Page 66 of Trouble Comes in Threes

“Think nothin’ of it.” He pressed his screen and lifted his phone to his ear.

“What are you gonna do now?” Neely Kate asked.

I ran a hand over my head. “I don’t know. I guess pretend like this didn’t happen and trust Dermot’s men to protect us.”

“You wanna have another vision?”

It made sense. I suspected the vision of the dead woman came from Neely Kate, and we’d made some life-altering decisions. It could have stopped Neely Kate from getting in a dangerous situation, and the woman in my vision from getting shot.

I grabbed her hand and tried to force a vision, but I still couldn’t conjure the dead woman.

“Nothin’,” I said when I opened my eyes.

“Well, that’s a good thing,” Neely Kate said with a forced smile. “We changed things.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Looks like we did.” But I still wasn’t satisfied the threat was gone.

“I’m hungry. Let’s say we get lunch.”

I checked my phone and saw I had missed a text from Randy.

Rose, great to hear from you! I’d love to get together. Want to meet at Merrilee’s at noon?

How could I have forgotten I’d asked him to meet for lunch? I told Neely Kate what he said.

“Then I guess we have a lunch date,” she said, her eyes bright. “So what do you say we go back to the office and get some work done first?”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling unsettled. I wasn’t sure how much work I’d be able to get done, but it was worth a try. “Let me talk to Bruce Wayne first.”

He was cutting the plastic container from the root ball of a bush when I walked over. He looked up at me and straightened, leaving the plant on the ground. “Dermot gonna handle it?”

“Yeah.” I glanced back at the boy in Dermot’s truck. “Has there been chatter about me in the criminal underworld?”

“I’m ignorant to anything goin’ on in that world. I’ve tried to keep my nose clean.” His eyes bore into mine.

I knew what he wasn’t saying. Not since he’d married Anna and started building his family.

“It just seems so random that Austin asked for me.”

“I agree, but surely Dermot is looking into it.”

“Yeah.” I drew a breath, my mind racing. “I have to wonder if the murder in Pickle Junction has anything to do with the murder Austin witnessed. We haven’t had many murders around here lately, so I find it hard to believe the two aren’t connected.”

“That seems like a job for Joe,” Bruce Wayne said with a hint of warning in his voice.

“Yeah,” I said absently. “You’re right.”

“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”

I held his gaze. “I have to protect my family.”

“And you can do that by letting Joe and Dermot take care of it.”

I knew that was what I should do, but I’d spent the first twenty-four years of my life doing what I was told and letting other people handle everything in my life. Six years ago, I’d decided I was done with that. I wasn’t about to slip now. “Since when do I let other people do my dirty work?”

He made a face. “I was afraid you’d say something like that.” He toed the ground, then looked up at me again. “Just be careful, Rose.”

“I’d never put my kids at risk, but what if they’re already in danger because of my past? I need to do whatever it takes to protect them.”

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