“I expect you to introduce me to your boyfriend.” Pete started to back away. “Maybe you two can come out and have dinner with Jimmy and the kids.”
Hutch was good with kids. “Sure. Let me know when.”
He nodded and she decided to finish up her day. She closed down her laptop and grabbed her bag, heading up to the seventh floor. She felt like she was on autopilot as she changed into her gym clothes, locked up her stuff, and hit the treadmill. The news was playing on the screen overhead, but she wasn’t listening. Her mind was on what Pete had told her.
She was still thinking about it when she finished up and walked back into the locker room. She’d lost track of time and was going to have to skip the shower she would usually take. It wouldn’t normally matter. She could simply take a later train to get to her place, but she thought Hutch might worry.
Hutch, who would sleep in her apartment tonight. Who would wake up in her apartment tomorrow. Who would figure out she was going to be a trainee at the club he went to. Would that be weird? He wouldn’t have anything to do with her training class. She wouldn’t have to see him in the club until she’d finished, and that was six weeks away.
By then maybe she’d find out she’d been freaky paranoid about this whole thing and life would go back to normal. It was entirely possible that her computer problems were caused by some weird virus while watching dog rescue videos.
That was when she realized her locker door was slightly ajar.
A chill went through her because she knew she’d locked it. She’d tested it before she’d walked away.
Someone had been in her locker. Someone had gotten through the combination lock and opened it. They’d probably tried to be quiet, and that was why they hadn’t quite closed it again.
She went to it, opening the locker door and checking the bag she’d placed in there. Her laptop was still in its case.
A little sound made her stop, fear shooting through her because she’d thought she was alone. “Hello?”
She listened, the sound of the air conditioner blowing making an eerie soundtrack. But something told her she wasn’t alone. Someone was with her. It might be strictly fear at work, but she would have sworn she could feel someone staring at her.
She didn’t have her phone. She never brought it with her to the gym because she wore a smartwatch and had wireless earbuds. The phone would have been one more thing to carry when she was already attached to her cane.
Her hand tightened around it. Her leg ached a bit, but it always did after a workout. She’d stretched, but it wouldn’t be until she’d gotten in the shower and let the heat sink in that her muscles would truly relax.
She was being silly. All that talk with Pete had set her on edge and she was paranoid. She reached for her phone. Hutch had put his number in. She would text him and tell him she was running late.
Maybe he would spank her.
Or she would turn over her laptop again to see if anyone else had been on it. Maybe something had happened with the security system on her locker. Like everything at Genedyne, it was on the cutting edge of technology, and sometimes it needed work. Were any of the other lockers open? When she’d signed up for her gym privileges, she’d been assigned a locker.
There was one slightly open. The one directly behind hers. The one Madison used to have.
She could tell herself she worked out in the evening because it was easier, but Madison was the real reason. Madison had constantly asked about her scars and if they bothered Noelle. Because they would certainly bother her. Madison had once left a tube of scar cream on the bench in front of her locker with a note that promised it was for Noelle, but it was also for everyone in the locker room who had to look at her.
She really hated that woman. She moved toward the locker, expecting it to be empty. Surely they would have cleaned it out. It was empty, but Noelle inspected it anyway.
There was nothing left, as she’d suspected.
A shadow moved out of the corner of her eye, a fear she couldn’t quite process. Instinct made her bring the cane up like a bat.
“Who’s there?” If no one said a word, she would know for sure. She could understand not hearing her the first time, but this question was asked in a loud, firm voice.
If no one replied, she would know she had to fight because there was no way she’d imagined that big shadow.
She heard the sound of a door slamming shut. Had someone left the locker room? She moved to the end of the lockers, checking the door to make sure whoever it was had run away. Of course she should also consider the fact that whoever it had been had simply walked away, not wanting to deal with her.