Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Monday morning arrived with tenderness still tucked into the quiet spaces of Holly’s apartment.
It was there in the way Reid moved around her kitchen without making it feel smaller.
In the way his hand brushed hers when he passed her a mug.
In the memory of the night before, warm and private, lingering beneath her skin while Sanctuary waited below them with its dark windows and locked doors and a murder investigation threaded through every ordinary routine.
Holly should have been embarrassed that she’d broken down and asked him to take care of her.
Maybe later she would be when the world stopped tilting beneath her feet.
She’d find the energy to worry about what it meant that Reid Fleming had slept on her couch as her protector, kissed her as the man who had once broken her heart, and touched her as if he’d been waiting years to do exactly that—take care of her.
For now, she stood barefoot in her kitchen with her hair twisted into a messy knot, watching him drink coffee in yesterday’s T-shirt while Blue leaned his entire body against Reid’s leg as if romance had rearranged his loyalties.
“I see how it is,” she told the dog. “One night of emotional upheaval and you defect.”
Blue wagged without remorse.
Reid glanced down at him. “He has good instincts.”
“He has terrible instincts. Yesterday, he tried to herd a corgi into a water fountain.”
“Leadership is complicated.”
She gave him a look over the rim of her mug, and his mouth curved.
The smile was small, private, and unfairly devastating for a Monday before sunrise.
Holly looked away first because she had a business to open, a killer still loose, and absolutely no room in her life for a man who could make drinking coffee feel sexy.
Except, once the killer was caught and Reid didn’t need to protect her anymore, she might have to make room for him to be that man.
The buzzer from the stairwell sounded before she could say anything ridiculous.
“That’ll be Roni.” Holly set her mug down and reached for Blue’s leash. “Try not to look guilty.”
Reid’s eyes warmed, and that was worse than the smile. She clipped the leash to Blue’s collar.
Roni came up the stairs in leggings, a fleece jacket, talking a mile a minute on her phone. From the sounds of it, there had been a mix-up with her realtor test date. She’d always had a fascination with old houses and now wanted to sell them, along with her dog business.
After a slight pause as the person on the other end spoke, she politely told them she would reschedule and hung up.
As she stepped into the apartment, Blue greeted her with enough enthusiasm to suggest he’d never loved anyone else, which was both flattering and personally offensive.
“Good morning, Sweet baby Blue,” Roni told him, rubbing his ears. Then she looked from Holly to Reid. “You look right at home in here.”
“He slept poorly,” Holly volunteered as if that explained it. Reid tilted his head. She gave him an exaggerated smile. What? I panicked, okay?
Roni’s eyebrows rose. “Did he?”
Reid picked up his coffee. “Blue snores.”
Blue sneezed, seemingly disputing the claim.
Roni narrowed her eyes at both of them, clearly suspecting what had happened. “I have a van full of dogs and no time for whatever this is, but please know I’ll be unbearable about it when I return him.”
“You’re unbearable most of the time,” Reid said.
She picked up one of Blue’s half-destroyed toys and chucked it at him. Reid caught it easily and laughed.
Roni moved closer to Holly, her eyes telling Holly that if Reid had screwed up, she would personally take him down. “Are you okay?”
Holly nodded. “I’m good.”
Roni eyed her brother. “Call if that changes.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Reid asked.
“Because if you upset my best friend in any way, I will make you regret it.”
He gave her a mock salute. “Noted, counsel.”
Blue trotted toward the stairs with Roni, then looked back once at Holly, ears lifted. She blew him a kiss, and he accepted it before continuing toward daycare and the important work of supervising chaos.
Reid’s phone rang as soon as the door closed behind them.
He looked at the screen and exhaled. Holly saw him brace. “It’s Granddad.” Then he forced a lighter note into his voice and answered. “Morning.”
Lincoln Fleming’s voice came through loud enough for Reid to pull the phone away from his ear and for Holly to flinch. “Don’t you morning me, boy.”
Reid closed his eyes briefly. “CB arrived, then.”
“Some mountain-sized man is sitting in a truck across from my house pretending to read a newspaper that’s three days old.”
“He’s there for your safety.”
“He’s there because you lied to me in my own kitchen.”
Holly’s stomach dipped. Reid’s face didn’t change much, but his shoulders straightened. The accusation had found its mark. “I didn’t lie.”
“You withheld the part that mattered. That’s lying with a law degree.”
Holly moved closer without thinking, placing a supportive hand on Reid’s lower back. Guilt tightened around her ribs. Linc had welcomed her with gruff affection, and she’d sat in his kitchen while she and Reid gave him only a slice of the truth.
