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Or would the elderly couple, the old man feeding his wife a scoop of cheesecake off of his fork, be the victims?
Sadly, the miserableness of the situation finally hit me.
I couldn’t go out and draw him out because I wouldn’t want to put whoever helped me at risk.
Officially, until he made himself known, I was under lock and key.
Unless I moved to the wilds of Alaska where I knew he wouldn’t follow.
And truthfully, I wasn’t sure that I could even survive that far north seeing as it dropped to such low degrees.
“We were safe.” Laric caught my hand and pressed my fingers flat to rest against his hard thigh. “And your dad drove you in some crazy ugly truck. I’m fairly sure that meant he was inconspicuous as well.”
I sighed, my eyes once again going to the elderly couple.
“If you think they’re safe, I’ll defer to you,” I admitted.
“Holy shit,” Adam gasped, pasting his hand to his chest. “Dad, if he asks for Catori’s hand in marriage, don’t even think to hesitate. This man just made her do the impossible.”
I picked up the half-eaten roll on my dinner plate and tossed it at his face.
It bounced off his chin, leaving a smear of butter in his beard in its wake.
Adam grinned at me, picked up the roll that was now in his lap, and took a bite.
“If you’d have just given it to me earlier like I’d asked…” he teased.
He finished the roll leaving the butter in his beard.
“Are you going to clean that up?” I asked curiously.
He shrugged. “Is it bothering you with it there?”
It was.
He knew it.
I knew it.
Hell, even my dad knew it.
Laric started to chuckle as he reached for my sweet tea that I’d barely touched—it was so sweet that I’d asked for half and half—and drank so much of it that I was glad that I wasn’t drinking it anymore.
“Thirsty?” I teased.
He winked at me, squeezed my hand down onto his thigh, and then turned to my dad. “So, you got any plans tonight? Because I might could use your help.”
“I don’t have plans,” Adam chirped, placing his glass down on the table and still leaving the fucking butter in his beard.
Laric turned to Adam.
“No offense, but I didn’t ask you.” Before Adam could go sputtering, Laric went on to explain, “This thing that we’re going to do is probably not the best idea for an active-duty cop. Just sayin’.”
Adam sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that. Still, I’m on standby if you or he need anything.”
“I’m in,” Dad said. “My girl mentioned something about it this morning, and I checked in with some of the boys. We’re in. We have us and about six others with experience. You need that many, anyway.”
Laric’s face turned into a grin. “On this short notice, and this big of an op? Hell, yes, we’re gonna need experienced hands.”
Laric trailed off after that because the waitress arrived back with my tea. She looked at my mostly drank one and frowned.
“He drank it.” I pointed at Laric. “I swear, it really was too sweet to drink for me.”
The waitress started to turn toward Laric, but Adam turned and showed off his butter beard, causing her to pause.
I could see the war rallying within her.
She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t figure out whether it would be rude or not.
Adam grinned, knowing exactly what he was doing.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and cursed.
“Shit,” I said. “My phone’s dead again. Can I borrow yours, Adam?”
Adam pulled it out and handed it to me, falling right into my trap.
I called Amelia, waiting until she answered before hitting FaceTime.
When her face filled the screen, I smiled. “Your husband is a dumbass.”
The waitress snorted and placed another basket of rolls and left just as Laric said, “Another sweet tea, please.”
The waitress nodded and kept moving, her face aflame.
“What’s on his face?” Amelia asked when I turned the screen around. “Tell him to clean it off, or I’ll do it for him.”
Adam looked at the phone, grinning like a damn loon.
“And how will you do that, baby? You’re all the way at home, hours away from me, and you don’t even know where I am,” he teased.
She got really close to the phone and said, “You’re at Five D Cattle Company in Avinger, Texas. Clean it off, or I’ll do it for you.”
Adam rolled his eyes.
“You can’t make me.”
My dad sighed. “I raised a bunch of toddlers.”
Laric laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in gently.
“It really hurt?” he asked curiously.
Adam tried to snatch the phone, but I pulled away and hid close to Laric’s chest as I said, “I feel fine. Ish. Now, Amelia, put the baby on the phone.”
So that was how Amelia joined our family dinner, and my nephew, too.
