“Really?”
“Not real big fans of women bein’ stalked and harassed. We’re all hopin’ this Perry fucker shows his face durin’ our shift so we can have a chance at him.”
“Wow. That’s, uh… kinda flattering, I guess. You know, in a weird macho alpha male kind of way that I don’t totally understand and am a little freaked about.”
He and Hayes both burst into laughter as I finished doctoring up my coffee and leaned back against the counter to take a sip and watch the show.
Hayes slugged the rest of his back, dropped the mug in the sink behind him, and headed in my direction, caging me against the counter with a hand on either side of my hips.
He was dressed in his typical daily uniform of jeans, button-down, boots, and blazer—a look that he rocked the hell out of—and his hair was still damp from a recent shower.
“You good?”
I gave him my best pouty face and asked, “If I said no, would you let me leave my prison cell for a little yard time, Warden?”
He grinned and gave me a playful little shake. “Sorry, babe. You already know the answer to that.”
I dropped my head back, let out a dramatic groan, and cried to the heavens, “Why me!”
That earned another laugh from Hayes, and there wasn’t an ounce of sympathy in it. “It’s only been a few days.”
“What can I say,” I deadpanned. “I’m an active person by nature.”
That seemed to soften him up, at least a little. “Look, I know you’re goin’ crazy. If it helps, call your girls and invite them over. At least some company’ll break up the monotony.”
“All right,” I sighed, dropping my forehead to his chest. I knew I was being a whiny bitch. Hayes and these guys were just trying to keep me safe, and he didn’t need to worry about keeping me happy while spending his days trying to catch a crazy killer. I needed to do a better job at sucking it up to make things easier for my man.
“Now you good?”
“Yeah, honey,” I said softly. “I’m good.”
“Good. Now gimme a kiss. I gotta get to the station.”
I did as he commanded in that macho, alpha way of his.
He pulled back and started to turn, then stopped. “Oh, and I already took care of Stargazer.”
“What about Cat?” His eyebrows dipped into a frown, and my stomach twisted. “You didn’t see Cat when you went out there?”
“No. Actually I haven’t seen her in a couple days.”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down in worry. “She’s been gone for four days. That’s not normal.”
“I thought you hated that cat?”
“Well.” I shrugged. “I do. But that doesn’t mean I want something bad to happen to her. I’ve kinda gotten used to her grumpy ass.”
He came back to me, putting his hands on either side of my neck. “I’m sure she’s fine. Probably hunkered down somewhere with a boatload of mice, waitin’ out the cold.”
I hoped he was right, but I had a bad feeling.
“If it makes you feel better, I’ll go out when I get home and look for her.”
God, I had the best man in the world. “Thank you, baby. Love you.”
“Love you back, angel.”
And with one last kiss, he was gone. Hopefully he’d get lucky and catch the bad guy before lunch.
Looking up at Bryce, I gave him my wickedest smile and replied, “Go fish.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” he grunted, throwing his cards down on the couch cushion between us. “This is a stupid fuckin’ game. Tell me again why were playin’ it?”
“’Cause I don’t know anything about poker, and you didn’t know how to play gin rummy.”
The card game had come after an hour and a half of a Downton Abbey binge that ended with Bryce threatening to shoot my TV if I didn’t ‘turn that shit off right goddamn now’. I quickly switched it to Supernatural, but five minutes into an episode, I started to worry his head was about to explode. So now we were playing cards and, needless to say, I was pretty sure Bryce was regretting his decision to volunteer for this gig.
A knock came on the front door just then, and Bryce shot from the couch with a muffled, ‘Thank Christ,” before going to answer it.
I’d taken Hayes’s advice and made some calls. Gypsy was working at the local grocery store, and Rory was at The Tap Room, but Eden and Nona were free to hang, so I’d all but begged them to come for a visit.
Eden stepped inside first, reaching up to give Bryce a warm hug and friendly hello that left me rather curious.
“I brought bridal magazines,” she chirped once they broke apart and she turned to me.
I dropped my cards onto the coffee table and looked to the massive stack of magazines in her arms.
“And I brought wine.” Nona held up a bottle of red and gave it a little wave, making me instantly perk up.
“Wine first, magazines later.” Standing from the couch, I headed for the kitchen with my girls on my heels. Bryce wasn’t too far behind, pulling up a stool at the island and fiddling with his phone—from the noises it sounded like he was playing a game—while I grabbed wineglasses from my cabinet.
“Bryce, I’d offer you a glass, but I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed while you’re on babysitting duty.”
“No worries, sweetheart. If it’s not beer or bourbon, I don’t drink it.”
Eden grabbed her glass and took a sip the second I slid it her way. “You know, I think it’s awesome that you have a security detail. We should form a club.”
“You had babysitters too?” I asked, taking a healthy glug from my own glass.
“Oh yeah.” She waved it off like it was nothing. “When I had my little thing a while back, Linc put his guys on me.”
“Was Bryce one of them? You two seem to know each other pretty well.”