Reid’s voice stayed calm. “We didn’t have the full details yet.”
“You had enough to know I was involved.”
“You’re not involved. A case that was yours is adjacent to it.”
“I presided over it. I excluded evidence. I watched that jury acquit Calvin Dodge, and now people from that jury are dead. The FBI told me. Don’t insult me by pretending that doesn’t put me on the board.”
Reid rubbed his thumb along the edge of his phone. “That’s why CB is outside.”
“I didn’t say I objected to precautions. I object to being managed like an inconvenient old man who might break if someone tells him the truth.”
Holly looked down at the counter. She liked Linc too much not to feel the sting of that on his behalf.
“You’re not inconvenient,” Reid said. “And you won’t break.”
“Then act like you remember that.”
Reid was silent long enough that Holly started pacing. “I’m sorry.”
“Accepted, but not forgotten.” Linc’s voice softened by a hard inch. “Is Holly there?”
“She is.”
“Tell her I’m not angry with her.”
Holly’s throat tightened. “Tell him I’m sorry anyway.”
Reid repeated it, and Linc huffed. “She always did apologize for things that weren’t hers. Tell her to stop.”
A reluctant smile tugged at Holly’s mouth.
Linc went on. “Now tell that bodyguard of mine if he’s going to be here all day, he can come in and drink coffee like a civilized human being. But if he rearranges my furniture or asks me how I’m feeling, I’ll put him on the porch.”
“I’ll pass that along,” Reid said, already texting the man.
“You do that. And Reid?”
“Yes.”
“Find the person who did this before they decide old judges make good symbols.”
The call ended.
Reid stood with the phone in his hand, jaw tight, eyes on nothing Holly could see. She took his hand and tugged him after her. “Come here,” she said.
He blinked. “What?”
“You’re learning the espresso machine before we open.”
“Now?”
“Yes. You need something to do with your hands, and I need you to not stare at the wall like you’re trying to convict it.”
His mouth curved in a faint smile. “The wall has questionable character.”
“The wall has been very supportive—pun intended.”
She led him downstairs and behind the counter, where the shop smelled like coffee and sugar and the clean sharpness of sanitizer.
Outside, Monday was beginning to gather itself on Main Street.
Cars moved past the front windows. A delivery truck idled two doors down.
Sanctuary would open in less than thirty minutes, and Holly refused to let the killer take anything else from her.
Reid stood beside her at the espresso machine, too tall and wide in the narrow space.
She still liked it. She handed him the portafilter. “Grounds in here. Tamp evenly. Firm, not violent.”
“I can manage firm.”
“I’ve seen the way you close a dishwasher. We’ll see.”
His shoulder brushed hers as she showed him how to level the grounds, and the contact traveled through her with the same quiet electricity that had been humming between them all morning. He watched her hands, not her mouth, which was wise of him and still somehow maddening.
She placed her hand over his to adjust the angle of the tamper. “Not like you’re arguing a motion. Like you’re persuading the coffee to cooperate.”
He huffed a low laugh, and some of the tension from Linc’s call eased out of his shoulders.
Holly let herself enjoy that small victory.
She was teaching him something simple and he was letting her.
In the middle of murder and healing old wounds, the espresso machine hissed to life, and Reid Fleming stood in her world learning how not to break it.
The morning rush was smaller than usual but still steady enough to keep them moving. Maya arrived tired from a weekend with her friends and threw herself into making lattes and plating muffins.
At eight-thirty, Holly was wiping down the counter when Reid drew her into the small office. “Go ahead, Claire,” he said into his phone. “Holly’s here. You’re on speaker.”
Shuffling paper noise came through before Claire’s voice. “Hopper’s out.”
Holly’s hand gripped the rag in her hand. Reid’s posture tightened.
“He has an alibi?” Reid asked.
“For Warren Ackles. Solid enough that we couldn’t hold him. He was on camera at a hardware store in Mesa Ridge within the window for Warren’s murder, and we have a transaction, staff confirmation, and exterior footage. Timing doesn’t work.”
Holly gripped the counter.
“What about the other attacks?” Reid asked.
“We’re still working at trying to place him at those. He isn’t cleared from everything, but he’s no longer the clean answer.”
No longer the clean answer. Holly closed her eyes briefly, thinking of Hopper on Emma’s anniversary, sitting through questions while grief and suspicion pressed against him from all sides.
Claire continued. “Nell Truett is awake.”
Holly’s eyes flew open. “She is?”