Page 100 of Healing the Heart

“Ready, baby?” he asked, dipping to see in the mirror above his dresser as he finger-combed his hair, shoes already on.

“Do I have time to make coffee to go?”

“Of the swill they have here?” He grimaced. “We’ll get some at the office.”

“Then I’m ready.”

He held the door open for her and followed her out. She would have done a happy dance if not for one thing casting a shadow over her newfound freedom.Babywas sweet, but she missed him calling her kitten.

THEY WERE A FEW MINUTESearly. Noah dropped her off in the conference room then went in search of caffeine for them both.

Griff looked up when she entered. For once, he didn’t divide his attention between his laptop and the conversation. He actually closed the lid and focused on her.

“How are you, Fiona?”

“All things considered, I’m feeling pretty good.”

He hesitated before asking. “No aftereffects?”

“You mean like flashbacks and nightmares? Oddly enough, no.” The same wasn’t true for Noah. After the first dream that had him shouting in his sleep, he’d jerked awake again not long before dawn. She’d asked if he was okay. He’d muttered, “Fine,” told her to go back to sleep, then he got up, unwilling to try doing the same.

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that, sweetheart,” Griff said, genuine relief in his handsome features.

She got a chin lift from Kai as he walked in, but his phone rang, and he turned around and walked right back out to answer it.

No one else had arrived yet, which left her no one to talk to—Griff returned to his old ways with his face in his computer screen—so she reached for the newspaper. Someone had already read it, and sections were scattered across the table. She sorted through until she found the front page.

Wildfires were the top story then the usual politics, but when she turned the page, she swallowed a yelp of surprise at the two mug shots staring out at her near the top. The first, Jordan aka Jordano Parra, charged with multiple counts of murder, assault, kidnapping, and a list of other charges as long as her arm. He looked miserable, as well as bruised and battered from Noah’s fist. The stitches above his right eye weren’t exactly jagged, but they weren’t exactly straight, either.

More than a little satisfied, she moved on to the other mugshot. The color photo highlighted in harsh tones the unnatural hair of a woman she knew too well and wished she didn’t—Naomi. Her last name was news to her, as was the list of charges, similar to Jordan’s, from kidnapping to attempted murder, many with the wordsaccessory toin front of them.

Noah walked in, stopping when he saw her with theTimesin her hands. “You don’t need to read about it. Griff is going to fill us in.”

“Naomi was helping him, Noah. I’d forgotten until just now that she was in the stairwell during the fire. She was dressed in a robe like a tenant, and she collapsed, coughing like she was overcome with smoke. I wouldn’t leave her and asked Axyl to carry her out. She distracted him, and me, enough for Jordan to come up behind him and bash him over the head with...” She paused a moment, struggling to remember. “I don’t recall with what.”

“I don’t either, but it was hard as fuck,” the younger man said as he strode into the room.

“Axyl!” Tears sprang to her eyes. She’d asked about him every day and was told he was fine, and much too hardheaded to be out of commission for long. But seeing him hale and hearty with her own eyes was what she needed. She got up and met him on the other side of the table, where she hugged him around the waist.

“Thank god you’re all right.”

His arms came around her, and he hugged her back, saying softly, “I should be saying that about you, sweetheart.”

A throat clearing had them shifting apart, though not by much. The rest of the team, Eric, Kai, Jerry, Samson, Tristan, and Keiran, Esme and Val, too, and Detective Owens, had all arrived without her noticing. Noah stood by her chair, waiting.

She’d read in books about a glower, which she thought was a more intense frown crossed with a glare. She’d never actually seen one, but she guessed that was what Noah was aiming Axyl’s way.

“Can we get started?” he asked.

Axyl released her with an almost imperceptible squeeze, but it didn’t get by Noah, his glower intensifying. When she hurried around the table, he pulled out her chair for her then took the one beside hers. She reached for her coffee. Noah was right. The stuff in their hotel room was godawful.

Fiona sipped and sighed then leaned toward him. “Thanks for this. Now, my day can start.”

He grunted, raised his cup to his lips, and said nothing else because Griff was lowering the presentation screen.

“Fiona saw Naomi’s picture in the paper, so we’ll start there.” The redhead’s very unbecoming mug shot came up on the screen. “Naomi Byrne. You all know her from the club.”

“Bad dye job, terrible skin, needs a sandwich, total bitch. Yep, we all know her,” Val muttered.

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