“Oh, no,” Eden let out a strangled laugh. “He wasn’t part of that particular thing.”
My brows pulled down at the same time my head cocked to the side. “Why not?”
“’Cause Linc thought I’d take advantage of the situation and try to make a move on his girl if I was in charge of protecting her.”
I jerked my chin back in surprise at Bryce’s reply. “Why would he think that?”
“’Cause I’d already told him that if he didn’t pull his head outta his ass, the second I got a chance I was makin’ a move on his girl.”
Nona snorted in laughter and choked on the sip of wine she’d just taken.
Eden’s entire face began to burn red.
And Bryce shrugged like it was nothing at all.
“I’m sorry... What?”
“Things between me and Lincoln started out a little... rocky,” Eden offered delicately.
Bryce, on the other hand, took a different approach. “Like I said, he had his head up his ass and hadn’t locked her down. I’m a guy with a functioning dick. I saw those legs and all that hair and knew I wanted in there. So I told Linc the score. Either claim her or I’d move in.”
Oh my god.
“Hope Valley,” Nona muttered. “Better than any soap opera on TV.”
She had that right. It was taking everything I had not to bust out laughing. “Well, I take it now that things are good?”
“Yeah?” Eden said with a small giggle.
“Linc pulled his head out so I stepped back. No harm, no foul.”
“Just like that?” I questioned, totally intrigued by the entire story.
“Yep,” Bryce confirmed. “Just like that. A man’s any kind of man at all, he sees he’s got himself a good woman and doesn’t hesitate on making her his. That’s why you’ve got that rock on your finger right now. And everybody’s livin’ happily ever after.”
At the mention of my ring, my eyes darted down to my left hand, and that warmth hit my belly just like it did every time I looked at it.
“Anyway,” Eden sallied on. “Have you met West yet?”
“West.” I thought back to the other tw
o men who’d invaded my home and privacy as of late. “Tall, light hair, criminally good-looking?”
“Yep, that’s the one.”
“He was the guy for day one.”
“He’s sweet. They all are, but watch out for that. The guy may be hot as sin, but he’s a total slob.”
“Think I’ll just go hang in the living room for a while,” Bryce muttered, standing from the stool and exiting the room like he was worried his balls were about to draw back up inside of him if he spent one more second with us.
“They’re good guys,” Eden said gently. “All of them. I know it’s inconvenient, and I know you probably just want to get back to your life, but if you let them, they’ll make this whole thing a lot more bearable.”
I smiled at my friend. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”
“I wasn’t happy with my situation either, but I got to know them, and I’m really glad I did.”
This was part of the whole needing to suck it up business. These guys volunteered for this detail for no other reason than they wanted to help protect me, and I’d been bitter and miserable the whole time. It was time to pull on my big girl panties and get the hell over it.
“You’re right,” I stated firmly. “You’re absolutely right. And besides, this situation isn’t gonna last forever.”
“Exactly,” Nona said, lifting her wineglass. “Here’s to this shit getting taken care of soon so we can celebrate with margaritas at El Toro.” We clinked our glasses together and drank. “Now let’s look at pretty wedding dresses!”
“Fuck yeah,” Hayes grunted, slamming back inside me as his fingers squeezed my hips so hard I knew they’d leave marks. “Fuckin’ love your pussy, Tempie.”
I arched my back, tilting my ass up and taking him even deeper as I looked back over my shoulder with hooded eyes. I’d already had mine, and it had been epic, but I wanted to watch Hayes as he came.
“Give it to me,” I breathed, bracing my hands and knees in the mattress so I could drive back against him. “I wanna feel you come inside me, baby.”
Hayes pulled out and powered back in on a loud groan, burying himself deep as he dropped his head back and came. The muscles in his neck tensed and bulged as it worked its way through him, and my pussy quivered at the erotic sight.
A second later he took me down to my side, keeping our connection as he spooned me and worked to regulate his breathing.
“You have fun with your girls today?” he finally asked a minute later.
The intense orgasm I’d just had, coupled with the soothing circles he was drawing on my hip, was enough to make me want to pass out, but I powered through the need to snooze. He’d had a long, hard day, and he still took the time to ask me about mine. I’d lost count of my blessings a long time ago when it came to this man.
“Yeah, I did.” Taking his hand from my hip, I laced our fingers together and rested them on my lower stomach. “Eden brought over about a gazillion bridal magazines and made us go through them page by page.”
His body shook mine as he chuckled. “Can’t say I’m not glad I missed that.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Can’t say it was my idea of fun, and I worried Bryce was going to expire due to all the estrogen, but it did give me some ideas.”
His nose brushed through my hair, and his lips hit that spot on my neck right beneath my ear, making me shiver. “Yeah?”
“Mmmhmm. What do you think of getting married here?” I found myself holding my breath after asking that question. I didn’t realize until just then how badly I wanted to get married in the pasture behind the house, and now that I did, I really hoped he liked the idea.
“You wanna get married at the farmhouse?”
