Chapter 67
GEMMA
Ionly have a four-hour window before my shift at the Mill, but I made good use of it.
Deciding to keep in simple I resisted the urge to go all out.
Focusing on quick, easy items—brownies and chocolate chip cookies.
Scones and a brown butter pound cake I cut into individual slices.
Vanilla cupcakes and oatmeal cream pies.
Leaving the double batch of cinnamon rolls prepped in the fridge, I decide to bake them off while I package everything up when I get home.
Practically mummifying everything in a ridiculous amount of plastic wrap, I look at my cat who’s been watching me with avid interest from the doorway to the sunroom she’s been banished to.
“I swear to god, Janet—If you bring dead mice anywhere near my kitchen?—”
Walking away from me, she disappears into the sunroom where I moved her buttons before I started baking.
Rude.
“No,” I answer her loudly, untying my apron and hanging it on its hook. “The hantavirus is rude. The bubonic plague is rude.”
Abuse.
It’s just the two of us. Riggs is on the deck and Emily is in her new house, doing a walk through to decide what sort of furniture she’s going to need to fill it.
Walking to the doorway, I lean against it with an exasperated sigh.
“I got my cottage baking license literally an hour ago, Janet—don’t mess this up for me. It’s our last shot.”
Blinking at me, she flicks her tail before aiming her luminous yellow gaze out the wall of window that face the river. Looking at me, she changes the subject.
Emily… hurt
It doesn’t surprise me that she can tell. She always knew when Dent was about to have another stroke. She’d glue herself to his side in the days prior. I came to rely on her intuition. Knowing it was coming made it easier for me to prepare.
“Yes.” I nod my head at her. “Emily is hurt.”
Emily… stay
“Yes.” Even though it’s not exactly true, Emily will be next door. That’s close enough for Janet. Hell, who knows—by the time this is over, we might be staying with her. “Emily will stay.”
Emily… mice
“No,” I tell her with a laugh. “Emily isn’t bringing me mice—and neither are you.”
Abuse.
“You’re exhausting,” I tell her when I hear the rumble of Cade’s Challenger pull up outside. Stepping into the sunroom, I pull the door closed on my way to the deck. “Cade’s here,” I tell Riggs, crossing the deck to stand next to him. “Please try to keep your cat out of the kitchen. I’ve got?—”
Reaching for me, Riggs pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me. “So she’s my cat when she’s stuffing the cabinets with dead mice,” he says, a smirk quirking against his mouth, “But when she’s napping in a sun patch or playing with a ball of yarn, she’s your cat?”
“Janet has never played with a ball of yarn in her life,” I tell him, a smile of my own ghosting across my lips. “But yes—that’s how it works.”
We’ve decided to ignore what he told me this morning, that his time here is coming to an end, because neither of us want to think about it. “You should go,” he says, even though he makes no move to let me go. “Cade is probably out there, foaming at the mouth by now.”
“Probably.” Leaning into him, I brush my mouth across his. “I did bite him last night—let’s hope I gave him rabies.”
Laughing, Riggs reaches up to brush the hair out my eyes. “We can only hope.” Face growing serious, he hesitates before he speaks again. “I know what Emily’s husband is doing to her.” Before I can say anything, he continues. “I saw the bruises and I told Colt.”
Sitting back, stunned, I shake my head. “Why would you?—”
“Because she’s not safe and that means you’re not safe,” he tells me bluntly.
“As much as it kills me to admit, I’m not as capable of protecting you as I want to be—but Colt is and he’s right across the street.
I’ll do anything I have to keep you safe, Gem—even if that means asking that smug dickhead for help. ”
Thinking about what conceding to Colt must’ve cost his pride, I feel my own temper deflate. “Okay.” Nodding my head, I admit that he’s right. Just because Emily left Kevin, that doesn’t mean he’s just going to accept it. “Does she?—”
“Emily knows,” Riggs shakes his head. “I told her that I know why she’s here and that I looped Colt in. She wasn’t happy about it but she gets it.”
“Okay.” Nodding my head, I give him a soft sigh. “I have to go.” Leaning into him, I give Riggs another kiss before I push myself out of his lap. “Keep your cat out of the kitchen.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says giving me a quick, over the shoulder smile while I walk away.
Hustling through the house, I open the front door to find Cade leaning against the rear fender of his car, arms crossed over his chest, dark blue glare aimed at the house next door.
When he hears my front door slam shut, he flicks that glare in my direction.
Dropping his arms away from his chest, he walks the length of his car.
Meeting me at the passenger side door, he opens it for me.
“What’s she doing at the Wilsons’?” he asks, arms stung across the open doorway to bar me from getting in.
Aiming a look at the house he was just watching, I can see Emily moving from room to room through the bare windows. Looking back at him, I shrug. “Measuring for curtains, I imagine,” I tell him, deciding to go ahead and rip that particular bandaid off. “She bought it.”
Dropping his arm away from the car door, Cade turns back around to look at the house behind him.
He stands there and looks for so long I go ahead and close my car door myself.
Finally snapping out of it, he circles around the back of his car and climbs in next to me, but he doesn’t start it. “What do you mean she bought it?”
He looks so panicked I almost feel sorry for him.
Almost.
“It’s not code, Cade,” I tell him with a what don’t you get? head shake. “The Wilsons put their house up for sale and Emily bought it.”
“For what?”
“What do you think?” I ask him impatiently. When all he does is look at me, I sigh. “Did you hit your head?”
“No.” Turning away from me, Cade shakes his head. “No fucking way.” He keeps shaking it while he reaches for the ignition and starts his car. “There’s no fucking way her husband would agree to living here.”
Wait.
What?
“How do you know she’s married?” Cocking my head, I lean across the console and angle it downward to catch his line of sight while I repeat myself. “How do you know she’s married, Cade?”
“What are you talking about?” he growls at me. “You told me she was married—that day at the diner. You wouldn’t shut the fuck up about how perfect her life is, remember?”
He’s right. I took great pleasure in rubbing his face in the fact that Emily was thriving, despite what he did to her. Little did I know what was really happening… but something about the way Cade is looking at me tells me that while what he’s saying to me is true—it’s not everything.
Narrowing my eyes on his face, I shake my head. “What are you you telling me, Cade?”
Flicking me a quick, guarded look, Cade doesn’t answer me. He just shifts his car into drive and speeds away.