“So what, he wants you to help him figure out if somebody in my building is involved in a possible hit on a witness? Adam, you’re a prosecutor, not a cop.”
“I’m able to observe and I know the Rules of Evidence. Besides, nobody would question me being here. They’ll assume I’m here to make you holler.” He said, tickling my ribs a little. “If they put somebody in here right after the Dan McGuire thing, it could tip their guy off.”
“Adam, if this guy is really involved in something like that, you would be in danger. I’m not going to let you do that just because you might get an interesting case to challenge you.”
“Lily, I don’t think you quite understand. This isn’t just a chance to challenge myself. If I successfully prosecute one of these cases, it could be very important for my career. There’s a bigger issue, though. If the guy in the devil suit heard McGuire tell you something he shouldn’t have, you could be in danger.”
“Well, so then, I’ll get out of here. I’ll find someplace else.”
“Lily, it might not matter. It’s not they couldn’t find you in another apartment. In fact, Sachs might want to put you under federal protection …”
“It’s not like I actually witnessed a crime or McGuire gave me anything,” I said, feeling anxious. I knew that going into protection could mean being shipped off somewhere – without Adam. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid or risky.”
“I won’t do anything stupid or risky.”
“Adam, I’m serious. Don’t make me kill you myself.”
“Just relax, Adler. I’m not going to get myself killed. It wouldn’t be fair to you now that you’ve finally experienced great sex.” I rolled my eyes and he laughed.
Chapter Seventeen
Sometime during the night I woke up and reached for Adam. All I found was empty bed. I panicked. He wouldn’t actually leave, would he? I got up and threw on a robe. I padded into the living room where in the darkness I was able to make out Adam’s form standing at the door looking through the peep hole. I walked up behind him.
“What are you doing?”
“Jesus!” He jumped and spun around. “You want to give me a f**king heart attack?”
“No. I just want to know why you’re messing around with my peep hole in the middle of the night.”
“You liked it when I was messing around with your peep hole earlier,” he said lasciviously.
“Adam, you promised you wouldn’t do anything,” I growled.
“I promised I wouldn’t do anything stupid or risky. Looking through a peep hole when I heard somebody in the hall, wasn’t stupid or risky. By the way, I want you to call your landlord tomorrow and verify it was a maintenance guy in here the other day.”
“I’m sure it was.”
“Look, you’re worried about my safety? Well, I’m worried about yours, so don’t argue with me. Promise me you’ll do it.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“If it turns out it wasn’t a maintenance guy, maybe you should move. I’ll come and stay with you until you figure something out.”
“Why wouldn’t I come stay with you?”
“Because, I can have Abby apartment sit for me, and maybe I’ll see something important while I’m here. It shouldn’t take too long to find another place.”
“I don’t know, Adam. We just started this. That would be like moving in with each other after one date. Not even Gabrielle and Braden did that.”
“It would be temporary and we’ve known each other since we were four. It’s not the same.” I was just about to argue the point further, when I heard a noise out in the hall. Apparently, Adam heard it too because he was back at the peep hole.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to look over his shoulder, like that would have worked.
“Shh! It’s the guy from next door, the charm school guy who almost smashed you in the face that night when we were coming in.”
“R. Nardo. What’s he doing?”
“He’s walking down the hall. Which was one was McGuire’s apartment?”
“Four oh four,” I answered, nervously.
“I think that’s the door he’s standing in front of. He’s listening,” Adam paused for a minute. “I guess he didn’t hear anything. He’s going back to his place.”
“Well, that’s creepy,” I said, hugging myself and wondering if Adam and I had an audience earlier when I was doing my rodeo show.
“Maybe he thought he heard something like a groan or a cry.”
“Or maybe he’s a pervert,” I suggested alternatively. Just then we heard another noise and Adam returned to his post.
“Is it R. Nardo again?” I asked curiously.
“No. This time it’s the Ninja. Doesn’t anybody in this place sleep?”
“U. Hu is out there now? What’s he doing?”
“He’s looking around furtively, and now he’s walking down the hall … and listening at the door of four oh four. They must have heard something.”
“Well, whatever it was, we didn’t hear it, and don’t even consider trying to go out there yourself to take a turn eavesdropping.”
“I won’t. At least not tonight.”
“Adam,” I said in a threatening tone.
“Don’t worry. Come on, let’s go back to bed. Now that Gabrielle has moved to appeals, I have to face Mark in court, and he’s a bit more aggressive. If I don’t get some sleep he’s going to kick my ass tomorrow.”
Adam and I did manage to get up early for work the next day, although both of us were double fisting the coffee. He dropped me off at the library, and I agreed to let him bring me home. Jane, the Health Class Sex Talker, was the head law librarian, and she usually stayed until six, so I volunteered to help her lock up, since Adam worked later than I did. That part worked out well. When he dropped me off and walked me into my building, though, things kind of broke down a little.
The problem was that he stopped to chat with every one of my neighbors that we encountered. For example, there was a big Russian guy named Yuri, who lived on the second floor, and bore a striking resemblance to Lurch from the Addams family. I don’t judge people on looks though. It was more the fact that he had the demeanor of a KGB agent that turned me off. He obviously went to the same charm school that Nardo did, but somehow, Adam managed to engage him in conversation about local sports bars while I stood, shifting my weight impatiently from foot to foot and thinking about how much I wasn’t writing at the moment.