Page 119 of Smitten with the Single Dad

“That’s what we’re aiming to do,” Wyatt said. “But we need your help. Vica is in a lot of trouble. There were no witnesses to her killing Track, and Wyndham Croft is trying to not only get her arrested on fraudulent charges, in addition to murder, but deported as well. Now he’s hired a hit out on her. One of the attempts nearly killed my children, and the one today nearly blew up my restaurant and killed a bunch of staff and customers.”

Evie’s mouth dropped open.

They reached the laneway onto the property and after they reached the gate, he hung his head out and punched in the code, waiting for the gate to swing open.

They still hadn’t figured out where Evie was staying, but that wasn’t a huge concern. Dom had a spare bedroom and Jagger had two spare rooms. They’d make it work.

“Vica is over here at my brother’s house,” he said, opening up her door for her and retrieving her suitcase from behind her seat.

“You all live here?” She climbed out and scanned the area. “This is beautiful.”

“My four brothers and I run a restaurant, a brewery, and we have several cabins that we rent out. These are our five houses up here though.”

“How wonderful to be so close to family.”

They reached Dom’s front door, and Wyatt didn’t bother to knock beforeentering. Vica was sitting on the floor with Silas, Griffon, and Jake, and the four of them were working on a jigsaw puzzle while Dom could be heard vacuuming upstairs.

“We kind of made a Play-Doh mess upstairs,” Griffon said, wincing. “Uncle Dom wasn’t too happy.”

“The new rule of the house is ‘Play-Doh outside only,’” Silas said, shaking his finger.

Vica stood up and approached Evie, but rather than offer her hand, she pulled the woman into her arms for a hug. “Grazie. Grazie. Grazie,” she murmured, her voice muffled against Evie’s shoulder. But Wyatt could tell Vica was close to tears.

Evie hugged her back. And the two women stayed locked in an embrace for nearly a minute. They shared a common enemy that instantly bonded them for life. Even though everyone in the McEvoy family, including Brooke and Justine, welcomed Vica with open arms, they didn’t understand what she was going through. Evie did.

When the two women finally parted, they both had tears in their eyes.

Vica took Evie’s hands and smiled through the tears. “You are so brave. Thank you.”

“I should be thanking you. You rid the world of a very dangerous, very horrible monster.”

“And am paying the ultimate price for it now.”

There was a knock at the front door, then it opened to reveal Burke. Another hero.

“I wanted to check on how Vica was doing,” he said, scanning Evie from head to toe. He liked what he saw. The man’s dark eyes instantly dilated, and a rush of color filled his tanned cheeks. “Hello.”

Evie liked what she saw in Burke too. Her smile was different than how she’d greeted everyone else, and she started to bat her lashes, and preen and touch her hair. “Hello.”

“I’m okay,” Vica replied to Burke. “Shaken up. But I’m okay. How are you?”

“The same,” he said. “Life definitely flashed before my eyes a few times out there. Went faster than I would have liked if I’m being honest.”

“What happened?” Evie asked, her gaze bouncing between everyone.

The vacuum upstairs shut off and a moment later, Dom came downstairs as Vica and Burke regaled Evie with the tale of the anonymous package, the bomb, and his valiant effort with the kayak.

Evie was, for lack of a better word, mesmerized. If the woman could purr, she would have been.

“The spare room is ready if Evie is staying here,” Dom said. “But Jagger knows that he potentially needs to get his workout shit out of at least one bedroom in his house too.”

“I have space at my place,” Burke offered, surprising all of them, and possibly even himself.

Wyatt started to shake his head. “We couldn’t ask you—”

“I’m offering,” Burke said abruptly.

Vica conspicuously elbowed Wyatt and he realized that maybe this was a good thing.

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