Page 125 of Floodgates

“It’s long overdue.”

“Agreed.”

“First Saturday when I get home.”

“I will hold you to this,” he said hoarsely.

“You won’t have to; I’ll make sure it happens.”

“Good.”

And it would be.

WHEN THE door opened two hours later, Cord walked in with pepperoni pizza, a six-pack of Pepsi, and peach cobbler. If I hadn’t been in love with him before, that would have sealed the deal.

“I’m gonna have Dimah over for dinner when we get home,” I announced as we both sat down at the table.

“That sounds great,” he said, grinning before he leaned sideways and kissed me.

I wanted that to keep going, but his stomach growled, so I pulled away. “Food first, then more fooling around,” I announced.

“Definitely.”

“Hey, what time is it?” I asked while we were both shoving pizza into our mouths.

He muttered something I missed over the chewing.

“One more time, Nolan.”

“It’s three in the afternoon.”

“Oh shit, I lost a whole day.”

“You were up until seven in the morning, so you needed the sleep,” he informed me, reaching out to touch my cheek. “You were wiped out.”

We ate more, and finally I asked him what was going to happen to Lucien.

“Well, first off, he’ll be extradited back to California, and second he’ll be evaluated to see if he’s fit to stand trial or if he’s too much of a whack job.”

“What do you think?”

“I think he’s good to go,” he apprised me, passing me another napkin before placing two more slices of pizza on my paper plate. “I don’t think there’s any problem with his reasoning. He knows what he did and why. He killed Tim Stanson to cover his ass. That right there tells me he was very much aware of what he was doing. Mark my words, they are gonna lock Lucien Ritter up for the rest of his life.”

My eyes flicked to his. “But if they don’t, they’ll tell me before they let him out, right?”

“Baby, if they let him out, you don’t have to worry. I’ll be right there with you.”

I nodded.

“You trust me?”

“Absolutely.”

He looked quite pleased. “Good.”

“Do you know the name of the man who Lucien shot?”

“I do. His name’s Michael Ivory, and he was a handyman here in town. Nice guy, from what everyone’s told me. He just had some gambling debts that Lucien had been good enough to pay off for him in exchange for a favor to be named later.”