Page 93 of Redemption

“No problem. I have to check in with my boss anyway.” He leaned forward and took his mug, dragging it across the table, but coming short of picking it up. “Hey, look. I know I showed up to surprise you, and you seem surprised, like you want me to be here. But if you don’t—”

“I want you to be here,” she said as quickly as she could. And she did. The last day had been one of the happiest she’d had in a long time, and maybe the happiest she’d ever had in Sweet Hills. “It’s just a quick errand.”

“I didn’t plan this out very well.” He lifted a shoulder. “I came out here to check on you. And I could’ve done that and turned around and walked away, and that would have been fine. I’ll take my lead from you.”

“It’s not you. I swear.”

“Not worried,” he said. “Just mentioning.”

“You’re not leaving here until I figure out what the secret ingredient is.” She smiled, and he did too.

Ryder pushed his coffee out of the way and leaned across the table, planting a kiss on her forehead. With two of his fingers, he tilted her chin up and planted another kiss on her lips. “Be careful, love. Or you might never find out what the secret ingredient is.”

He pushed his chair back as he stood then took his coffee, stealing the bacon back off of her plate and devoured the rest in one bite. “I’m headed upstairs to jump in the shower. When you come back, don’t forget I’m here.”

“Why would I forget?”

“Just don’t want a gun pulled on me again.” He picked up her napkin, balling it and swung back, aimed, and tossed. It bopped her on the forehead, and he smiled. “Bull’s-eye.”

She picked it back up and tossed it, also hitting a bull’s-eye. “Go get in the shower.”

Burning. In. Relationship. Hell.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Victoria didn’t even have to think about where she was going on her way to meet Lenora. It was as if her car parked itself after driving to their normal meet-up location outside the incorporated city limits of Sweet Hill. They both knew the truck stop deli was open twenty-four hours a day, didn’t have security cameras, and anyone who was there to recognize them would never admit to seeing them have a conversation.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled the keys from her ignition. She leaned to the passenger seat to grab her purse and saw Lenora inside. Victoria went into the store, and with a quick nod hello, she grabbed a bottle of water and went to the register to pay.

It was Sam’s deli, and Sam had a rule. They could have all the business meetings they wanted in his deli, but they had to buy something, even if it was only a bottle of water. Normally, she would have a little more, but right now, stuffed with pancakes, bacon, and the world’s best coffee, Victoria was full.

After she paid in cash, Victoria joined Lenora, who seemed far grouchier, likely because she had not had the world’s best cup of coffee or breakfast cooked by the world’s sexiest man.

“Been here a while?” Victoria asked her.

Lenora wrapped the edge of the wax paper over the half-eaten breakfast sandwich and nodded to say as much. “I had another meeting this morning. Before we get into this, I just want to say—”

“Don’t you dare say a word,” Victoria beat her to the abduction-Russia pity conversation. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want people to know about it. I don’t want—”

“The people who are gonna know about it, they know about it.”

“Then they know.” Victoria rolled her eyes.

“And people like me?” Lenora’s lips pressed into a thin line. “It could have been any of us. It could have been me. You don’t deal with their type as often as I do. You don’t traffic in the risks I do.”

“Neither of us have a risk-free job. Maybe I have one that has more of a community-friendly face.” Victoria refused to feel like a victim right now. “Though maybe not so much anymore.”

“How so?” Lenora asked.

She snickered, hating how she doubted herself. “Who’s going to trust me with their security when I can’t even handle my own?”

“The same people as before. People who trust you, people who want someone to blend in, who need to share their deepest, darkest secrets and would rather ask you about a spouse running around on them than call up that asswipe Lee Morrow.”

Victoria tried to hide her laugh. Lee was a dick.

“The douche hangs out with all of them down at the pool hall. We live in a small town with a big mouth.”

“Not that small.”

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