Page 60 of Deadly Business

He walked us directly to a black car waiting for us at the end of the runway. I slipped into the back seat and buckled as Cyrus handled everything else.

My life looked so different now. I never felt lacking in life before meeting Corbin, but now I realized how much better he made it. I didn’t plan to one day marry a Kensington, but I couldn’t complain about the perks money gave us. Private planes and fancy cars were just a few of the nicer realities.

Getting to be with Corbin and our newly created family were the best ones.

“Probably not for another few days,” Corbin said, strapping Troy into the car and checking to make sure the seat was safe before we took off toward town.

It wasn’t a far drive to the Cape Cod where not that long ago Corbin and I solidified our relationship and I fell in love with the man. It would be Troy’s first time in the town I liked to frequent when we were in the states.

I expected the home to be dark when our driver parked in the driveway, but quite a few lights were already on.

“Your doing or Cyrus’s?” I asked as Corbin undid the car seat and said thanks to the driver. The large man had to be from Ridge’s crew, but he never gave us his name.

“Mine, I asked the girls from the bakery to stop in and turn the lights on for us.”

The mention of the bakery girls brought a smile to my face. We’d definitely have to stop in to pick up sweets and get caught up with everything that had happened since the last time we visited. Last year, they were planning another wedding. With a wedding in Pelican Bay, your chances were always fifty-fifty someone would get shot.

No way would Corbin let me be anywhere in attendance, but I couldn’t wait to hear the stories that came from it.

Corbin unlocked the back door of the Cape Cod, a new big metal thing that resembled wood but was fake. It was one of many new additions to the safeguarding measures he and Cyrus installed.

He put Troy’s carrier on the floor next to the brand-new white kitchen table with little paint chips flicked off of it to make it look distressed.

I sat in the space, my gaze darting while my mouth hung open. Everything turned out wonderfully. Looking at the house mid-renovation really did something on a girl’s heart. Sawdust and dirt always coated the spaces. At one point, we visited, and the floors were nothing but plywood.

You had to use your imagination for a lot. Even though I’d seen the plans and the mockup, I didn’t imagine it this nice. The white cabinets made the room look huge. The stainless-steel appliances were so shiny they brightened the room.

Never in my wildest dreams did I picture the house looking this nice. They’d taken out walls on the first floor to open up the space between the kitchen and living room, making it feel like a different home all together. The kitchen had a marble countertop stretching from one end to the other with a big thick island in the middle.

“Wow, Corbin, this turned out amazing.”

I’d seen pictures and stopped in from time to time during the work, but nothing could outdo the perfectness of this home. I walked further into the space, keeping my eye out for the little details. I loved the tile used around the fireplace and the large TV Corbin made sure had a DVD player to watch the collection of Brad Pitt movies we’d kept.

He’d even had two beautiful quilts made, one for each of the master bedrooms on the first floor. Children’s rooms were added to the second level and the color scheme matched the first floors look and feel.

“Can we live here forever?” I asked.

Corbin unbuckled Troy and pulled him from the seat, letting him stretch his arms and legs. Hopefully, he’d only stay awake an hour or two before he went back to sleep because it would be bedtime soon.

Corbin didn’t answer my question, and when I glanced at him, his face held worry.

“What? What’s wrong? Is the baby okay?” I asked, taking Troy from his arms and putting him over my shoulder for a cuddle.

“You want to live in Pelican Bay full time?” he asked, as if it was the most ludicrous thing I’d ever said.

I shrugged. “Sure, this house is beautiful. Why not?”

“Babe, there are too many reasons on the list. The first one being this is a vacation home made for two families and secondly there is so much craziness in the city that you surviving a drive-by shooting isn’t even on their top ten list.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed him gently on the shoulder, letting Troy play with the strands of my hair. “We should at least vacation here more often.”

“Sure, as long as every time we step foot on Pelican Bay soil, we have a bodyguard on hand twenty-four hours a day.”

“Is that why the man who drove us here in the Escalade never left?” I asked, my gaze finding a window and spotting the large vehicle turned off in the middle of the driveway.

Corbin didn’t even deny it. He tilted his head and walked into the living room, sitting on the couch—the same large and old ugly floral-patterned couch that was here the first time we stayed.

I sat beside him. “Don’t you think it’s time to buy a new couch?”

---