Page 42 of Adoring Delaney

Something I’d never thought about before struck me. “Do you think they want you, Ethan, Jason, Nick, and Jackson to take over Triple Canopy?”

“Absolutely. That was their intention when they started the business. You know them, they’d never force any of us to take over, but they wanted to create something they could pass down. And this stays between us, but I think Nick is ready to leave the FBI. Now that him and Meadow have the twins, he doesn’t like having to leave all the time, sometimes without notice. And it wouldn’t take much for Ethan to be on board. Jackson will be the hold out. He loves being a firefighter and still has years left in him.”

“And what about us women?” I scoffed. “Is there a place for us?”

“Of course there is. Your dad’s been working on Quinn for months, trying to get her to take some accounting classes.”

“Right.” I laughed. “Good luck with that. The wild child sitting behind a desk all day crunching numbers. That’s never gonna happen.”

“My thoughts exactly.” He chuckled.

Carter pulled his truck into the driveway and his face went funny.

“You have a flat tire.” He was eyeing my car and the funny left his face and turned hard. “They looked new when I checked them before you left the beach.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Of course he’d checked my tires. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d told me he’d checked my oil and had given it a tune-up, too. He was always looking over my car before he’d leave to go home. Without fail, he’d give it a once-over every time he visited.

“They are. After school let out for the summer, I had all four changed and an alignment.”

His gaze left my car and he scanned the area, checking the mirrors and out the windows.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, not understanding what the big deal was. “I probably ran over something.”

“When we get out, we’re heading straight for the house. I’ll do a walk-through and come back out to look at the car.”

“Carter—”

“Delaney, straight into the house.”

“I think—”

“No, baby, in this situation you don’t think. You go into the house, lock the door, and stay safe.”

Stay safe? He was freaking me out a little.

“It’s just a flat tire.”

“I would agree with you if it was just one.”

“What?”

“All four are flat, Laney. Let’s get you into the house where I know you’re safe and I’ll come back out.” I couldn’t help it, my hands started shaking. Stay safe. There’d been a time when my brother had said the same thing to me and I hadn’t listened. “Everything’s gonna be okay. I just want you inside so I can look around.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Carter wanted to say more but instead jumped out of his truck and rounded the hood and helped me down. Then he walked us to the front door, used his key to let us in, and disarmed my alarm.

“Please stay here while I check the house.”

“But my alarm was on. No one can get in.”

His brows raised and lips pushed together, his look telling me an alarm meant nothing.

“I’ll wait here,” I told him and he didn’t delay.

It took him ten minutes but when he came back to where he’d left me he announced the house was clear. Normally I would’ve thought all of this was overboard. But Derek Lowe had taught me there was no such thing. Carter guided me to the couch and I was grateful to be sitting.

“I’ll be right back.”

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