AllFreeNovel
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Bailey took a last look around. “Summer’s really over.”
“She’s got a little life in her yet, but yeah, you can feel her starting to bow out. It’ll be my first autumn in Vermont.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
“Army, school. So Christmas, some summer visits. I’m looking forward to it.” And to all the autumns that came after. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Until winter break.”
They walked out together. Morgan saw Deputy Howe leaning on his patrol car, talking with one of the night security team.
Routine now, she thought. Cops and guards, all routine.
Bailey turned, wrapped her in a hug. “Please stay safe.”
“That’s the plan. And you kick grad school’s butt.”
“Also the plan.”
She walked to her car. “Jerry, Deputy.”
“Night, Morgan. You drive safe now.”
“Hard to do otherwise with a cop in my rearview.”
As she drove, she let the work portion of the day slide away, letherself think about the next. Some laundry, a hair appointment where she intended to show the stylist the type of dress she had in mind so they could strategize wedding hair.
Nell had recommended a photographer—one her ladies agreed on as well. She needed to set up an appointment. She knew a lot of couples did engagement photos, but she didn’t think she and Miles were that couple.
And she had the selfies from the hike.
The little spikes of annoyance she’d felt for him earlier had smoothed right over. He worried, she reminded herself, because he loved her. If she accepted love—and boy, did she—then she accepted what came with it.
Maybe she thought theunsafe word silly, but it could be something they’d laugh about years from now. While Rozwell sat in a maximum security prison.
He waited up for her texts. He didn’t say so, but he must, as he answered them within seconds. Just:Get some sleep. Or:Talk tomorrow. Never just:Good night.
But he waited every night they weren’t together until he knew she’d gotten home safe. She should be grateful.
“I am grateful.”
She pulled into her driveway, locked her car. Deputy Howe idled the patrol car at the foot of the drive while she walked to the door. When she unlocked it, opened it, she turned, waved. Shut the door behind her, reset the alarm.
She started to walk straight to the stairs and up, but a sound from the living room had her glancing over.
And everything inside her turned to ice.
She saw the bruises on her mother’s face, on her grandmother’s, the fear and grief in their eyes.
Laughing like a lunatic, Rozwell jumped up from his hiding place behind the sofa. “Surprise!” he shouted, waving a gun in one hand, a knife in the other. “Go ahead and scream, go on and make a move, and I slit their throats, shoot you, and I’m gone before you hit the floor.”
Whatever it took, whatever it cost, he wouldn’t hurt her ladies.
“I’m not going to scream, Gavin. What’s the point in that? And you won’t shoot me. It’s not your style. It’s lazy.” She looked into his eyes. If she looked into her mother’s, she’d fall apart. “You’re not lazy, and you haven’t come all this way to shoot me and be done with it.”
“You think you’re so smart.”
“Smart enough, but you’re the smart one. You know there’s nothing I can do when you have my family. As long as they’re alive, there’s nothing I can do.”
