Page 30 of Heaven Help Me

She follows me into the kitchen, where she offers to make the best grilled cheese I’ve ever tasted. I help her find all the things she needs and then get busy steaming some broccoli to go along with the sandwiches. She’s plating the grilled cheese when I remember what I wanted to tell her.

“Hey, I’ve seen a guy I don’t know cruise by the boutique a few times this week.”

Valentina puts down the pan with a clank and gives me her full focus. “Description of the car?”

“Non-descript sedan, gray, four door, newer model. Didn’t catch the license plate number, but it’s an Alabama plate.”

“Could be a rental. Got cameras on the front of the boutique?”

“Yeah, one on the front and several inside.”

“Let’s check those tomorrow morning and I’ll run the plates. See if any of the cameras picked up his face. I can run that through a database too.”

I smirk at her. She’s hot when she goes all mob boss on me. “Could just be a tourist.”

She hands me a plate with an oozing grilled cheese, heated to buttery perfection. “Tourist with a weird fascination with your shop? Not likely. Do you have guns here at the house?”

I scoop up broccoli and put some on our plates before heading to the breakfast table. I put my plate down and pull out her chair. She has a seat and lets me push her in. Look at us being all friendly.

“Yes. Of course I have a gun. It’s locked away though.”

“Great. Do you know how to use it?” She holds up her grilled cheese but waits until I’ve taken a bite before partaking of her own.

An explosion of warm, gooey cheese and crunchy, buttery bread hits my taste buds. I squeeze my eyes shut and enjoy it. Small pleasures in life should be savored.

“Holy shit, V,” I mutter through a mouthful. Then I swallow. “And yes, of course, I know how to use it. Am I Bettina’s son?”

“When was the last time you shot?”

Well, shit. She’s got me there.

I grumble an answer through another bite of food.

Her mouth hooks into a smirk. “What’s that? I can’t hear you.”

I shoot her a dirty look for tossing my snark back in my face. “It’s been a few years.”

“That’s what I thought. Let’s go to the range tomorrow.”

I want to bitch about having a boutique to run, but she’s right. I should brush the cobwebs off my skills in order to protect her better. And this grilled cheese is good enough to lull me into whatever she asks for. Can’t remember the last time I had a woman cook for me.

“Fine.”

“Fine,” she says firmly.

And then we eat in companionable silence.

This truce is going to work splendidly.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Valentina

Apparently I’m so far out in the sticks Heaven doesn’t have a gun range. Sounds a bit more like hell if you ask me. Deuce assures me there’s a very safe clearing out by Jasper Lake where all the locals go to shoot. I’d be concerned about the redneck nature of just shooting out in a field somewhere, but Deuce is almost as bougie as I am, so if he says it’s fine, I’m going to trust him.

I know, I’m shocked too.

He invited his friends Silas and Rhett, which suits me just fine. I like to kick the asses of men in areas they think they have buttoned up so the more the merrier. The two boys are already there when Deuce and I pull up in his Mercedes. It has a light coating of dust and grime on it. I watch the way Deuce’s lip curls when he sees how dirty his precious car’s gotten on the drive up to the clearing. I roll my eyes.