“I do,” I whispered. “This place has been in my family for generations. Even though my parents didn’t live here, it was still important to them. We came out here all the time. I have so many great memories of this place, and I just thought….” A lump clogged my throat.
“You thought what, sweetheart?” Hayes asked gently.
“I just thought that, since I don’t have any family, getting married here would be the closest I could get to being surrounded by them. Does that… does that sound stupid?”
His arm tightened so much that I struggled to breathe. He buried his face in my hair and sucked in a huge lungful of air before finally responding. “Doesn’t sound stupid at all. I think it actually sounds pretty perfect.”
A giddy smile stretched across my face as I rolled over. It broke our connection, but I wanted to see his face as I asked, “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.”
“Awesome.”
He gave me a quick kiss and climbed from the bed, coming back a second later with a warm, damp cloth. He took care to clean between my thighs before crawling back into the bed and wrapping himself around me.
And as I fell asleep, I did it knowing that as long as I had Hayes in my life, there wasn’t any storm I couldn’t weather.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Temperance
I was in the middle of a really steamy part of the romance novel I was reading when a knock came at the front door. Lifting my gaze, I watched as my bodyguard for the day, a hilarious man named Marco, moved to the door and looked through the peephole before unlocking it. A second later, Carl came walking through.
“Hey,” I greeted, standing and moving to the entryway to give him a hug. “This is a surprise. What brings you by?”
He held up a white plastic bag with Evergreen Diner’s logo in big bold letters along the front. “Knew you were still on lockdown, so I figured I’d bring you lunch and keep you company for a bit.”
My mouth started to water and my stomach let out an embarrassingly loud groan as the smell of Ralph’s famous fried chicken filled my nostrils.
“Oh my god. You’re the best friend in the whole entire world!”
The three of us headed into the kitchen, and I started dishing everything out and passing plates around. Marco took his plate back into the living room so I could hang with my friend without someone hovering. Carl took a seat on one of my stools, and as I slid his plate across the island, I noticed him freeze when he caught sight of the ring on my left hand. “You got engaged.”
I lifted my hand and fiddled with the diamond, twisting it so it rested right in the center of my finger. “Yeah.” I let out a little laugh and turned my attention back to him. “With how fast gossip spreads here, I can’t believe you hadn’t heard already.”
“I’ve been outta town for work,” he returned once he’d shaken off his surprise.
“But that’s great news, darlin’. I’m happy for you guys.”
Reaching across the counter, I placed my hand on top of his. “Thanks, Carl. That means a lot coming from you.”
“So when’s the big day?”
I dug my fork into the buttery mashed potatoes and took a bite before answering, “We haven’t set a date yet. Kinda hard to think about any of that right now.”
He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Hayes just has so much on his plate right now trying to catch this killer. I don’t even want to think about setting a date until that psycho’s behind bars.”
Something in Carl’s demeanor changed, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. “Well, maybe that’s a good thing, you know? A longer engagement might be smart. Gives you time to change your mind if things go bad.”
My back went stiff as I put my fork back on the plate. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
His nostrils flared and his cheeks started to burn red. “Come on, Tempie. You know what I mean. You two have been down this road before and look how that turned out. I’m just worried that maybe you’re moving too fast.”
“Seriously?” I snapped, anger blooming in my stomach. “We were just kids before, Carl. You know that. Where the hell is this coming from? You just said you were happy for us.”
That red in his
cheeks deepened to an unnatural color, and a voice in the back of my head started screaming that something wasn’t right. “It’s coming from a place of concern. I saw what your breakup did to you the last time. You were crushed, Tempie. You two were barely broken up for a second when he went out and fucked someone else. Even after that, you were still so goddamn naïve, you were gonna give him another chance. All it took was one fucking note. I just don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
A sour feeling hit my stomach. The blood began rushing through my ears and I took a step backward, my voice low as I asked, “How did you know that?”
I could see the exact moment he realized his mistake. “Know what?”
“About the note. How did you know about the note?”
“Come on, Tempie.” He laughed, trying to play it off casually, but it didn’t work. “You told me.”
I shook my head slowly. “No I didn’t.”
“Temp—”
A loud crash came from the living room, and my head jerked in that direction. “Marco?”
He suddenly came stumbling into the kitchen, banging against the wall like he was having trouble standing on his own two feet. “Temp—” he tried to speak, but his legs gave out just then, and he started going down.
I rushed around the island, trying to get to him before he hit the floor, but I wasn’t fast enough.
I slid across the floor on my knees, skidding to a stop at Marco’s side. “Marco. Marco, sweetie, wake up. Come on.” I gave his body a violent shake. “Wake up!”
Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I looked up to where Carl was standing over us. “Call 911,” I rushed, panic gripping my chest like a vise. “Something’s wrong. We need an ambulance.”
Carl sounded almost bored as he said, “He’ll be fine.”
That was when it sank in. The only way he could know Marco was going to be fine was if he knew what was wrong with him. “What did you do to him?” I whispered, inching back as he moved closer.
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