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“Nothing,” she answered, sounding a little breathless.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You can tell me the truth.”
Her eyes widened, her mouth opening slightly, but no words came out. I thought she was going to answer, but then she shook her head. “I’m just…this night has been amazing. But it’s also been…hard.”
My expression softened. Grief had no rhyme or reason for when it hit you. It could sneak up on you even in the happiest of times. “You miss my sister.”
She bit down hard on her lower lip and nodded.
I let out a hard breath, looking away at the deep darkness behind the house. The lights from the town didn’t touch here, and I couldn’t even see the trees a few feet away.
There was nothing I could say to make her feel better, but I didn’t want to end our night like this. I didn’t want her to be sad.
When the idea hit me, my head snapped toward her. Maybe I couldn’t say anything to make her feel better, but I could distract her.
“Do you want to go see the Hearthstone office?” I raised a brow.
She blinked at me. “Where’s that?”
I reached out and grabbed her hand again, because I couldn’t keep my hands away from her for long, it seemed.
“Come on.” I pulled her toward the steps. “I’ll show you.”
She hesitated for a moment before setting her mug down on the thick railing ledge and followed me into the darkness.
I knew the way to the Hearthstone office, even in the dark, but I took out my phone and used the flashlight anyway as Lark trailed behind me. She stayed close, and my skin prickled at the proximity of her body. Any closer and she’d be stepping on my heels. Her heavy breaths caressed the back of my neck and heat flooded my skin, warming the chill from the night.
As the ground beneath us sloped downhill, the lights from the office appeared in the distance.
“Oh,” Lark gasped, as we approached the building. “Has that always been there?”
I chuckled. “It was a half-falling down outbuilding for a long time. We fixed it up and put in a gravel road from the street so we could have clients come if we needed to meet with them in person.”
“Wow,” Lark breathed. “That’s so cool that you have a business with your brothers.”
I shrugged as we came up to the back door. I typed in the code on the electronic keypad, unlocking the dead bolt. “August is the real mastermind behind this, but we all found a way to contribute, I guess.” I pulled her into the back hallway, not wanting to let her hand go, but I forced myself to. “This way.”
I started with the front lobby. It was welcoming, yet modern. The space was open, with exposed brickwork combined with large, black framed windows looking out at the parking lot. Fox had designed the whole thing, combining the historical aspects of the original building with modern touches and technology. Dad and Roman had done the brunt work to make the vision a reality, building something quite unique.
The break room had a full counter with a sink, fridge, and espresso machine. We each had our own individual offices with the old brickwork and exposed wood beams in the ceiling. Fox’s office was the most impressive with all his tech gear and I had to stifle a laugh at how big her eyes got looking at it all.
“So what is it exactly that you all do here at Hearthstone?”
I closed Fox’s office and started toward mine, saving it for last. “August takes care of security needs people have. You’d be surprised how often the college needs a security team. He also has clients all over the state that he provides security for. Fox is our tech guy, including cyber security and setting up security systems that we sell.”
“What does Graham do?” A small frown pulled on her mouth.
I paused on that one. Graham didn’t work for the business full-time, but when he did, he added something invaluable.
“Graham is a forensic psychologist. He has interviewed and counseled numerous high-crime offenders from all across the spectrum. August pays him to counsel his team about the one aspect that can be so hard to predict: the criminal mind. Graham helps the team with insight about how those people think so that they come up with the best way to protect others against them.”
“Oh.” She sounded impressed. “That’s amazing. And smart.” She tilted her head to the side as we made it to my office, and I flicked on the lights. “And what do you do?”
“August added the private investigation when I joined the business. It ended up fitting well with the types of clients he works with. I do all kinds of things…a lot of custody cases and insurance fraud, stuff like that. Every once in a while, I’ll get contracted by the Ember Hollow PD, like in Lily’s case, as a consultant.”
At the mention of Lily, her face fell. Her shoulders hunched in on herself as she looked down at her feet.
Damn. I shouldn’t have brought up the case. I was trying to distract her, not shove more of this heavy crap on her.
