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I pressed my hand to my thigh, feeling the ring dig into my skin.
I’d ditched the ring box at the first rest stop we’d stopped at, annoyed by the bulge in my pocket that you could very clearly see. It’d been only a matter of time before she saw it and recognized the shape for what it was.
“I’ll do that now,” I promised.
“Good man,” he said. “I’m out.”
Then he was gone, leaving me sighing long and loud.
“What was that?” Saylor asked, scooting over to press closely against my side.
“That was my captain telling me that the house was nearly broken into,” I grumbled.
She gasped. “Did he get in?”
I shook my head, then pulled up the app on my phone that allowed me to arm the alarm.
With that done, I thought of something and texted Captain Morgan.
Lock: What’s the make and model of the car?
Captain Morgan texted back seconds later.
CM: 1999 Civic. Black with green rims.
I closed my eyes and groaned.
“That’s the car that I keep seeing all over town,” I cursed. “This has the be the creepy fucker that’s sending us mail.”
Saylor didn’t pretend not to know what I was talking about.
“Do you think that it’s the same person that sent that to my dad?” she asked. “The same one that’s harassing him?”
After texting a reply to the captain to ensure that he took a look in the parking lot of Saylor’s old apartment building, I shoved the phone back into my pocket and shrugged.
“I honestly can’t pretend to know anything,” I said. “The picture he got? Yes. The rest? No, I have no clue.”
She made a sound in the back of her throat, then placed her hand on my thigh.
“Let’s go,” she ordered. “I’d like to talk to my dad.”
***
To say that Kettle was happy to see his daughter was an understatement.
I kind of felt a little bad for him since I’d managed to convince his daughter to stay in Kilgore with me instead of going home.
I tossed the ball that had rolled over to my feet back to Saylor, and she caught it expertly.
I winked at her, and her smile went wide.
“You know,” Adeline said as she watched Kettle and Saylor throw the baseball back and forth to each other. “I didn’t think there was anybody on this Earth other than her father that could coax a smile like that out of my girl…but then I just saw that.”
I dropped my glove as I watched the two of them toss it to each other, higher and higher.
“She makes me happy,” I found myself saying. “You have no idea how much.”
She made a humming sound in the back of her throat.
“I always wanted so many kids,” she said. “I thought we’d have ten, with how much I loved her father.”
I looked down at her.
“I’m not sure why we never had any more,” she admitted. “We considered going to the doctor once, but Tiago and me? We decided to let fate guide its way. We had one beautiful, perfect little girl. If we were meant to have another, then that was what would happen for us…and it never did.” She looked at me. “We fostered a whole lot. I’m talking, a lot. We had kids in and out of this place for years. Days and weeks at a time, but never for long. Saylor loved them all.”
I thought about the one boy that had freaked her out so bad and pointed that out.
“There was something wrong with that kid,” she said. “And it broke my heart into a million pieces that she had to be uncomfortable for one single second in this house that we made for her to feel safe.”
I understood what she was saying.
“You want her to stay here.” I said. “Until we can figure out what’s going on.”
“When I first started dating Kettle, there were some things that happened with his stepfather,” she said. “I didn’t realize how powerful the Dixie Wardens MC was until then. And yes, she’d be protected here.”
I didn’t doubt it for one single second.
After we’d explained to her father what was going on, compared notes between us all, it quickly became apparent that there was more to this than met the eye.
“It all started here after we came down there and helped her move into your place,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of thinking. And…that’s what I’m coming up with.”
‘It all’ being threatening letters in the mail. One of those being a photo of Saylor and me staring at each other while I was still inside of her.
You could tell that I was still inside of her, too.
Something that Kettle had not, even a little bit, been excited about getting in the mail. No father wants to see something like that when it came to his daughter.
The photo itself was mainly of me from behind.
