Chapter 11
They settled on a barbecue joint around the corner she’d never heard of.
Even though the restaurant looked disreputable and was sandwiched between two salvage yards with razor wire topping their fences, Walker said he liked it, so she was game.
When they pulled in and found the parking lot full to overflowing, she knew he’d been right.
It felt good to be doing something normal after the last two days, and it felt even better to have Walker by her side. Like that space had been vacant for too long, and then he was just there, and fit perfectly.
Even knowing that, though, she was pointedly ignoring the hot flashes she was starting to have when she thought about him, the way her memories collided with the easy strength he’d exhibited moving things around this afternoon, his quiet sense of surety and command, and the way she’d honed in on the flex of his forearms as he’d lifted and toted without complaint.
What the hell was wrong with her, lusting over forearms?
The line at the counter wasn’t overly long, even with the crazy parking, and they got their food quickly.
They’d barely settled in when Serena looked up and groaned inwardly. Addie Nixon was heading directly their way. She did not need to add a showdown with her old nemesis to the list of shitty things that had happened over the last two days.
Addie looked good, she thought inanely. She’d always been tiny, almost waiflike, but with a personality ten times bigger.
And when she’d aimed barbs at you? Oh, they’d been lethal.
Back in the day, Addie Nixon had been able to reduce Serena to ash with one perfectly delivered sentence and a raised eyebrow.
Addie made a beeline toward them, her pace brisk, her face unreadable, a to-go bag in her hand. What were the odds they would have picked the same restaurant? Then again, this face-off was bound to happen sometime, so they might as well get it over with.
Serena braced, preparing herself for the verbal equivalent of incoming artillery. So she barely managed to suppress her gasp of surprise when Addie leaned in and gave her a hug that made the breath oof right out of her.
For one stunned second Serena sat there, arms half lifted, like someone who’d expected to be slapped and instead been tackled by affection.
“Oh my God, are you all right?” Addie asked, real emotion in her voice. She flicked her eyes toward Walker. “Oh, hey, Walker,” she said, then turned her attention back to Serena.
To say Serena was agog was a bit of an understatement.
“Well?” Addie demanded as she straightened to her full height and tapped her toe.
That was more like it.
“I’m all right,” Serena said. “It’s good to see you, Addie.” The words popped out, almost unbidden and she realized they were true.
“I keep meaning to come by The Menagerie and see what you’ve done,” Addie said, her voice warm again. “Otis says it’s amazing.”
Serena wasn’t quite sure how to parse all of this. She’d been back in town for six months, and granted The Menagerie had only been open for a few of those months, but still…
Also, like she’d said to Otis, Addie was the last person she would have expected to want her to succeed. She scrutinized the woman’s expression, looking for subterfuge, and found none. Addie had looked genuinely distressed when she’d hugged Serena, and now she looked warm and caring.
The emotional whiplash made Serena’s brain stall out for a second. It was all a little overwhelming.
Addie filled the silence by turning back to Walker. “She says she’s okay, but how is she really?”
Serena jolted upright. Addie didn’t have a right to ask that. She started building up a good head of steam, old resentments rushing forward from where they’d been waiting in the wings, but Walker’s easy grin cut through the tension. The tension that was apparently one-sided on Serena’s part.
He leaned back in his chair like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“From what I can tell she’s fine. We went for a ride this morning and her balance seems good. Oh, and so you’re aware, since I figure you know everyone we don’t, I’ll be crashing in the spare room until we figure out who did this.”
Addie’s gaze flicked between them, sharp and assessing, but whatever she saw must have satisfied her because she nodded once, her mouth curving into a speculative smile.
“Good. I don’t like the idea that somebody bashed her over the head.
” She moved on with a speed that left Serena in the dust. “I’m coming to see you soon.
It’s been too long, and we left things unresolved. ”
Then she cracked a sly little grin. “It was fun having you as a frenemy, but I’m thinking we might do better if we try it the other way around.” She tipped her head and added quietly, “Turns out I might have missed that the first time around.”
She winked at Serena, turned on her heel, and walked as briskly away, a woman on a mission.
