Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

18. You're afraid of me

Vincent was waiting on the fire escape of Catherine's building. He has been worried. She hasn't been in contact about the evidence.
He watched her car pull in and waited as she made her way to the front door. Her phone beeps but he hears her sigh tiredly. It was time for him to make himself known, so he opened her window and waited.

Cat had been looking at Agent Tycell's card when she heard a noise coming from further down the hallway. She takes out her gun and carefully walks toward it. She passes Heather's room, turned into her bedroom and exhaled. Vincent was sitting there on the steps.
"Vincent what are you doing here?"

"I came to ask if there was any evidence?"

"Get inside," she said hurriedly.

"Why? What's going on?" he frowns.

"Get inside," she repeats more urgently. Vincent jumps in through the window and Cat rolls down the blinds. "Stay away from the window."
She turns and walks past him, his confused gaze on her. "Muirfield grabbed me," she says and keeps walking out of the room.

"What?" Vincent asks, insistingly, and follows.

"They pulled me into a car, took me to some - " She turns, busy casing the apartment, but pauses when she sees the anger in his eyes. His jaw was clenched and his eyes wide. He looked seconds away from going after them if she gave him the address so she said instead, "It's okay. I'm fine, they didn't hurt me."

He narrows his eyes slightly, looking her over from toe to head, his eyes landing on hers. "You don't seem fine," he says, referring to her jumpiness. She stares at him, pale faced and then she feels the gun shake in her hand. She puts it back in its holster and licks her dry lips. He turns his head to look behind him, just in case.

"They know you're alive." His gaze snaps back to hers. "They wanted me to tell them where you are. I didn't. Obviously. And that was it."

He raised an eyebrow. This made no sense. Muirfield were merciless. "And they just let you go?"

She swallows. "Probably thought that if they tracked me they'd find you. I made sure I wasn't followed but still, you should go." Her eyes stayed wide.
Vincent figured it was from the shock of being taken by Muirfield.

He shakes his head and walks quickly up behind her, stopping her from getting to the front door. "I'm not going now, you just got nabbed because of me," he tells her, worry in his eyes.

"It was my fault too," she says. She was in a hurry to get him away from her. Both because they might very well have followed her or bugged her place, and because she was just a little scared of him after everything she'd been told. She wasn't sure being this alone with him was a good idea anymore. "You kept telling me to stay away and I didn't and now they know about you." She did feel guilty about that too, yes. Vincent looks around at the windows, paranoid as much as she was. "I know you wanna protect me but you know as well as I do, better than I do, that the best way to protect me is to stay away."

He stared into her eyes, then blinked and looked around the apartment again. She hoped he would take it and go.

"Uh, I came here because I found a watch next to the dumpster..." He didn't want to leave her. If he talked about her case maybe he didn't have to. "The cops, they have it now."

"Tommy!" Cat exhales. She'd forgotten about Tommy Holt. "You saved Tommy." She spoke more to herself than him, reminding herself he wasn't all monster like Muirfield claimed, but she was still wary.
"His dad mentioned a watch..."

Vincent was watching her closely, inhaling and exhaling and frowns. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She rubbed her left temple and turned to look at him, her eyes not staying on his very long. "Yeah, I'm okay." She points behind him again, hoping she will be saying this for the last time tonight. "You need to go."
He looks at her pulse in her neck, trying to hear what was off in her voice, because he knew something was off. "Thank you. That information will help me find whoever it is that assaulted him."
She looks at his hands, he notices. She turns her head away and holds onto the back of her head, letting out a deep sigh.