Page 118 of Dead Love
A shadow stretched across the grass like a scaffold at dawn.
“Well, here is Punica’s most wanted,” Andrew said, the ice pick hanging from his grip. “I was beginning to think you’d skipped town on us.”
I clenched my fists. “Not without Kora,” I said.
CHAPTER40
Kora
Call Endedblinkedon the phone screen.
Your shop is on fire,Vincent had said.If you want to save any of it, you’ll have to go now.
Was he trying to warn her?
“What do we do?” Shea asked. “He isn’t serious.” She blinked her eyes. “Is he?”
Did I need to remind her of what he had done to our old house? She must have been stuck in this idea that being the sheriff’s wife made her invincible, which was far from the truth. The house fire should have shown her that. I put on my seatbelt, turning the key in the ignition. The engine rumbled to life, and a sick knot twisted in my stomach.
I was really doing this.I had to.
“I can drive,” Shea said. “It’s not safe for you to be behind the wheel.”
If I had to, I would drive at five miles per hour. But I wasn’t going to let my mother drive me anywhere.
“I’ve seen you drive enough,” I said.
“Watching is not the same thing as—”
I put the car into reverse, going down the driveway far faster than I anticipated, a surge of adrenaline racing through me. My mother yelped, then quickly put on her seatbelt. Once it clicked into place, I jerked the car down the street, out of Rose Garden Neighborhood, back to the main roads. Luckily, the streets were empty. Eventually, I got used to the gas and brake pedals, but as my heart pounded, it became hard to concentrate on anything. So I sped up. We needed to get therenow.Vincent was in trouble. We needed to find him before Andrew got to him.
Poppies & Wheat came into view. Black and white smoke rose above the shop, mixing together in a swirl, hovering in the sky like a storm cloud. I parked across the street, getting out of the car, standing on the viewpoint. What would Vincent do next? My mother was paralyzed in the front seat, pressing her back against the cushion.
I opened the door, leaning down to her. She closed her eyes, her body rigid.
“We need to go,” she whispered. The front windows of the store cracked, the shards crashing onto the sidewalk. Shea jumped. The orange and red flames grew, blocking the view of the inside.
“Did you call Nikki?” I asked.
Keeping herself against the seat, she quickly dialed her number.
“Miss Nova?” Nikki’s familiar voice said, the volume on my mother’s phone so loud, I could hear her perfectly. Relief waved through me. “Your flower shop. It’s—”
“I know,” my mother whispered. “Did you see who did this?”
“A man. Dark hair. A scar on his neck. He had a bruise on his eye—”
“And you let him do this?”
A beat of silence passed. “He told me to get out. So I—”
“And you didn’t call me? The police? The fire department?”
“Miss Shea, I—”
“It’s fine,” my mother grumbled. “I’ll do it.”
“I can—”
