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A visit from one of them was worse than a paid assassin.
I sighed, knowing we only had one option. Pierce had enough trouble in this town, and we couldn’t draw attention to ourselves. Cyrus and I needed to get in and out of Pelican Bay without causing a stir, which Hazel had already interrupted. None of us needed more people asking questions about the Kensington twins. They wrote about the family in the damn local paper enough already. Apparently, they even had a phone tree for gossip.
“Hazel, it’s for you,” I yelled, knowing she heard me through the flimsy bathroom door.
With a smile I certainly did not feel, which may have shown a bit too much teeth, I opened the door and greeted the two women. “Ladies, come in.”
What did I say? Yes, I was an asshole at heart, but my mother taught me to be polite. Especially to someone older. It didn’t mean I’d allow them to run rampant. Even if Pearl was old and Tabitha recently married Ridge. I didn’t plan to let them get far into my safe house.
Although, how safe was it if we already had half of the old hens in town visiting?
I led them to the small round kitchen table and stood in front of the entryway to the living room, not sure I’d let them that far past. I didn’t want anyone besides me, Hazel, or Cyrus that close to my laptop.
Hazel bounded out of the bathroom, excited to see the two women. Nothing like her life was being threatened by a notorious mobster from Chicago. She wore a gargantuan smile as she passed me.
“We brought coffee and a muffin,” Tabitha said joyously to the woman I worked hard to protect.
I crossed my arms over my chest, irritated that I never caused Hazel to smile that huge. If all it took was a coffee, I’d buy her the entire bakery and have them deliver it every morning.
“Did you bring me a coffee?” I asked, noticing only three cups in the little holder.
Tabitha stared at the coffee as she dished them out to each sitting person. “Er. No. We didn’t know you’d be here.”
They didn’t know I’d be here? Like I’d leave Hazel alone in my house and let something happen to her.
The older woman, Pearl, waved her hand in my direction as if I was a fly she needed to bat out of her way. “We didn’t come to talk to you, Kensington. We came for Hazel,” she said, sounding like one of those nannies my mother hired to watch Cyrus and me before we entered the school system.
My hands tightened into fists and I leaned up against the threshold, getting comfortable. “Too bad.”
No way would I leave them alone. Pelican Bay might have had a phone tree, but the Kensington family told stories of the trouble the bakery girls created. I also heard the trouble Katy caused with Lily. Katy even taught Mari how to pick a lock. Oliver said she bought a kit off a random internet site. When he questioned her, she said Katy recommended the site and that you never knew when you’d need to break in somewhere.
I knew exactly who to blame if Hazel had issues.
Katy.
Just because she wasn’t there at the moment didn’t mean she hadn’t planned their visit. If trouble came, she wouldn’t be far behind.
Hazel glanced at me with soft, pleading eyes. “Corbin.”
I stared right back at her, my eyes hard and determined. “Babe, you’re not leaving my eyesight.”
What did she expect me to do, leave my house? I wasn’t trusting the safety of my woman in the hands of an eighty-year-old and Tabitha, even if her last name was now Jefferson.
Ridge’s new wife smiled. “It’s the name. Isn’t it?” she asked, nodding her head already at Hazel. “It gets us every time.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but Hazel understood her nonsense words because she nodded in affirmation.
“So anyway,” Pearl said, starting the conversation, obviously done with the inane chatter. “We can discuss that shampoo you asked about. I brought with me a comprehensive listing of all fifty-seven ingredients.”
“My shampoo?” Hazel asked.
Pearl nodded. “Yes, uh-huh, remember?”
“Her shampoo is fine,” I said butting into the conversation and earning a hard glare from the old woman. Whatever, it was the truth. Her shampoo smelled like peaches and reminded me of sunshine. There was no way Hazel needed to change her shampoo.
And no way I’d leave Hazel alone with these women. They had a call sign on the damn police radio. The police considered the entire group of them a menace, and every time they brought a new woman into the fold, she got wrapped up in their drama.
Of course, now Pierce was dating their leader. He did nothing less than a hundred percent, even if that made the rest of us miserable.
