Chapter 36 Noah
NOAH
“I don’t like this, Dom,” I said, cold. “We’ve got to get Maya out of Buffaloberry Hill.”
Maya didn’t say a word, her silence uncertain.
“No,” he shot back. “That’ll make her look guilty. A flight risk.”
Damn it. He was right.
He added, “What we need is to hide the necklace. Not her.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “So what do they have? Enough for a warrant…how?”
“Something concrete,” he said. “I’ll find out. But until then, you two stay put. Don’t leave The Sundown. Not even for milk.”
“And the necklace?” Maya asked, filled with nerves she was trying to hide.
“We’ve got to move it,” I said. “It’s not safe here anymore.”
Dom dropped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, his brow furrowed with that lawyer expression, like he was already turning over legal chess pieces in his head. “Who else do you trust?”
I hesitated, then said, “Logan, maybe. But I don’t want to drag him into this.”
“I mean, we could hide it inside a cake,” Dom said, watching Maya with zero hint that he was kidding.
“I could bake a cake, sure,” she said. “But if you’re hoping it’ll sit around untouched at Butterberry Oven, think again. People line up before Mrs. A flips the sign to OPEN.”
Dom raised a brow. “So…maybe bake something less delicious?”
Maya rolled her eyes. “You want me to make an ugly cake no one wants to eat?”
“Okay, okay,” he said, holding up his hands. “But you have to admit, hiding state case evidence inside a vanilla sponge sounds very small-town espionage.”
“Focus,” I muttered.
Dom leaned in. “Then Logan’s our best shot. He’s a good man.”
“Exactly why I don’t want him in the crossfire,” I said.
Dom looked at me. “Call him,” he said.
I looked at Maya, and she shook her head. “You don’t have to, Noah.”
But for her? I’d do anything.
I reached for my phone and hit dial, putting the call on speaker.
“Log,” I said when he picked up.
“Noah boy,” he sang, unknowing that I was about to loop him into a felony.
“Hey, um…I need a favor. A big favor.”
“Anything.”
“Could you hold on to something for me? Just for a while. Somewhere safe.”
“Of course,” he said without hesitation.
“But…the thing is, it’s technically being looked for. By the police.”
There was a pause. The kind that only a true friend gives, not out of judgment, just calculation.
“Ah. Got it,” Logan said. “You flying solo, or the crew with you?”
“They’re here. Reinforcements and all.” I glanced at Dom. Then Reko showed up, fresh from who knows where. The mutt sprawled under the table, his ears twitching, like he’d been assigned to security detail and took it way too seriously.
“Hey, Log,” Dom called out.
“Hi, Logan,” Maya added.
Log greeted them back. “You know I’ve got you guys. Tell me what you need. You want me to come by?”
“No!” Dom said, practically shouting. “Do not come near The Sundown, or Noah. At least not until this blows over. Please.”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly planning a sleepover,” Logan muttered. “For the record, I’ve never gotten cozy with Noah.”
Dom smirked. “Not even once?”
“Not even tempted,” Log fired back. “Look, if you need a clean handoff, I’m heading to the feed store tomorrow.”
“Nick’s place?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s Sheryn’s husband. Might be a little too close to the grapevine,” Dom reasoned.
“Well, I always swing by Mrs. Sutton’s harvest shop for lunch. How about I just…bump into you there? Swap sandwiches?”
“Perfect,” I said. “Everyone goes to Mrs. Sutton.”
“Then no one’ll think twice,” Log replied.
There was a beat of quiet before I added, “You don’t have to do this, Log. You really don’t.”
A smile laced his next words. “I’m older than you, remember? Wiser too. And stubborn as hell. Don’t worry about me.”
I didn’t earn a friend like him. Just got blessed dumb lucky.
The call ended, but the tension didn’t go away. It clung to the corners of the room like steam that wouldn’t lift.
