At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(41)

I looked at him and saw he looked weirdly both relieved and angry. I suspected the relieved was because now he had the excuse to get in my business and sort this, seeing as he was a cop. I knew that look, that feeling, Tim had it too. Tim wouldn’t let his neighbor be harassed by a crazy crimelord either. On the other hand, I suspected Colt was angry because he knew how this felt, having some creepy psycho sending flowers.

“We’re clear,” I whispered and said a short prayer of thanks to God that he steered me in the right direction and let this house in this town be on the market when I was looking for refuge.

“We get to my house, I’ll give you my numbers and Cal’s. You program them into all your phones and Kate and Keira’s. Okay?” Colt told me.

“Okay.”

We hit the street and he dropped my hand but his arm went around my shoulders and he quit talking.

So I called, “Colt?”

He looked down at me as we stepped up on the sidewalk on his side of the street. “Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He didn’t reply except to give my shoulders a squeeze.

I looked to my feet thinking Tim would like him. And I thought Colt should know that.

“My husband Tim, he would have liked you.”

Colt looked back down at me. “’Spect I’d like him too, seein’ as he had good taste.”

That was nice so I smiled.

He stopped me in his yard, looked back at my house and then back down at me.

“You’re safe here, Vi.”

I hoped he was right.

“Thanks for that too.” It wasn’t much but it was all I had.

Even so, Colt gave me a look that said he understood I wanted it to say more and he understood what I wanted it to say.

He gave my shoulders a squeeze and led me into his house where we stood in his kitchen and he wrote out a bunch of numbers.

The first thing I did when I got home was program the numbers into all our phones.

Even Joe’s.

Chapter Six

Booty Call

“You’re quick,” Joe said to Kate and Keira, sounding impressed and surprised.

Kate looked at her toes. Keira beamed at Joe.

We were standing in our living room and Joe was giving us a lesson on the intricacies of our security system and apparently the girls had picked it up quickly.

It wasn’t rocket science but it also wasn’t pressing four numbers into a keypad either. We all had remotes that controlled the system which we could use in the house and others which we kept in our cars. We also had more than sensors at the windows and doors but also electric eyes pointing at all sorts of angles all over the house. And there were camera feeds that fed into the computer on the desk in the study where, if we thought someone was out there, we could flip through a bunch of cameras that were pointed in a variety of directions outside the house so we could see all the sides of our house. We could even switch these cameras to night vision if it was dark. Last, we had panic buttons on the remotes, the new keypads by all the doors, in each of our rooms by our beds and little ones to carry in our purses that did double duty since they had GPS so Joe or Colt could lock in on us (or our purses) everywhere we went.

No joke.

Electric eyes, night vision, panic buttons and GPS tracking.

My crackerbox house had a system that I was sure rivaled Buckingham Palace and my girls and I had security that would make the Queen feel comfy. I figured her guards were no slouches but she’d take one look at Colt and Joe and say, “You’re hired.” Therefore for the first time in a very long time, I felt somewhat safe.

“Mom, you should make Joe your pork chops to say thanks,” Keira told me and my mind went from the Queen of England and my novel feeling of being safe to my nutty daughter who was looking at Joe and telling him, “Mom’s pork chops are the bomb. Way better than her cupcakes.”

“Keirry, Mom’s chocolate chunk cupcakes are so better than her pork chops,” Kate put forward her opinion and looked at Joe. “It’s the frosting.”

Joe looked at me on the word “frosting” and my stomach hollowed out which made me miss it when it tied into a knot. That hollow feeling was much worse. I’d had it since he ended things. It came usually at night when my mind turned to Joe and all he’d done to me, all I’d done to him, how much I liked it and therefore my mind didn’t turn away. In the end, I’d have to reach for my vibrator which was so not as good as Joe it was not funny. I didn’t like that hollow feeling when I was alone in my bed in the dark. I sure as hell didn’t need it standing in my living room with my girls and Joe.

“You only say that because you like her seafood risotto,” Keira said to Kate and then to Joe she said, “The risotto is all right but the pork chops rock.”

“Joe should pick,” Kate decided.

“How about we let Joe go home and rest?” I suggested. “He’s been workin’ on the house a long time, he probably could use putting his feet up.”

“Yeah, you can come tomorrow,” Keira told Joe. “Mom usually makes her good stuff on Sunday. The garden center closes early on Sundays so she’s got time.”

“Can Dane come too?” Kate put in and I sighed, wondering if I should call Dane’s parents and ask for partial child support since he was over eating our food so much and, while doing it, eating so freaking much of our food. My girls were healthy eaters but the way Dane ate I was glad I didn’t have boys.