Page 7 of Christmas Harbor Secrets
Good plan,the part of him that wanted her gone said. The other part—the one that had watched her retie a line with shaking hands and refuse to flinch—ground its teeth.
But he knew the truth; there wasn’t much of a market for a trawler like this. Not in the current economic downturn, and not one as unique as this one. And with only three weeks to New Year’s, she could forget that plan. “I’ll buy it.”
Echo’s head did another slow tilt, this one clearly for him. The dog’s ears made a question mark.
Isobel’s brows climbed. “You?”
He kept his face blank. He could see it, sure—get her off the target, keepFamily Firstclose enough to control what spilled out of it, lock down whatever Shade had left bleeding. Except there was a stack of realities betweenwantandcan. Every extra dollar he made went where it needed to: a mortgage that wasn’t his, a kid’s private school tuition with the wrong last name on it, monthly envelopes to a man who wore grief like a uniform because a bullet had taken his wife. Rone’s partner.
He could still feel Torres’s blood on his shirt if he let himself. He didn’t let himself.
“Or,” he amended, voice flat, “I’ll find a buyer who won’t spook at dock gossip. Someone who can close fast.”
Her eyes narrowed a fraction. “Someone who’ll makemedisappear fast, you mean.”
“I mean someone who doesn’t want you on a boat that’s already been turned over by a stranger.” He jerked his chin at the ransacked drawers. “Whoever left that ornament came back. Whoever wrote on your window had hands on your line. That’s not superstition, Isobel. That’s a sequence.”
“And you think buying it makes the sequence stop?”
“I think getting you out of it makes it stop.” The words came out harder than he meant. He softened nothing. “Shade drew heat in his last months.”
She flinched at the name, then covered it with anger. “You keep calling him that. Shade. Like it’s normal.”
“It was his name.” Rone’s mouth set. “And I never believed he capsized his dinghy and drowned in the mangroves. Men like him don’t vanish clean. They leave complications.”
“I’m aware,” she said, the words sharp enough to cut. “I’m one.”
Echo, who had been listening like he understood every syllable, leaned into her leg until her balance shifted. She looked down, then let a hand slide along his neck. The dog sighed—a soft, ridiculous sound. Cute was a tool, too.
Rone used it. “He picked you,” he said. “Echo doesn’t choose wrong.”
Her throat moved. “Maybe he just likes being petted.”
“Maybe,” Rone said. “Or maybe he recognizes someone who won’t quit when she should.” He thought to tell her Echo was Shade’s, which meant he was hers now, but he decided to let Echo choose where he wanted to live. Maybe selfish of him, but if the animal chose Rone, he didn’t do anything wrong.
Her gaze snapped back. There it was again—that spark of fight that had first made him furious and then made him tired. And underneath it, a sliver of fear she was doing an excellent job pretending didn’t exist.
“Offer stands,” he said. “Sell it to me. Or let me line up someone who might not garner carved warnings instead of knocking.”
She studied him like she wanted to peel him open and look for strings. “You don’t strike me as a man with a lot of… discretionary cash.”
He almost smiled.Smart.“I’m resourceful.”
Echo snorted. Rone shot him a look. The dog’s head tilt became a full-body lean that saiddon’t lie to the nice lady,which landed harder than it should.
Isobel watched the exchange, something like curiosity cooling her temper. “What’s his story?”
“He thinks he’s my conscience.”
“I meant before you.”
Rone didn’t answer. Not here. Not with someone watching them, untying lines, and rummaging through the boat. He lifteda hand, palm down at Echo’s chest. The dog’s ears eased forward again—alert, not alarm.
Maybe he should leave Echo here to keep her safe.
“Look,” Rone said, keeping his voice level. “You want answers, I get it. But you need to decide if you want them more than you want to keep breathing. People who leave last warnings tend to mean them. And if I’m right about Shade’s last months, there are folks who will treat you like an open tab they have to close.”
She held his stare. “I’m not leaving because a man with a dog tells me to.”
