“Okay, then.” Karmine accepts her answer. “So, what happened? Did you get him to say anything before he died?”
“I didn’t—”
“That was also me,” Cassandra cuts me off. “It was an accident.”
“Well, this keeps getting more and more interesting.”
I lean down and press a kiss to Cassandra’s hair. “I’ll give you the particulars later, but the man was in Cassandra’s backyard, acting like a fucking predator. When she came over to tell me what happened, I swept the woods around our houses. No sign of anyone else, so I think he must’ve been a scout. But he had no ID on him. And I need to know who he’s working for.”
“You do have a lot of enemies,” Karmine adds helpfully.
“He had a phone on him. I’ve disabled it, but I’ll see about digging through it to see if he reported anything.”
“Either way, if they’re on your street, they’ve found you.” She says what I already know, but it twists something inside me.
I just got my Butterfly. Finally got to touch her. Hold her in my hands. But if they’ve found me, then my life living on that quiet little cul-de-sac is over. And…
My lungs hitch.
She can’t live there either.
I’ve put her in danger.
I’ve done the one thing I never wanted to do.
Small hands close around my forearm.
I look down, and all I can see are her fragile fingers against my body full of violence.
And I hate myself for bringing her into this.
It was never my intention.
But in reality, the moment she moved in across the street from me, that was it for her.
Even if I’d never become obsessed. Even if she’d never baked me a single thing. She still would’ve been across the street from me. And that man would’ve been in her yard tonight.
Spots of red trickle into my vision.
If tonight had happened, and we hadn’t built this bond between us, what could’ve happened then?
You could’ve moved after she bought 1304 Holly Court.
Then I remember Mexico.
How I almost lost her only days ago.
How that had nothing to do with me. And how if I hadn’t been there…
“Hans.” Cassandra’s voice is quiet as her hands slide up and down my arm.
My chest is heaving.
If I hadn’t been there.
I was too mad about the whole situation to appreciate how scared I was. I was too angry to even think about what the world would be like if Cassandra Cantrell’s light had been snuffed out.
It was so close.
She was so fucking close to slipping out of my grasp.
“Hans, Baby.” One of her hands slides over to press against my chest. Pressing over my racing heart. “It’s okay. I’m right here.”
Another swell of emotion fills my body.
Baby.
No one has ever called me by an endearment.
No one except Cassandra when she called me a grizzly bear.
No one has ever had the right to.
No one I wanted to hear it from.
Her knee presses into my thigh as she turns toward me, and the arm not reached across between us twists around mine, hugging my arm to her body even as my fingers dig into her thigh.
Until now.
I force my lungs to fill, my expanding chest pressing against her palm.
“Call me that again,” I rasp.
Her hand moves in a small circle. “Baby?”
I nod.
“It’s okay, Baby.” Cassandra presses a kiss on my shoulder. “I’m right here. I’m safe.”
Her sweet breath is close enough for me to taste.
My favorite girl with a mouth flavored like my favorite candy.
My exhale is rough, but my next inhale is smooth.
Her hand makes another circle over my heart. “That’s it. You’re good, Baby.”
She kisses my shoulder again, then rests her temple against it.
My muscles start to loosen.
I take another breath.
I’ve never had a breakdown, or whatever that just was, in front of anyone before. But if decades of working to rid the world of evil has taught me anything, it’s to embrace the good.
I haven’t had much good. But the woman next to me, she’s my good in this world.
And losing her would destroy me.
After a moment, Karmine breaks the silence. “What do you need me to do?”
My voice is steady when I speak again. “I’m going to need intel. When we find out who he works for, we can cross it with names on incoming shipments.”
“They might be expecting you,” Karmine points out. “If there are breadcrumbs to follow, we’ll have to assume it’s a trap.”