Serena sat there for a long moment, her brain completely blank.
Of all the things she’d expected to happen today, Addie Nixon declaring a possible friendship had not been anywhere on the list.
Then Walker’s chuckle brought her back to the here and now.
“Your face…” he said, barely stifling his mirth.
“Oh, shut up,” she said, not even mad at him or the fact that he found this amusing.
She still felt a little flat footed, and if she was being honest with herself, a little oddly hopeful, maybe a little warmer than she’d been fifteen minutes ago.
There was also a tiny lick of shame over how she’d let her past experience color her life today.
It felt petty, and she’d never thought of herself that way.
Then Walker’s words to Addie about his living arrangements penetrated her shock and she turned to face him. “Exactly what did you expect to accomplish by telling her you were staying with me?”
“My truck’s going to be in your lot overnight. People are going to talk,” he said calmly. “Now they’ve got a reason. And if whoever assaulted you is paying attention, they know I’m staying with you. Reputation management, along with a heaping helping of deterrence.” He dared her to defy his logic.
She couldn’t argue with that, so dove into her sandwich, her mind sifting through the improbability of what had just happened.
Walker kept quiet except for an occasional hmm as he ate his lunch and the sound sent up a storm of sensation in her belly.
She studiously ignored it because she had enough going on, thank you very much.
They ordered another round of barbecue to go since it was so good, and they’d need to eat dinner at some point.
“How do you usually spend your evenings?” Walker asked as they drove back to The Menagerie. “When you’re not surrounded by people.”
She shrugged. “TV, mostly. I’m usually wiped. You?”
“Audiobooks,” he said. “Comes with the job. If I’m sitting protection, I need my eyes up, not on a screen. But I only use one earbud.”
She glanced at him. “What about at the ranch? You’ve got to relax sometimes.”
“Sure,” he said. “But most nights I’m exhausted. Even with Jesse basically running things, there’s always something that needs doing. I’d forgotten how relentless it is.”
“I get that,” she said. “I finally felt like I’d carved out some breathing room, at least until I opened that storage unit.” She grimaced.
“Well,” he said, “I’m free labor while I’m staying here. If you decide to tackle it again, say the word. Otherwise, I’ll just hang out, looking inconspicuous.”
“More like totally conspicuous,” she corrected, laughing. “As if being invisible is an option for you, Walker Landry,” she added as they pulled into the lot.
Garrett waited for them by the entryway, his expression troubled.
“We found the entry point,” he said and instead of heading to the front doors, veered off to the right, into a gated side yard filled with ancient, thorny rosebushes and rusting gardening tools.
That area of the property had always been cordoned off, and Serena hadn’t made it a priority to deal with yet.
He stopped in front of one of the windows and pointed to obvious pry marks at the base of the window and a smear of blood.
“One of the rosebushes got him,” Garrett said, satisfaction in his tone. “We collected what we could, but the backlog for DNA testing is extraordinarily long, even for murder cases, let alone something like this.”
Serena actually felt Walker growing angrier with each passing second. Not at Garrett, but at the process. At the man who’d broken in not once, but twice.
“I could pull in some favors…” Walker said and Serena whirled to face him.
“Absolutely not,” she said hotly. “Garrett said there are still murder cases in line. We will not skip in front of them for this. You’re here.
Quentin is going to install cameras and alarms and whatever else you two dream up.
I’ll be fine.” She laid a placating hand on his arm, and his muscles were clenched tight. “You’ll make sure of it.”
The rest of the evening was a sober affair, and Serena wished they could go back to the light moments, to the rides in the foothills, the laughter.
While they’d been at the storage unit Quentin had installed new door locks on the front door and the one leading up the stairs, as well as something basic to secure the downstairs windows.
While she wished he hadn’t had to do it, she was more than happy with the peace of mind the additions supplied.
They polished off the rest of the barbeque before she excused herself. After everything that’d happened in the last few days, she needed a bit of space to think. She also had an ulterior motive.
It was time to assuage her curiosity about the man he’d become, so she prepped herself for bed, climbed under the covers, and pulled up Last Light: Bravo Company’s Heroic Final Days on her tablet.