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She nods, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Mabel’s forehead where she still hugs my side. I can feel Harvey’s eyes on me like a heat lamp waving in front of my face like he’s searching my features for something; something I won’t be giving him. When he opens his mouth to say something, I speak before he can.
“You can leave.”
Mabel sits up and looks at me, while Keeley stays buried in my neck, her crying subsiding and her breathing evening out. Guinevere tightens her grip on me but doesn’t look at Harvey or me.
“Rainha—”
“Thank you for your assistance, detective.” I stared ahead, not meeting his eye and keeping my voice as neutral as possible to hide the sound of my heart breaking beneath.
He rubs the back of his neck, pulling a pained face and sighing. “There will have to be a report about this.”
My nostrils flare and if I wasn’t being weighed down by two scared girls, I’d probably lunge and ring his neck. He grits his jaw at whatever expression he sees on my face.
“I have a dead police captain in your home, there’s no way to avoid that, Annika. Gibson’s a good guy and a good cop, I can’t ask him to turn a blind eye to everything, it’ll eat him up.”
“And yet you brought him along.”
He throws his arms up in frustration, turning away before coming back to me. “I was in a jail cell this morning Annika. I couldn’t get here without him, and I wasn’t going to just sit back to wait and see what happened after Marks told me he was coming to you. So, excuse me for doing what I had to, to make sure you were still alive.”
I swallow back the tears his words and anger want to draw out of me. “That’s not your job anymore,” I spit.
“Doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop doing it,” he mumbles, giving me one last sad look before walking off to help Gibson and the fire crew.
“He loves you,” Mabel says quietly. When I just look at her, unsure what to say to that, her mouth turns down in sadness. “And you love him.”
“Mabel, I —”
“We love you too, Anni.” She hugs me again and I can only hold my arm around her. “Let us stay with you.”
That has me jerking in surprise. “What?”
“I know you don’t have a house but let us stay with you, wherever you go. Please.”
“You thought I’d send you away because the house burned down?”
Her lips tremble where she rests against my shoulder. “How can you share your home when you don’t have one?”
I’m speechless. Luckily, Guinevere saves the day. “Sweet girl, that,” she points to the blazing ruins in front of us, “was a house, not a home. Home is where your family is, and we’re a family, right here, right now. You’ll always be a part of our home because you’re a part of our family. Isn’t that right, Anni?”
I nod. “Of course.”
I’ve never been one to wax lyrical, but Guinevere’s words have never felt so true. But the hole in my fractured heart protests that my home can’t be complete without the man currently speaking in close quarters with the fire chief, undoubtedly taking the blame for the dead man in my office.
48
ANNIKA
Between myself, the girls, Guinevere, and my men, we take up the top floor of Nöje, using all three of the penthouse suites. The day after the fire, I had replacement clothes, games, books, and electronics delivered for the girls, wanting to ensure that they were affected as little as possible. Although the trauma was noticed. Keeley was jumping at every loud noise and Mabel had gone back to being quiet and introverted, but I took some comfort in the fact that it wasn’t me or my men that made her retreat into herself.
Rebuilding has already started on the house, even though it only burned down a few weeks ago. As much as I love Nöje, having had a lot of involvement in its design and concept, I cannot stand living in a hotel. So many other people around and the swimming pool is open to all guests. I’ve only managed to swim once since we’ve been here, heading down at two o’clock in the morning when the pool was officially closed but the guard on duty didn’t blink at my instruction to unlock the doors.
“Do you have to go?” Keeley asks, her lower lip trembling.
“Yes. Despite everything, I still have work to do and meetings I cannot miss. As much as I want to stay and be with you all day, I have to go out for a few hours. I’ll be back later though.” Ipull the jacket to my new powder-blue Gucci suit on over my red corset-style top, buttoning it so only the lacy cups show. Mabel sits on my bed with a book in front of her as Keeley sits at the dressing table rifling through my perfumes and makeup.
“Can I have some makeup?” Keeley asks, her distress over me leaving apparently having evaporated.
“Kee, Anni’s just bought us all new stuff, you can’t ask for more,” Mabel admonishes with a maternal patience.
