Show Me the Way (Fight for Me #1)(67)

I couldn’t hold back anymore. I jerked her against me. “Fuck, Rynna. Of course I’m not mad.”

I hugged her tight. Kissed the crown of her head. Wishing I could explain how it brought back memories I didn’t know how to deal with.

I was numb as I stood by the side of the road, staring blankly as the taillights disappeared in the distance. I tried to blink through the squiggle of red, neon lines that lit up against my bleary vision. It was like looking at the sun and then closing your eyes. Or maybe I just wished they were closed. But they were open wide, my gaze sucked down.

Down.

Down.

Missy dead at my feet.

I gulped around the vision, bile in my throat, agony in my chest.

Mrs. Dayne was there, her hand on my forearm. “Don’t worry. I’ve got her. You do what you’ve got to do.”

She picked up Frankie where she was laying on the gravel, face-down, barely able to process what was happening through the daze that clouded my mind. My daughter’s cries. Taillights.

What had I done?

What had I done?

A shovel.

Dirt.

Sweat on my nape.

I struggled for a breath, that numbness fracturing when I picked Missy up and carried her to the hole. I laid her in it.

I squinted, trying to see through the haze.

A shovelful of dirt.

Another.

A mound of nothing.

My girl. My wife. Gone.

They always were.



“You wants to be my bestest friend?” Frankie’s small voice slipped through the thin wall, muted just the same as the light. Rynna’s echoed back, so goddamned soft it penetrated to the depths of me.

“You want me to be your best friend?”

There was no answer, but my mind was conjuring a clear picture of Frankie vigorously nodding her head against her pillow. Could picture Rynna where she knelt on the ground beside her bed where she’d been reading my daughter her bedtime story.

Of course, because Frankie had again insisted.

“I’d like that,” Rynna murmured, and there was shuffling, what I knew was a tender kiss.

My heart fisted. There was a special kind of terror when things felt too right. Too good. That lulling calm before your life was demolished by a devastating storm.

“Good night, Sweet Pea,” Rynna said.

My ear was tuned to the movement in Frankie’s room as Rynna stood and flipped off the light. Her presence grew denser with each step. Could feel it swallow me from behind when she emerged at the end of the hall.

An avalanche of need.

A landslide of desire.

She edged around the couch. Since Frankie was safely tucked away in bed, Rynna curled up at my side. We were still being careful, easing Frankie into the idea of Rynna and me.

I wound an arm around her, pressed a kiss to her temple.

Milo yipped, and Rynna cooed, pulling him into her arms. She settled back into my chest and released a contented breath.

A breath that filtered through me like peace.

Like warmth and light.

Milo nudged my hand, and a restless sigh pressed between my lips when I looked down to find those huge brown puppy eyes staring up at me. He whimpered again, his snout damp, prodding at me. Relenting, I ran my hand over the soft, soft fur of his head.

My chest tightened and I felt another piece of me break.

God damn it.

Rynna snuggled closer. God damn it straight to hell.

Rynna.

Fucking Rynna.

Little Thief.





27





Rynna





“No.” Nikki sat forward as if the tiny bit of information I’d let slip was the most scandalous thing she’d ever heard.

I glanced around the quaint city sidewalk where Nikki, Lillith, and I sat out front of a small café under an umbrella sipping our coffees. People meandered, peering into the large storefront windows, enjoying their Saturday morning. Lush trees grew up from planters, strategically placed along the walk, their bright green leaves and thick branches shade for the old two-and three-story buildings that had been renovated as part of a restoration project over the last ten years.

Macaber Street was much like what was happening on Fairview where the diner was located and the new hotel was going up. I could only pray Pepper’s Pies would see this same kind of revitalization. That it would flourish and mobs of people would move in and out of its doors. It was the life I was looking for right there. Within my reach.

Which was what had Nikki in a stir.

I lifted a shoulder and took a sip of my ice-cold Frappuccino. “What?”

She gave me a look that told me I was insane. “Um . . . you did just say RG Construction had taken over the renovation on Pepper’s?”

“So?”

She laughed and glanced at Lillith, who was burying her smile in the plastic lid of her coffee. Disbelief filled Nikki’s tone when she aimed her inquisition back on me. “RG. As in Rex Gunner. Asshole extraordinaire, who just so happens to be your neighbor and you have so clearly been crushing on since the day we met you.”

I would have bristled at the insinuation of Rex being an asshole if it weren’t for the heat that rushed to my cheeks, beating any other emotion to the punch. There was no stopping it. Not when I was immediately assaulted with the memories of last night.