Page 170 of The Woman By the Lake

And three, Harry looked pissed, but Riggs knew him well enough to know this was hiding concern.

Riggs took a moment to get a hold on it, because the two women were still in their pajamas—Nadia had pulled on her robe, and Maribeth had tugged on a sweater, but they were alive and unharmed.

So he bent to give Gia a rubdown, thinking, Maribeth didn’t leave until tomorrow. They’d had a long enough spell of good times, good friends and other really good shit, that Riggs thought he’d wake up tomorrow morning knowing Nadia and Maribeth were going to head to Aromacobana at around nine to grab coffees before they hit the road to get Maribeth to the airport in Seattle for her flight.

Which meant Riggs’s afternoon plans were meeting Nadia around two at the cabin, which would be plenty of time for a quickie. Not to mention, time for him to inform her that he was going to give it another week before he sat Ledger down and asked him if he was cool with Nadia spending the night a few times a week (Riggs was going to go for five, maybe six), doing this in his dad’s bed.

Murphy had walked Maribeth back to the cabin last night, while Nadia stayed with Riggs, since Ledge was at his gramme’s.

But he’d been alone again tonight, and he was done with this sleeping alone shit, and that wasn’t because of the state of play right then.

This schedule would leave Nadia zero time to rebut his plans to talk with his son before he had to kiss her and go get his boy from school.

Now, their good stretch was shot to shit.

But his plans weren’t because that six nights a week at his house was going to be seven if this crap didn’t stop.

Nadia came right to him.

“I told Harry not to tell you,” she said when she made it to him and had her hands on his chest. “I’m fine. It’s good. I was going to give you a call tomorrow.”

He was in no mood to field that right now.

“What happened?” he asked through his teeth, and he didn’t ask Nadia.

He asked Harry.

But Nadia answered. “Riggs, it’s okay. It’s just kids being jerks again.”

He looked down at her. “You set Gia on them?”

She shook her head. “No. Because it’s just kids. She might have hurt them.”

“Riggs, a word,” Harry said tightly.

He was already walking Riggs’s way.

He passed him without Riggs responding, but stopped, looked back, and aimed a hard stare at Nadia. “Please do not follow us.”

“Come here, sis,” Maribeth called. “I’m going to mix us a cocktail.”

He felt Nadia’s attention on him as he followed Harry out the back door.

Harry moved off the porch into the cleared back area and off to the south side.

Riggs followed him there too and stopped where his friend stopped, well out of hearing of the cabin.

“What’s the deal?” Riggs asked, watching his friend carefully.

“I’ll show you the deal in a second, but first, have a word with your woman. She has an exceptionally trained guard dog. If she’s got people on her patch who should not be on her patch, I don’t give a fuck it’s Greta Thunberg scouting a location for a protest, she…lets…that animal…out.”

“Okay. I got a loose hold, Harry, and you’re not helping.”

“Gia started barking well before they started throwing rocks, the barking waking those women,” Harry explained. “Nadia said it’s been happening since she got her because Gia isn’t used to her new space and all the critters who are moving around in the night, and that makes sense. Except for the fact Hutch lives more secluded than you, and that dog has grown from puppy to now, every night, hearing animals moving around all day and all fucking night.”

Jesus Christ.

Nadia, babying her baby.

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