Page 25 of Delicate Escape

“When aren’t you in a flow?” I challenged.

She stuck out her tongue at me but pushed off the stool. “All right. Just let me grab my gym bag. I’m supposed to spar with Kye later.”

Arden crossed the room to the worn leather couch with smudged paint in different places. A black gym bag lay on one side. I knew it was stuffed full of her jiu-jitsu gear. As she hoisted it over her shoulder, Brutus looked up at me balefully.

“We gonna take the beast?” I asked.

Arden nodded. “Komm,” she called to Brutus, and he let out a happy bark.

She couldn’t take him everywhere, but I knew she was always more comfortable when she could. But I would be, too, given that Brutus had come to Arden after two years of highly intensive training.

She sent me an annoyed look. “Let’s go.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “So demanding.”

Arden just rolled her eyes and headed for my truck, helping Brutus jump into the back seat. She was quiet like usual as we drove, staring out the window at the passing landscape. I knew she was likely pulling inspiration for some new creation. But when Arden finally spoke, I realized I’d been wrong.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked, her raspy voice dipping lower.

Hell.If Arden was worried about me, I needed to do a better job of burying that shit.

“Yeah. I’m good. Just itching to get started on the new restoration project.” None of that was a lie. I was okay. Living, breathing. I didn’t carry the scars Rhodes did.

Arden turned toward me, her gray-violet eyes piercing. “I know what it’s like to live with monsters. Ones you can recognize, and ones you can’t. It changes you.”

Everything in me spiraled in a vicious squeeze. I did not want her to go back to that time, even in some misguided attempt to help me. “Arden?—”

“None of it was your fault,” she said, cutting me off.

I snapped my mouth closed.

Arden turned back to the window. “One day, you’ll believe that. But if you need a reminder, I’m always here.”

I tried to swallow the burn in my throat, but I couldn’t get it to move. Grace. That was the gift she was giving me. I just wasn’t sure I deserved it.

9

THEA

“You are a lifesaver,”Sutton said as she shifted a massive bag of flour over to the other side of the storeroom.

I grinned as she swiped a hand over her face, leaving streaks of flour in her wake. She was constantly covered in the stuff. “It’s no problem, really. You know I like the extra hours.”

It was more thanlikingthem, it wasneedingthem. My credit had been thoroughly trashed during the whole Brendan ordeal. The only way I’d been able to secure a mortgage was because Nikki had assumed a figurehead role at the trust that purchased the property.

I’d had to freeze my credit so no new cards could be opened or purchases made in my name. The only money I had was what Sutton and Duncan were—thankfully—willing to pay me in cash. Every time I hid it in the tin beneath a wobbly floorboard in my closet, I felt like one of those deranged conspiracy theorists who didn’t believe in banks or the government.

But I guessed I could see where they were coming from morethese days. Anything tech-related was fallible—a risk I couldn’t afford to take.

So, I scrimped, saved, and hid it all away.

Sutton shifted to face me. “Everything’s okay, right? I can probably extend your shifts if you need?—”

I shook my head, cutting her off. Sutton was struggling with a small business and her son. She didn’t need me on her conscience, too. “I’m good. I have the nursery now, and Dunc said he’s keeping me on year-round.”

Sutton’s whole face brightened as she pulled me in for a hug. “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you. I know you love working there.”

“I am a little more knowledgeable about plants than baking.”

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