Page 86 of Renard's Deliverance

“Seems your right as her family,” he said.

Crap.

Those tears were coming. She blinked them back rapidly.

“Don’t cry, Gem,” Renard told her.

“Don’t be foolish, why would I cry?” she countered. “Just darn allergies.”

Jake cleared his throat. “Right. Back to why I’m here. I got a complaint that there was a stalker in the neighborhood.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Renard said. “She really called you about that?”

“Who? What?” Opal asked, feeling confused.

“Grackle,” he said.

“I should have known,” Opal replied. “What’s she complaining about now? Was I breathing too loud?”

Jake cleared his throat. “I know you’ve had problems with Mrs. Gingers. But I’m going to have to ask you both to use her real name.”

“You can ask,” Renard said.

“Doesn’t mean we’ll do it,” Opal added with a smile.

Jake groaned. “Great. Anyway, Mrs. Gingers reported that a dark, menacing truck has been prowling the streets, obviously scoping it out so the driver could commit a crime.”

“Wow, she should write a book with that imagination,” Renard said sarcastically. “I’ve been driving by each night to check on Opal.”

“You really didn’t have to,” Opal told him. “I was fine.”

He shrugged. “Needed to make sure.”

“So you were just driving by?” Jake asked. “You didn’t stop?”

“I parked up, but I didn’t get out of my truck. I wasn’t scoping anything out. Or committing a crime.”

“You could say he was protecting the neighborhood.”

Renard snorted. “Don’t care about the neighborhood, Gem, unless it affects you.”

Aww.

So sweet.

“Right. I’m not going to relay that to Mrs. Gingers. I’ll tell her that you were making certain that the neighborhood was safe. She also said she had a run in with you last night when you stopped and swore at her repeatedly. And threatened her.”

“For fucks sake. Didn’t swear at her repeatedly. All I said to her was that she better leave Opal alone. Then I went to check on Opal. She wasn’t home so I tracked her down.”

“Tracked her down?” Jake asked. “You didn’t have her number?”

“I was at the club,” Opal told him. “I didn’t have my phone on me.”

She answered the question without out-and-out lying. Impressive.

When she did that with other people, of course. She wouldn’t be doing that with him.

“We finished here?” Renard asked. “Opal needs to eat and take some more painkillers.”

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