Page 43 of Break My Fall

He slid the phone into his pocket. Mo came outside and walkedtoward him. The best offense was a good defense, so Gray started talking before Mo reached him. “I was out of line. I apologize.”

Mo frowned at him. “I’m not so sure that you were. Mom’s ready to make you a chocolate pie every day, and Dad’s ecstatic that someone beside him is on the hot seat with Meredith. You said what he’s been trying to say for a while.” Mo pointed toward the house. “You haven’t been around enough to realize this, but Meredith gets her stubborn nature from Mom.”

Gray tried, he really tried, to keep his expression neutral.

Mo’s unamused snort told him he’d failed. “I know. I’m the most stubborn of the bunch. But that doesn’t change the fact that Meredith is like Mom. Big brains and marshmallow hearts, both of them. Dad and I figure that means they can get themselves into even bigger messes than they could if they weren’t quite so smart or if they cared a lot less. We love them for who they are, but they make life challenging.”

The door opened and Meredith stepped onto the back porch. “You’ve been out here long enough that you missed the cleanup. If you’re done, I think it’s time we went back to the house and checked for bugs.”

“We who are about to die salute you,” Mo muttered under his breath.

“You aren’t gladiators,” Meredith said. “You won’t die. But you might want to.” She disappeared into the house.

“How did she hear that? Does she have super hearing?” Gray followed Mo toward the deck.

“I say it a lot. She probably caught just enough to know what it was. But yes, her hearing is freakishly good. Don’t ever say anything anywhere near her that you don’t want her to hear. I think some of it comes from being a dentist. She spends her whole day translating what people are saying, and somehow, she’s turned that into something she considers a useful life skill. I find it frustrating.”

“Why do they do that?” Gray asked as they walked into the house.

“Why does who do what?” Meredith was gathering up a bag of leftovers.

“Why do you talk to patients when you’re working on their teeth? They can’t answer you.”

“It’s rude to ignore them or leave them out of the conversation.” Meredith said this as if it was the most logical answer and she was stunned that Gray had needed to ask such a question. “I’m good at figuring out what people are saying. Comes with practice.”

Gray nodded, said his goodbyes to Doug and Jacqueline with far less awkwardness than he’d expected, and walked to his car with half a chocolate pie and enough chicken and dumplings to keep him fed for at least three days. Proof that the Quinn legacy lived on in this branch of the family. “Feed your friends and feed your enemies, and don’t worry if they aren’t sure which they are.” He’d heard Granny Quinn say that a few months ago, and he couldn’t decide if it was comforting or terrifying.

He was pretty sure he was still in the friend column with everyone except Meredith. She’d put him in the enemy column, and he should try to stay there. But he couldn’t protect her if she wouldn’t speak to him. For now, he had to stay in her good graces until they took down whoever was behind the bugs, the punctured fuel line, and the rest of the mess in Neeson.

After that? Well, after that, she’d be safe. And he could let her go.

TWELVE

Meredith stood by while Mo checked her 4Runner for bugs. It came up clean. “This makes no sense. Why put a location tracker but no listening device?”

Mo moved on to check Gray’s Explorer and his own Jeep, but Gray stayed by her. “I don’t know.” He sounded ... sad? Defeated? Angry? A toxic mix of all three? “We’re shooting in the dark. We have no way to know when the devices were planted. It could be that they planted both on the van while you were at Mrs. Frost’s house. They might have planted the one on your car while it was in the parking lot at your office at any time. Maybe they only had one listening device they could keep up with. I don’t know.”

Meredith tried to stay angry with Gray. She had every right to be. He’d snapped at her like she was a toddler with no sense, and he kept treating her like she was a brainless twit.

No. That wasn’t entirely accurate. He believed her when she told him what she’d seen, heard, and suspected. And there was no mistaking that his outburst had been motivated by concern for her safety.

It was hard to stay mad about that. But she was going to try.

Mo gave both vehicles the all clear. They loaded up and drove the few miles to their houses.

Cassie wasn’t home, and she wouldn’t be there for hours yet. The Friday dinner shift at The Haven was always a busy time for her. The thought of cooking over and over again had never appealed to Meredith, but Cassie had been happiest in the kitchen since she was no bigger than Eliza and Abby.

And it wasn’t like she could comment. She was a dentist. Definitely not a profession for everyone. Most people couldn’t fathom what had driven her to pursue dentistry or why she loved it so much.

Meredith parked her 4Runner in its usual spot in their carport, climbed out, and waited by the firepit for Gray and Mo. Mo pointed to the houses. “Let’s check here first. I called Cassie earlier and asked her if she’d mind if we walked through her place. She said that was fine.”

“Let’s start with Meredith’s.” Gray didn’t wait for them to agree or disagree but walked straight to Meredith’s porch.

“Sir, yes, sir.” Meredith didn’t try to hide her sarcasm, but it fell on deaf ears. Gray was a man on a mission and didn’t react.

Ten minutes later, he’d morphed into an angry man ready to tear the world apart. The tiny listening device on the scarf she’d left draped over the back of a chair mocked all of them. Mo motioned for everyone to talk normally, and Meredith did her best.

“Did I tell y’all what Mrs. Frost told me?”

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