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“I do. And I want them. But I’m living. I am alive.”
Leena settled a hand on Dev’s shoulder. “Being alive doesn’t mean you’re living.”
Devon didn’t argue. What could she say?
Her boss—ex-boss, apparently—was right. Dev had been in a holding pattern since she’d run away from the situation she’d been thrust into in Chicago. She’d been running, hiding, and not moving forward in life, not at all. She might as well have died along with her mom and her grandparents.
“I’ve gotta get back up front before it looks suspicious that I’m gone. Just stay here until your men come to get you.” She grasped Dev’s shoulders. “Be safe. We love you. You’ll always be our family. Don’t you forget that.”
Dev sucked in a watery breath and nodded, blinking back her tears. She knew Leena was right. This was for her own good, but she just felt as if she were losing part of her life all over again.
Ten
“John managed to get a pic of the guy. He texted it to me,” Hawk said, his fingers white-knuckled on the steering wheel. “The suit was still in there when I stopped in to get the pick-up order I called in.”
He’d phoned in the meal to Leena, so he’d have an excuse to come inside the diner and loiter for a few minutes while Dev escaped out the back door where Cannon had waited in the truck. Hawk had wanted a chance to check out the interloper and imprint his image into his memory. Seeing someone new enter, the man had stalked over and flashed the photo at Hawk. Annoyed, Hawk wondered if the asshole planned to approach every person who walked into the diner, today. He doubted Leena would put up with that, but it wouldn’t stop the stranger from hanging out on Main Street and approaching people.
Please, God, don’t let anyone mention the girl looks like Dev.
“You think he’s the guy who set off the alarms last night?” Cannon asked.
“No. He can’t be. The person who left the footprints last night had small feet. His were too big.”
“Great. Another mystery. So now, we’re dealing with two people,” Cannon muttered.
He glanced toward the back where Dev was curled on the floor, so no one could see she was in the vehicle with them. She tried to hide it, but when Hawk peered back, he saw the fine tremors rolling over her small frame. “You looked so young in that picture. Different. I’m pretty sure no one will make a connection between that girl and you.”
“Not different enough,” she whispered.
He shook his head even as he looked back to the road. “Baby girl, you should know by now, everyone in this town has some sort of story. Plenty of people are leaving behind a past they don’t want following them. Even if someone realizes it’s you—which I don’t think they will—no one’s gonna tell that asshole.”
“Not everyone has a bad past. There are lots of new residents, who just wanted away from the rat race.”
Hawk didn’t believe that. It was an open secret that Daly catered to alternate lifestyles. No one moved here without knowing.
“Maybe, I should just move on,” Dev said into her knees.
“Over our dead bodies,” Cannon rasped, and Hawk had to agree with him. The thought of Dev alone and on the run sent ice through his veins.
“We’ll keep you safe. Besides…where would you go? There’s nowhere safer than Daly. If anyone tried to hurt you, the men here would take the person miles into nowhere and bury him where no one will ever find the body.”
“That’s just a story. It’s never happened.”
He shrugged. He’d heard rumors. If he knew for sure it had appeared, he wouldn’t say. First rule of Daly justice: don’t talk about Daly justice.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said instead. “You’re ours. You’ve been ours since that day in Briar’s sunroom. We may have only kissed so far, but that doesn’t matter. You’re ours.”
“Last night was one of the best of my life,” Cannon added even as he reached over and squeezed Hawk’s thigh. The statement didn’t bother Hawk, though. He understood what his lover meant. They were always meant to be in a triad, not just a pair.
“Right,” Dev scoffed. “You guys have each other.”
“Yeah, but you’re our missing piece,” Hawk countered. “We’re not whole without you, baby girl. So hear me now: where you go, we go. If you’re gonna run, we’re coming with you.”
“You can’t uproot your lives like that!”
Hawk turned the truck down the graded road that led toward their property. Snow-coated trees lined the lane, the limbs brushing both sides of the truck. Sun glinted off the icy boughs and gave everything a Christmas card appearance. To their right, a family of deer feasted on the winter grass, far enough away, he didn’t worry about them bounding in front of their vehicle.
It was peaceful. Quiet. And there wasn’t a soul in sight. He didn’t see a single sign of anything amiss.
