Page 163 of A Vicious Love

Nothing.

“Reeves. Send Sienna a coffee.”

“From the cafe?”

“Yes. Hers. Oat milk. Cinnamon. Not hot enough to burn her mouth.”

“Understood.”

“And something lemon.”

“A pastry?”

“That is generally where lemon appears in cafés, Reeves.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sienna’s reply came through before Reeves could deserve any more sarcasm.

I’m fine. It was just the alarm. Thank you for checking.

Polite answer.

She used to send me paragraphs. At the time, I had considered these messages excessive. Possibly criminal.

Good. Stay warm.

I stared at it.

Deleted.

I typed:

A coat is coming.

No. That sounded insane.

Deleted.

I typed:

You should wait somewhere warmer until they clear the building.

Reasonable, not a confession. Or come home, baby, Daddy is losing his mind watching you and decided to make it everyone’s problem.

I sent it.

She looked down at her phone on the camera.

Read it. I leaned closer to the screen like a desperate idiot.

I will. Thank you.

The red-haired café girl appeared with a coffee, and a small paper bag. Good. Lexie Cline was proving useful.

Sienna looked suspicious. Good girl. My baby was learning. She looked around the street after taking the coffee, and for one wild second I thought she might look directly into one of the cameras and accuse me.

She held the cup in both hands. The sight calmed something in me.