9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Ezra stepped into the side door of the kitchen after a five-mile run, not surprised to find Rowan here. He grinned as the scent of the dark roast filled the air. “You made coffee.” Good thing too because he hadn’t slept much last night.
“Always. Didn’t even realize you were out running.”
“Yeah, couldn’t sleep. How’s that thing you and Tiago are working on that no one is allowed to know about? Except Gumbo, apparently.”
Rowan grinned, shrugged, leaned against the countertop and took a sip of his coffee with a happy sigh. As if she heard her name, Gumbo came running in, her little tail wagging happily.
She greeted Rowan first, then came to sit in front of Ezra, waiting for pets. So he obliged, because how could he not? The mutt was a cute ball of fluff and energy.
“I’m going to make breakfast before Adalyn and I head home, but I hear you’ve got breakfast plans already.”
“Ah, yeah.” He poured his coffee, the only thing he could handle now anyway. “Not sure what I’m going to say but…” Lifting a shoulder, he covered his expression with his mug. Because he had no clue about anything right now.
“I’m happy for you. I mean, not about what happened, but I’m glad that you know about your son now. And maybe you and Magnolia—”
“No. I know what you’re going to say, but no. It’s been a long time and she’s clearly built a good life for her and her…our son. ”
“It’s not like there’s limited room in her life for people.”
Ezra cleared his throat, then crouched down and gave Gumbo more pets. Petting the dog was easier than this conversation. “I don’t know if I should bring anything.”
“Nah, just your sunny disposition.” There was a hint of humor in Rowan’s voice.
He eyed his friend as he stood back up. “Ha, ha. She looked good,” he murmured, unable to stop the words from pouring out.
“You sound a little annoyed by that.”
“Not annoyed. Just…I don’t know. I thought I built her up in my head.” Nope . She was even more gorgeous than he remembered. “I don’t know what to say to the kid. To Lucas.” Even saying his name out loud was weird.
“Just let things happen organically. And remember it’ll be weird for them too. This is all new so it’s not like you’re the only one feeling awkward.”
“True.”
“Did you see the text from B?” Rowan asked, thankfully changing the subject.
Ezra nodded. Bradford had sent him a text telling him to look out for an incoming email with contract stuff. “Yeah, I was planning to look over the new contract before showering but I’m sure it’s all good anyway.” When they’d all gotten out of the Marines, he, Rowan, Tiago and Bradford, aka B, had bought a bar together. The three of them had moved to New Orleans to establish this new branch of Redemption Harbor Security, but Bradford had remained at the main office in North Carolina and still oversaw their co-owned bar. “I feel like we should all increase his share so he’s the majority partner.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Rowan said, nodding. “Tiago too. We were just talking about that last night. Or we could tell B we’re open to selling if he wants to. He’s so busy with Hailey’s crew it might be a relief for him to offload it.”
“Let’s plan a phone conference and go over everything, let him know there are options.”
That settled, Ezra topped off his coffee then hurried upstairs. He rarely stayed here, what with it being a safe house, but it was nice to be around his crew, especially today when he felt as if he could crawl out of his skin.
They all left extra sets of clothes in one of the spare rooms, and for the most part, they all carried a duffel in their vehicles with extra clothes and weapons, because you just never knew what the day would bring.
After showering, dressing and ordering himself to get his shit together, he headed out. Berlin had still been sleeping, and even though he’d wanted to bang on her door, demand to know what she’d found out about Samuel Perry, he’d managed to contain himself.
He knew the cops were at least investigating and he’d already texted with Magnolia this morning so he knew she was safe. Soon though, he was going to find out everything about the asshole stalking his…his friend. The mother of his son.
Sighing to himself, he pulled up to her gate this time on his bike, pressed the buzzer. Almost immediately the gate opened, which made him hope she’d been waiting for him.
As he parked, he glanced around automatically, took in the visible cameras, made a note to add a few more, then pulled his phone out as it buzzed in his jacket pocket.
From Scarlett. Just saw you arrive. Everything good?
Yeah, just here for breakfast. See anything last night? He was pretty sure she’d have alerted him if so, but asked anyway. He was glad she’d checked in so quickly. It told him that she was indeed watching the place. Not that he’d doubted it, but still.
Nothing out of the ordinary. We’re still sitting tight though. Having her house back so far is a plus as far as security goes. At least she doesn’t have to worry about drive-bys on her house.
Even the thought of that made him ill, but he sent back a thumbs-up, then swung off the bike, headed for the front door.
The door swung open before he could even think about knocking or pressing the bell. Magnolia was dressed similarly to yesterday in loose, faded jeans and a soft-looking green sweater that did nothing to hide her curves. Her dark hair was down in big waves instead of piled on her head, and her blue eyes…were kind of wild-looking.
