Page 18 of Blood & Ice

“I don’t want to leave you,” I admitted, hating how small my voice sounded.

“Then don’t. I have a bed.”

“Would we be sleeping together?”

A fetching shade of pink dusted her cheeks at that. She pursed her lips. “I think that’s tempting fate. I have a sofa. I’ll use that.”

“No. I’ll take the sofa. You take the bed.”

“I don’t mind the couch.”

“I do.” I nodded. “I want you to get a good rest in your own bed. I can ward the door. No one will disturb you.”

“Not even you?”

“Well, I’m always disturbing, but you knew that when you married me. Now you’re stuck.”

She leaned her head onto my shoulder, playing with the food on her plate wistfully.

“Somehow, I’ll learn to live with that.”

Chapter Nine

Taliyah

As far as my officers were concerned, I’d come down with a case of food poisoning.

It was the best explanation I could think up—one that would get the department off my back long enough to solve Haven Hollow’s latest disaster. I deserved a larger paycheck than I was getting, considering the scale and breadth of problems that went on in this town.

After breakfast was eaten, and my absence explained away, I passed out on the couch with Maverick. I hadn’t intended to end up sprawled in a loose tangle of limbs on top of him. The light slanting through the curtains was the buttery yellow of mid-afternoon. When Maverick finally hauled himself off the couch an hour after I had, he looked mussed and utterly kissable.

Maverick propped himself on the doorway, watching me piece together the folder’s contents like a jigsaw. I’d never been able to get a complete picture of a crime scene without spreading out the evidence to get an overhead view.

“Need some red string?” he offered with a wry grin. “I think Wanda might have some. Though she’s probably ready to crucify me for skipping out on work.”

“Sorry,” I muttered under my breath. “This should still be here later if you want to clock in. I don’t want to cause trouble with your family.”

Maverick waved a hand, as if batting the very notion out of the air. “I’ve already paid back the debt I owed Wanda. Anything I do now is voluntary. I’m just an employee, and I have paid time off. She can complain, but it doesn’t change the facts. I’m staying here to help. If she doesn’t like it, she can fire me and hire someone else. But if she does, there goes half the revenue stream.”

“Because you’re an enormous flirt and you flatter all the customers, so they keep coming back to see you,” I said sourly.

He laughed. “Don’t tell me that makes you jealous. Flattery is easy. Feelings are hard.”

Boy did I know it. There’d been a moment when I woke where I felt absolutely no tension. My head had been pillowed on Mav’s chest, my body was only half-covered in a blanket, and there was a crick in my neck, but none of it had mattered. Because he was here. Because he’d cared enough to stay. I knew anything coming for me or my boys would have to go through him first.

I chewed my lip, guilt churning in my stomach. Maverick wanted to come off as aloof, but I’d seen the seedy underbelly of his life. He craved approval the way a plant craved water. He’d been starved of affection his entire life, and now he had a family. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that intentionally. The only person who mattered more to him was... me.

“Are you sure?”

Maverick pulled out a chair and sat, giving me a hard look.

I sighed. “Okay, you’re sure, but I’m still not convinced that this is a good idea.”

“We’re tracking down a murderer with enough balls to murder the daughter and heir apparent of one of the most powerful high witches in Europe. Of course it isn’t a good idea. If we were smart, we’d find a nice hole to cozy up in and pull it in with us.”

“Touche,” I said with a sigh. “Okay, let’s look through this. I think Aurea mentioned an address at some point. That would be a good place to start.”

It took around five minutes of shuffling papers to find where Aurea had scrawled an address. I checked it against the maps on my phone and, to my surprise, it came up with ease. The street view was of a three-story McMansion on a tree-lined avenue.It punctuated the looping cul-de-sac like an exclamation point. The exterior had been remodeled, but if you looked closely, you could still see the fire damage on the far side. I exited out of the search quickly, turning the screen off.

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