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“It’s Diggs,” I said under my breath and hated that the softness of my voice was purely due to my reaction to seeing him there. To getting trapped in his gaze when he noticed us standing there. “And, no, I didn’t know he’d be here.”
Cora tried muting the high-pitched noise that rose in her throat and squeezed my arm even tighter. “Remind me, do we still hate him?”
I contemplated the fierce beating of my heart and the wings that had taken residence in my stomach the instant I’d seen him. The way my soul ached for the distance between us to be erased—for us to be in the dark of my apartment instead of a brightly lit school hallway. How my wrist tingled in anticipation of his touch.
“We’re not thrilled with him,” I finally muttered as every one of those feelings and wants were replaced with the deep disappointment and frustration of the past week.
“Then we’re not thrilled with him,” Cora echoed resolutely as if it were that simple.
After finding out I hadn’t been sleeping with a married man, Cora had pulled daily Diggs-and-Willow updates from me. Even though she liked to maintain our encounters had Ted Bundy wannabe vibes written all over them, she seemed nearly as devastated as I was that Diggs had been sneaking in and out without waking me. And while I adored her for having my back, I would give anything to be seeing him again without an audience.
“I’d still let him sneak into my bedroom,” Cora said on a wistful sigh, forcing a choking laugh from me just as we got close enough to hear the hushed words of Rorie and Diggs’ conversation.
The harshness of her voice.
“...deserve to know,” she snapped at him.
My eyes widened as I brought Cora to a stop when I realized we weren’t walking in on a friendly conversation, but there was no point in turning around.
Diggs clearly knew we were there, and our classrooms were just past them.
“You can demand to know things all you want, little five-oh wifey,” Diggs said, voice dripping with ease and that cocky swagger he’d portrayed the first night we’d met, “doesn’t mean you deserve to know a goddamn thing.”
He took a step away from her, away from me, but stopped when Rorie latched onto his arm. His gray eyes widened with surprise when he twisted to meet her stare as she fired back at him.
“You’re here, which means there’s trouble. And if you’re putting our kids and our school in danger, then, yes, I deserve to know.”
Diggs carefully removed her hand, his voice taking on a slight warning when he said, “As much as I love having beautiful women touch me, I’m not in the habit of messing with law enforcement property. You’re also the wrong blonde.” He jerked his chin in our direction. “We have an audience.”
Rorie turned, her eyelids blinking slowly as if struggling to remove herself from the track she’d been on and realize her surroundings. But then her eyes narrowed on me as if she finally grasped Diggs’ warning and she whirled around, her voice sharp and disapproving. “I told you to stay away from her. I told you to leave her alone.”
“Seems you warned her too,” he said softly, angrily, as those eyes flitted to me. Only touching on me long enough to bring that chaos to life all over again before he seemingly forced his stare away. Head shaking subtly as he turned. “We’re done, Aurora.”
“Don’t call me that,” Rorie muttered irritably as she followed him.
“Good Lord, this is better than trashy reality TV,” Cora whispered, but I ignored the comment and took a few steps after them, unable to help myself.
“You can’t do this. You can’t leave us blind when you know something,” Rorie said, voice at once pleading and outraged. When he continued walking away without a word, she snapped, “Then tell me Lexi will be here today.”
My stomach clenched at the break in her voice. As if she already knew Alexis wouldn’t be at school, and it had something to do with Diggs.
Diggs paused, and that worry in my stomach grew the longer he stood there. Hands slowly clenching into fists before relaxing.
“They weren’t there,” Rorie went on when it was clear he wouldn’t. “Kieran and Jess...Conor and Sutton...the kids. They weren’t at our house this weekend, and they’re there every Sunday night. Jentry knows Jess is lying to him about why, so you can’t tell me nothing is happening. You can’t tell me we’re safe—that the kids of this school are safe. Because my husband’s worried, and you’re here.”
After what felt like an eternity, Diggs finally turned just as Rorie started pleading with him again. Expression that relaxed arrogance he so easily wore and so out of place with the tension in the hallway and the caution rolling off him in waves.
“The funny thing about that is I keep trying to leave here, and you won’t let me,” he said in that overly cocky way of his. “You and I both know you’re aware of too much, little five-oh mama...so you know you’re safest when you’re far from us.” His stare had shifted to me and his voice had dipped with meaning at the last part before he returned to that cool confidence as he spoke to her. “If we’re not crowding your house for Sunday dinners or occupying your school’s desks, I’d say you’re about to be the safest you’ve been in a long damn time. Thank you sounds a little better than the demands you’ve been spitting out.”
“Something’s happening,” Rorie said shakily when he took a step back. “I want to know.”
“And what if I said we’re protecting the town?” When a condescending laugh burst from Rorie, Diggs lifted a brow knowingly. “Again...we’re done, Aurora.”
I watched as Rorie’s hands dragged over her face before falling. A defeated sound crawled from her as she watched him leave, her body rocking in the direction he was going before she turned to face where I stood with Cora.
But then I was moving.
My feet carrying me in Diggs’ direction despite Rorie’s protests until I was nearly running to stop him just as he stepped outside the main doors.