“Everything okay?” he murmured, stepping into the foyer.
“Yeah, I think I’ve put too much pressure on myself. On this morning.” She shoved out a sigh.
“Well something smells good.”
She laughed a little. “That’s because I cooked everything. Literally everything. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Nothing’s wrong with you.” Moving on instinct and a deep-seated need to comfort her, he pulled her into a hug, was so damn grateful that she didn’t pull back. Not even for a second. Instead she buried her face against his chest and held him tight. He wrapped his arms around her, closed his eyes for a long moment. He’d always loved holding her in his arms. Something about having her pressed up against him had always grounded him, made him feel like he could do anything.
He savored holding her, and for a moment it was as if he’d been dropped back in time as her familiar vanilla-lavender scent wrapped around him. “You still smell the same.”
She laughed lightly and leaned back to look up at him. “So do you. So…this morning is probably going to be weird, and that’s okay?”
“Definitely,” he murmured, his gaze falling to her mouth. Damn it, he had to stop looking at her mouth. Because then he wanted to claim it. Claim her. Then he wanted to strip— Oh shit. They were not alone. He was vaguely aware of movement at the stairs that led off the foyer, saw Lucas coming down in pajama pants and a T-shirt.
Magnolia must have heard him, or sensed him too, because she stepped back and turned to face him. “You’re awake.”
Lucas’s gaze ping-ponged between the two of them as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his flannel pants. “Yep.” He cleared his throat as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Ah, I’m Ezra, officially.” Ezra wasn’t sure if he should shake his hand or what .
Luckily Lucas held out his hand, seeming relieved, maybe that Ezra had started the introduction. “Lucas, which, yeah, you already know.”
Ezra found himself smiling as Magnolia ushered them toward the kitchen.
“Wow Mom, you cooked…a lot .”
“I guess I went a little overboard.” Her cheeks flushed a familiar shade of pink, and oh, Ezra had to shut down the direction of his thoughts.
There were scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants, a big bowl of mixed fruit, yogurt, cinnamon rolls, cereal, milk of various kinds (regular, oat, almond), orange juice and some sort of green juice that Lucas poured for himself. Oh, and a big pot of coffee.
“Help yourself,” she said to Ezra, her cheeks flushing again as she went to get a bowl and fill it with fruit.
Even though he wasn’t exceptionally hungry, she’d gone to a lot of trouble so he piled his plate with food. Luckily Lucas did the same.
The kitchen table was by a window overlooking the backyard. From this angle, it was a security nightmare, something he’d noticed yesterday while waiting on her to talk to Mari, then her parents. There was so much greenery, flowers, fruit trees and other foliage that anyone could sneak in using cover. Yep, he needed to increase her cameras back there too.
“Did you arrive on a motorcycle?” Lucas asked as they all got settled. “I heard the engine.”
“Yeah, it’s the new Ducati.” He had a vintage Harley he’d restored as well, but figured now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
“Very nice. I wanted to get one when I turned sixteen but my mom said I had to wait.”
“That sounds very wise.”
Lucas lifted a shoulder, shot his mom a grin. “Yeah. I’m going to wait until I’m in college. It’ll be easier to get around town on one anyway.”
Magnolia made a little sighing sound. “I don’t even want to think about you leaving.”
“Have you started thinking about college yet or is it too soon?” Ezra asked .
Lucas laughed lightly. “It’s not too soon. We started ACT prep courses in ninth grade.” He rolled his eyes at that.
Magnolia’s mouth simply pulled into a thin line as she shot Ezra a knowing look. But he wasn’t sure he understood the look because there was so much he didn’t understand about Lucas’s life.
“What colleges are you looking at?” he asked, because that seemed like a safe enough topic.
“I’m planning to apply to about six, including Tulane.” He shot his mom a look.
“I didn’t say anything.” She turned her smile on Ezra. “I obviously want him to stay close to home, but I’m trying not to influence his decision. Even if it’s hard,” she added. “And Tulane has an incredible architecture program. We’ve scheduled a few college tours in the spring…” She looked at Lucas again and they seemed to have a silent conversation that ended with her nodding before she turned to Ezra. “If your schedule allows it, we’d love for you to come to some of the tours.”
“Yeah,” Lucas said, nodding.
Oh wow, he hadn’t been expecting that at all. Hell, he hadn’t been sure what to expect. “I’d love to. Sometimes my schedule is a lot, but I’ll make time.”
“So what do you do exactly?” Lucas asked around a mouthful of eggs.
