Page 58 of Come Back to Me

“Not to you.”

“No,” I concede.

Jesus, did I make a bad situation worse?

Pigeon Creek isn’t perfect, and the people are just that—people. Some are dicks; some are saints. But writing them off as fuckers speaks of a past that isn’t my place to fix.

I get why she’s isolated, I get why she doesn’t trust them, but…

“You’re a Korhonen, Zee.”

“It shouldn’t matter.”

“Not saying it’s right, not saying it’s fair, but you own the town. You’re not a little girl anymore. You. Own. The. Town.”

“Colt does.”

“What’s his is yours.”

“Only because the fool didn’t make me sign a prenup,” she grouches on a sigh. “Honestly, he has no self-preservation skills. Which this entire conversation attests to.”

“Good thing you’ve no desire to hurt him, then.”

“Or leave him. He’s lucky I love him.” She gusts out her cheeks. “So, he’ll need a bodyguard too, won’t he?”

“With all those billions in the bank? Duh. He might argue, but he can. Callan and I will wrangle him under our control.”

“I’d pay to see that.”

“You’re a Korhonen,” I repeat. “You get front-row seats for free.”

Her chuckle tells me we turned a corner without me really knowing how we did, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Of course, an unintended perk to all of this is that if Zee has a bodyguard when she’s out, and Tee will be with her because they’re glued at the hip… she’ll be protected too.

That pleases me more than I can ever admit out loud.

Fuck, Tee is...

I don’t think there’s an adjective for what she is.

Luminous.

Like a fireworks display on July 1st.

Eyes darting everywhere, trying to spot all the pretties, but there are too damn many pretties to catch up…

When she called me Daddy, I wanted to haul her onto the trunk and ravage her goddamn mouth until those pretty lips were sore from my kisses.

“Cody?”

I blink at the road. “Sorry. My mind drifted onto work. We had a busy day.”

Not.

In all honesty, this gig in Pigeon Creek is exactly the break I need, even if I’m bored by it.

The biggest trouble we’ve had is this MC bullshit. Beyond that, we had to deal with some fights over at the casino and a teacher at the local boarding school calling us in because a pupil tossed paint at her car.