal safety. Maybe her mental well-being, but not her safety.
They had even found a bit of peace between them in the last few days.
His sister had been at W4HAV’s trauma support group Izzie’s first day back. Shelby had told a bit of her own story; enough to have Izzie finally understanding why Allen had seemed so protective over Nikkie Jean.
Shelby’s story was terrifying in that the men who should have protected her, had been the very ones to terrify her.
Yet another dark cloud over the TSP.
She had been meaning to ask Jake if he had ever heard anything about what had happened to Allen’s sister, but her uncle had been rather difficult to find lately.
His case, that had been all he’d said. It was turning into a bad one. Izzie had trained herself to hold back the worry—at least not let it be visible—for him years ago. The knowledge that he could be hurt in the line of duty was a very real fear that everyone who’d ever loved a cop had felt.
Allen saw Izzie coming through the rain and paused. It wasn’t hard to recognize her. The short, rich, dark hair was distinctive, even plastered to her head like a ball cap.
She looked like a pixie, with the mist of the rain all around her.
He laughed at his poetic thoughts for a moment. She wouldn’t appreciate him thinking of her that way; he knew that.
She didn’t have an umbrella. He had one. He stepped closer. She’d already crossed from the hospital in the downpour, but he had been raised to be a gentleman. He had almost made it to her when a truck squealed to a stop right next to her, sending a flood of water straight at her.
She covered her face at the last minute.
He heard her cry out.
Two men jumped from the back of the truck.
And were on her. Grabbing her. Dragging her to the back passenger side of the white truck.
Allen didn’t stop to think.
He yelled as he tossed the umbrella aside and dove at the closest attacker.