Page 36 of Buried Too Deep

PHIN WAS ON HIS KNEES in front of Cora’s kitchen door installing the last of the new locks when the house alarm beeped to let him know a door had opened. He leapt to his feet, grabbing a baseball bat that he’d found in Cora’s coat closet.

He didn’t have a gun, but he’d be damned if someone would enter this house to hurt her. He stood in the kitchen archway, clenching the bat and squaring his shoulders to make himself look as big as possible.

“Whoa.” Burke put both hands in the air as he closed the front door behind him, Antoine at his side. “Just us.”

Which made sense, considering whoever had entered would have needed a new key and Antoine was the only one who had one. Cora would get a full set of keys, of course, but she was still asleep in the living room.

He’d checked.

Several times.

She slept deeply, the lines of worry that had creased her brow having disappeared for now. He’d dropped a hammer on his foot two hours before and she hadn’t even reacted, even though he’d sworn very loudly.

If someone broke in, she’d likely sleep right through it. Luckily Blue had woken her when she’d had an intruder.

Phin glanced over his shoulder at the old dog, who lay on a thick dog bed in the corner of the kitchen. Blue was watching him, his eerie light blue eyes calm.

SodaPop, on the other hand, had jumped to her feet and was now leaning against his thigh. Good girl.

Phin pressed a finger to his lips before stepping back so that his coworkers could enter the kitchen. “I think she’d sleep through a hurricane,” Phin murmured, “but I don’t want to wake her. I don’t think she slept last night at all. She put the contacts for her alarm system on every door and window in the house and there are a shit ton of windows. I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a house with so many windows. There are over forty of them.”

Antoine removed the ever-present laptops from his shoulders and placed them on the kitchen table. “She did a good job, too. I don’t think I could have installed a security system any better.”

“But the window locks are a joke,” Phin grumbled. “I ordered some special locks for most of the windows, but I can’t pick them up until tomorrow. Did you assign her a bodyguard?”

Burke nodded. “I did. Molly will be here soon for night duty and Val will guard her during the day.”

“They’re good choices.” Molly was no-nonsense and the most logical person he’d ever met. Val was energy and light and friendship. He still wanted to guard Cora himself, but between the two women, she would be well protected.

Burke pointed to the kitchen table, where Antoine was already sitting, his three laptops open and arranged in a semicircle in front of him. “Can we talk?”

Phin wanted to say no, because he knew what Burke wanted to talk about. Burke had apologized for that morning and, as far as Phin was concerned, it was no longer an issue.

But Burke had that look in his eyes, the one that said that no wasn’t an okay reply.

“I suppose.” Phin took a seat and buried his fingers in SodaPop’s coat. She leaned even more heavily against him, her presence welcome. Grounding. Necessary.

Antoine put his headphones on. “I’m not even here. Talk, talk, talk.”

Phin knew that Antoine wouldn’t pay them a bit of attention, although it wouldn’t matter if he did. Antoine knew most of his story. It had been Antoine who’d gotten him the job with Burke’s group to begin with.

Burke took the chair closest to Phin’s. “I’m not going to tell you that I’m sorry again, even though I am.” Then he sighed. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too. This is…home.”

“Good. So…Stone and Delores. Have you gone to them every time you’ve disappeared in the last few years?”

“Yes. Stone and Delores have given me safe harbor whenever I’ve needed it. I think it’s cost them a lot to keep my visits from my family, but they gave me their word. It’s why I’ve always felt safe going to them.”

“I understand,” Burke murmured. “So why did you come back today?”

“I didn’t.” Phin rolled his eyes. “I came back Sunday—or tried to. I got as far as the deli on the corner before I turned tail and ran. Yesterday, I got a half block closer. I felt like such a…” He sighed. “A coward. A failure. I wanted to be able to do the work you guys do, but I spiraled on my first real assignment. I ran. I wanted to be normal, Burke. I still want that. But…I’m just me.”

Broken. But healing again. How many times would he have to heal?

Forever. This could happen again and again forever. The notion was depressing as fuck.

“We missed you,” Burke said quietly. “You, Phin.”

---