“I’m a security specialist.” His standard answer. “I work for a company that has a few different branches, but mainly we specialize in keeping individuals safe as well as analyzing the security for companies or individuals.” They did a lot of gray area stuff not listed on their website like rescue kidnap victims independently of law enforcement or help abused women escape bad situations, and they’d taken down a handful of trafficking rings. But that wasn’t up for public consumption.
“Cool. And you’re now living here?”
“Yeah. For the last few months.”
“And you didn’t know…” Lucas cleared his throat, looked down at his food.
Okay, so it was on to real stuff. “I had no idea about you. I assumed your mom…” He shot Magnolia a quick look, got a nod so he took that to be a good sign. “I assumed your mom was happily married to someone else and I had no idea whether she had kids or not. I never…looked you up,” he murmured, turning to Magnolia again. It had been too painful to even contemplate so he’d locked down that part of his life. “But I’m sorry for all the years we’ve lost. And I don’t want to force anything on you, I’d just like to get to know you.”
Lucas nodded, an easy smile on his face. “I want to get to know you too. And maybe you’ll let me ride your bike.”
He started to say yes, but then glanced at Magnolia.
She simply sighed. “That’ll probably be fine.”
“I built another one from the ground up,” Ezra continued, looking at Lucas again. “I don’t know if that idea interests you, but maybe we could work on one—”
“Yeah, that would be awesome.” He shoveled more food in his mouth, eating at an impressive pace.
The rest of breakfast was smooth, or Ezra thought it was, then Lucas looked at his mom, his expression a little nervous. “I’m supposed to shoot hoops with some friends this morning, but I wasn’t sure if that’s a good idea?”
“Ah…”
“I’ve got two security pros watching your house. One of them can shadow you wherever you want to go, but indoors and familiar locations would be best. Somewhere like the Y where you need a pass to get in. Just no big public places with a lot of exits.”
They both looked at him, blinked. So maybe that was a weird thing to say?
“How trained are they?” Magnolia asked.
“Most from their company are former military, not necessarily US military, but all trained in various weapons, self-defense, hand-to-hand combat, and offense tactics. I’d want them shadowing me,” he added.
“Then I want them watching my mom.” Lucas shook his head slightly. “I’ll just stay here.”
“I’ll be shadowing your mom today,” Ezra said before he could stop himself. He wasn’t letting Magnolia out of his sight.
Magnolia’s gaze narrowed slightly. “This is the first I’m hearing about that. ”
He lifted a shoulder. “I’d planned to tell you when I got here. So here I am, telling you.”
Her eyebrow raised. “Not ask me?”
Lucas smothered a laugh, shoved more food in his mouth.
Ezra cleared his throat. “I feel like asking would be insincere. Because I’ll be tailing you if you leave your house.”
She gave him a look he wasn’t sure how to define. She definitely wasn’t angry, but she also wasn’t amused. “Okay. You can run around with me today. And Lucas…I’m okay with you going to play basketball but only because it’s at Jensen’s house, right?”
He nodded.
“Okay, then you’ll have to take Ezra’s security person. And no side trips.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s fine. Thanks. Just…be careful. This guy has been threatening you .”
“I know, and I’m always careful,” she said.
Ezra begged to differ. He’d been there before she’d almost been shot and she hadn’t been paying attention to anything.
“Would you mind if security drove you?” Ezra asked. “It would make things easier and you’d be in a different vehicle than your own.” So if someone was watching their house, they wouldn’t necessarily know it was Lucas leaving.
“Yes, that works,” Magnolia said before Lucas could answer, seeming almost relieved by it.
Nodding, Lucas took his plate to the sink, then hurried out of the room saying he needed to shower.
“Sorry if I overstepped any boundaries,” Ezra said once it was just the two of them.
She snorted softly as she started putting away the food. “You don’t sound very sorry.”
He stood and joined her, started loading up the dishwasher with the empty plates and glasses. “If I’m being totally honest, I’m not. I want you guys safe and this is my area of expertise. If I had my way, both of you would be in a safe house.” But he knew how that would go over. He had absolutely no say over their lives so he was trying to play this as right as possible.
“I don’t even know if I should let him leave today,” she said, leaning against the countertop, rubbing her hands over her face. “So far all the threats I’ve received have been personal, about me only. And yesterday…” She shuddered. “That was clearly directed at me. But he’s everything to me. I just don’t know what the right decision is.”
“What’s this Jensen’s place like?”
“His family owns a mansion, has their own tennis and basketball court. So there’s no public access. It’s just going to be him and his friends.”
He’d forgotten the difference in their social circles. He had wealthy friends (and yeah, he was doing okay for himself too), but they were in different stratospheres. “And Lucas’s security… Would it make you feel better to talk to the security team?”
“Yes.” She’d answered before he’d even finished asking.
He pulled out his phone and made the call.