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“Will do,” Boone said.
When the front door shut behind Hank, Rhett said, “Violi is still at the B and B. We’ve had eyes on him the entire time, and other than him sitting outside Remy’s shop and her approaching him, he hasn’t taken a step out of line.”
“Until he had someone break into Remy’s loft,” Asher grumbled, running a hand over his face. He studied Tony, who was still fingerprinting the scene. Asher could break the order of his superior and frighten Violi the way he’d frightened Remy, but that wasn’t doing right by her. Not in the way she needed him. “I’m taking Remy back to my place until we’ve got prints or something we can move on.”
Rhett’s gaze swept the mess with a frown before he glanced Asher’s way. “I’ll keep close tabs on Violi, but I doubt we’ll get anything from that.”
“You’ve got eyes on him,” Asher said. “That’s good enough for me right now.”
Boone agreed with a nod. “I’ll keeping digging and see if anything comes up in Violi’s past. Chief’s right—there’s gotta be something here we’re missing.”
Done with thinking of anyone but Remy, Asher moved toward the bathroom door. “If you get anything, call.”
He heard the guys leave through the front door, and the chatter of Tony and the other crime tech behind him, when he knocked on the bathroom door. “Remy.”
“Come in.”
He opened the door and found her sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Asher contained the blistering rage boiling beneath his skin. Remy had been through so much. Too much. Asher lived by the law. He was ruled by the black and white, never living in the gray area. But Remy’s damp, overly bright eyes, and the way she flinched at the noises outside the bathroom, made Asher want to make Violi pay. “I have an idea,” he said.
“What’s that?” Her voice shook.
His gut churned at the emptiness in her eyes. “How about we go to my house, get you into the bath, burn that smelly protection stuff, eat some chocolate, and build a fort you can hide in.”
Sudden warmth spread across her face with her small smile. A smile that eased the weight in his chest. Asher offered his hand, and as soon as her cool fingers twined with his, he could breathe easier.
He pulled her into him, and she came willingly. “I’m sorry this happened,” he said, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
She sniffed, trembling against him. “It’s just really scary.”
“I know. It is scary.” He leaned away, tucked a finger under chin, capturing those eyes holding a soul he’d do anything to protect. “But you’re not alone.” He cupped her face, then brought his mouth close to hers, and before he claimed the kiss, he said, “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
* * *
The drive back to Asher’s place had felt like an hour, even though it was only ten minutes. Remy couldn’t quite wrap her head around what happened. Not that someone broke into her house. And certainly not that she was potentially now in danger. And she was still trying to come to terms with Damon’s murder. But all those worries and concerns seemed to drift away when she lay back in the hot bath, the rose oil–scented steam rising up in the small bathroom. She brought all of her grief for Damon into this small space with her, feeling every little bit of it, when she lit the white votive candle on the small pedestal sink. She’d let that flame burn all night, and when it went out, Damon would find peace and cross over. Where he’d go from there, she didn’t know, but that wasn’t for her to decide. What she did know was that her grief and sadness over Damon would drain away with the bath water.
She couldn’t take these feelings with her, not with what he’d tried to take from her.
The flowered wallpaper was the same as it had always been. Remy had been surprised when they arrived at the house to find that Asher hadn’t changed much of it except some of the furniture. She wondered if maybe that was because this was Asher’s childhood home. To change anything would be like letting his mother go.
The flame flickered light across Remy’s bare knees poking out of the water. This house felt like a second home. Remy spent most of her days growing up in this house. Maybe it even felt like home now, considering Remy had sold Nana’s place after she’d passed away. Remy couldn’t be there without Nana in it. That’s why she’d moved into the loft, but the loft never felt like home. It always felt temporary.
She shut her eyes, letting the hot water relax her tense muscles. She said a little prayer for Damon, hoping he crossed over with ease and peace that did not happen in his death. After that, a thousand things rushed through her mind. So many who and what and where, but in the end, she had no answers for anything. Though she did have one thing—suspicions, and there was only one person she wanted to talk to about that: Kinsley. She felt bad excluding Peyton, but Peyton had Boone, and Remy didn’t want to mess up their relationship by forcing Peyton to keep secrets from her fiancé. She knew Kinsley could keep secrets from her brother. They had been doing it for years.
The ringing of her cell phone snapped Remy’s eyes open. She quickly grabbed the towel off the floor and dried her hands, then reached for her cell and smiled at the screen. “I was just thinking about you,” she said into the phone.
Kinsley laughed softly. “Our soul-sister bond at its finest.” Then her voice went tender. “Boone told me what happened. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m all right,” she said with a long sigh, moving her toes in the warm water. “I’m at Asher’s now. It’s just scary, you know, and so freaking creepy that someone was in my house looking through my stuff.”
“Totally freaky,” Kinsley agreed. “Boone said that he thought Lars might behind all this. What do you think?”
Remy shrugged, even if Kinsley couldn’t see it, and the water rippled beneath her. “It’s gotta be Lars. Who else would it be? He’s the only criminal that’s hanging around me lately.”
“I mean, I get that, but why would he ransack your house?”
And that’s where Remy’s suspicions came in. “You know, after we found my place all messed up, I went into the bathroom and had a mini breakdown in there.”
“Understandable,” Kinsley commented.
