Page 84 of Wildflower and Whiskey
Phoenix reached for it. “I’ll mount the chime higher,” he said.
“Then he will still find it,” Pierre replied dryly, tipping his chin toward Braden. “He is clever.”
I smiled. “Understatement.”
Pierre’s gaze softened as it landed on me. “And how is your heart?”
It took me a beat to catch his meaning. “Steadier,” I said honestly. “I keep telling myself this is temporary, and I feel relief and… something else.”
“Both can be true,” he said, opening the sensor kit with surgeon’s precision. “Becket will text when he has news from Route 12.”
We fell into quiet work. Pierre adjusted sensors; Phoenix wired the porch light; I handled the softer tasks. By the time Eric swung in with a bag that smelled like butter and sin, the house felt lived in.
“Crullers and cheese buns,” Eric announced. “If you don’t eat them, I’ll assume you’re ungrateful.”
“You don’t have to get to work?” Phoenix asked.
“I’m pretending I don’t, and that’s funny coming from you,” Eric said which made sense, considering Phoenix hadn’t worked a full day in days. He’d said it was fine, that Cooper and Dominic could run things without him, but I needed to work. I had to keep making money, even if I was living here now. Eric’s eyes flicked from the crib in the side room to me. The teasing softened. “Looks good in here.”
“Feels good,” I said and meant it.
“Then it’s perfect.” He slid the pastries toward me. “Eat before my brother steals them.”
Braden was walking around and holding on to furniture. I had called the daycare yesterday and today to say he wasn’t coming in. Pierre and Eric hung out a little longer before leaving. They said Asher had gone on a trip to the Caribbean on a last-minute deal, which sounded typical for Asher. He liked to work and travel. The day went by in a lazy blur of us hanging out in our new home. Phoenix grabbed lunch from the brewery and brought it back to the house, and we settled in and watched a movie. Everything felt so domestic.
By dusk the windows dimmed to pewter. We ate an early dinner, lights low and golden, the house humming with ordinary sounds. When Pierre returned through the mudroom again, without knocking, my heart dropped into my pants. He was in full-on director mode.
“Patrol sighted both vehicles again,” he said. “Same plates. One near the river road, the other by the old sugar shack.”
Phoenix set his cup down, jaw clenching. “They’re testing the perimeter.”
“Yes.” Pierre’s voice was calm steel. “Becket’s team will stay on them. No approach unless provoked. But I want you both alert.”
I glanced to the glass. The motion light blinked once, then steadied. “Are we safe here?” I asked, hating the tremor.
Pierre’s answer didn’t waver. “Yes. You’re surrounded by eyes that do not blink.”
The quiet stretched taut and thin. Phoenix walked over to me and set a hand on my shoulder. “We keep living our life,” he said. “We don’t give them what they want.”
“What do they want?”
“To make you run,” he said. “To scare us.”
I straightened. “Then I’m not going anywhere.”
Pierre’s mouth curved. “Bon. That is the Thorne way. I think it may be money they want from us. We heard Riley told themwe were one of the richer families in town. Odd that they aren’t scared to bully the director of the police. Make sure you have the portable sensor on you at all times,” he said, looking at Phoenix.
Pierre’s phone buzzed. He answered, listened, and then hung up.
“They’ve turned back toward town,” he said. “No incidents.”
Relief unspooled slowly. Phoenix locked the door, checked the windows, then came to stand beside me at the counter. Outside, the motion light caught a few early flakes drifting down, each one bright before it disappeared into the dark.
I slid my hand into his. “Do you think this will end?”
He squeezed once. “Yeah. Because we’re going to end it.”
I believed him.
