Page 174 of The Woman By the Lake

Ledger then resumed eating.

“Well, got some things to cover with all that,” Riggs told him.

“All right. And no shade, Dad, but Nadia’s eggs are better than yours. She puts cheese in them.”

He felt his lips quirk. “I’ll take that note. Now I gotta tell you, I’m gonna call your mom and ask her to take you until Harry can figure out what’s going on with that cabin.”

Ledger lifted both shoulders. “It’s just people goofing around and being dorks.”

Damn it.

“Ledge, we don’t think it is. We think it’s something more, and it might be dangerous.”

Ledger’s eyes slashed to his.

Seeing his son’s face like that, he hoped Harry caught these assholes, at the same time he didn’t because he wanted to be the first one to get his hands on them.

“So I want you to stay with your mom,” Riggs finished.

“No,” Ledger replied, not bratty, calmly but firmly.

Riggs pushed up from his forearms and said low, “Ledge.”

“You promised you’d listen to me when I thought something was important. This is important.”

Shit.

It was.

Riggs crossed his arms and nodded for him to go on.

“If stuff is going down, I don’t want to be at Mom’s, worrying about stuff going down. I want to be with you, so I know you’re okay.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be worried about you if you’re with me.”

“No, you won’t. Because you know you won’t let anything happen to me. Nadia or me. You and Gia won’t let anything happen to us.”

“Ledge—”

“Please don’t make me go, Dad,” Ledger whispered.

Feeling something uneasy slither up the back of his neck, he narrowed his eyes on his son. “Is there something to that I don’t know about?”

Ledger looked to the side.

“We’re talking about something important, and, buddy, you need to share when there’s something I need to know,” Riggs reminded him.

Ledger looked back to his dad.

“I’m not safer at Mom’s.”

That didn’t make anything slither.

Riggs felt his neck instantly get tight.

It took a good deal out of him, but he kept his voice modulated when he asked, “Why?”

“Because she’s never there, and Cami, our babysitter, is, like…seventeen years old.”

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