Maya didn’t say much. She just tied up her hair, pulled out a mixing bowl, and started baking, the sound of the grater scraping against the cutting board, the thuds of carrot peels hitting the bin.
By the time she slid the cake into the oven, the whole kitchen smelled of salvation. If salvation came toasted in vanilla and nuts, with a crust and a glaze, and made you forget the cops were breathing down your neck.
By late afternoon, we were at the kitchen table, our plates scraped clean, and steam curling off mugs of coffee. Reko snored under the window.
“This is incredible, Maya,” Dom said, licking a smear of frosting off his fork without shame. “If you ever want to switch careers, I’d fund the bakery.”
“It’s not for sale,” I muttered, reaching for another sliver.
“Cake or the woman?” he asked, grinning.
“Both.”
Maya rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. Her cheeks were a little pink.
“So, Dom,” she said, tucking one leg under herself on the bench. “How did you and Noah meet?”
Dom leaned back, hands behind his head. “Ah. That’s a story.”
Here it comes.
“I was based in California, mostly handling mergers and acquisitions and a few criminal defense cases for the rich and rotten. Then, one summer, a tech company in Utah brought me in to oversee a hostile takeover negotiation.”
I groaned. “Don’t let him dramatize this. I wasn’t hostile.”
Dom ignored me and continued, “So I show up to the courthouse for a pre-meeting, and there’s this guy wearing a button-down that hadn’t seen an iron in its life, holding a cup of yogurt, talking into a headset, and simultaneously arguing with the front desk clerk over a mix-up with parking validation. ”
Maya raised her eyebrows.
“That guy was Noah.”
“In my defense,” I said, holding up a finger, “TwoByTwo was just getting off the ground, I hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours, and I thought courtrooms had snacks.”
“They don’t,” Dom added helpfully.
“I was also wearing jeans, Dom. Not even proper ones. They had holes in the knees.”
“Embarrassing,” Maya said sweetly.
“Thank you,” I said. “Glad this is the story we’re telling while hiding from corrupt law enforcement.”
Maya slid the last corner off her plate and nudged a slice of carrot cake toward me. I didn’t hesitate. Smiling, she said, “That was the best story I’ve heard all day.”
I looked around the table at my lawyer friend who’d dropped everything to help, at the woman who was somehow both the storm and the calm, and at the dog who had no idea what he was protecting but would do it anyway.
And for a moment, despite everything, it almost felt like peace.
“Noah always said you’re a damn good lawyer,” Maya said, leaning back with her mug in hand.
Dom smirked. “He sold me good then, huh?”
“What’s the toughest case you ever won?” Maya asked.
I let out a low laugh and slapped his shoulder. “Ah, he’s about to tell you his favorite war story.”
Dom cleared his throat as if he’d been waiting for the question. “L.A. A woman killed her wealthy, well-connected husband.”
Maya straightened. “Okay, that’s intense.”
“The prosecution painted her as cold and calculated. Her husband’s family hired a full army of lawyers to bury her.
And honestly? They would’ve if I hadn’t dug into the history.
” He paused, his voice dropping a notch.
“There were years of abuse. Private hospital records. Bruises she never documented. I had to destroy the victim’s image to save her.
He was dead, but the truth still nearly broke her. ”
“And she walked?” Maya asked.
“She walked. But never forgave me.”
“Why?”
He rubbed his chin, saying, “Because I exposed the one thing she never wanted to share. She’d been having an affair…with her husband’s sister.”
Maya gaped. “His sister?”
“Yeah. And that sister? She used to sneak the woman into the ER after every time he snapped. She testified, gave the court proof, and that was it. The wife walked free.”
Maya let out a breath. “So the wife was willing to go to prison to protect the woman who loved her.”
Dom sipped his coffee, quiet now. “I guess that’s love.”
I looked at Maya then, her eyes locked on him, reading both pain and strength in the story.
And I’d stake my soul on it. I’d do the same for her.