Love to Hate You (Hope Valley #9) - Jessica Prince Page 0,74
spoke next. “The two of you have three seconds to get in your cars and get out of my town, or I’ll arrest you both for trespassing and harrassement.”
Krista proved to be dumber than she looked by attempting to argue. “You can’t do that! We aren’t—”
The look he gave her could have turned lava to ice. “One,” he growled.
She caught on after that and scurried out of Divine Flora.
Alex was slower to go, stopping beside me and staring in my eyes for a few seconds. Apparently, whatever he saw in them backed up everything I’d just said, because his shoulders sunk in defeat, and he left without another word.
With that over, I looked at the uniformed officer and said, “I’m Hayden, by the way. I know we only just met, but I swear, there’s usually not this much drama swirling around me.”
His lips trembled. “Fred Duncan. Nice to meet you.”
“Seeing as you work with Micah, I wish we’d met under better circumstance, but I’ll try to make up for it the second time.”
His smile was genuine as he said, “I’ll look forward to it.” Then, with a tilt of his chin at Leo and Micah, he headed for the door.
“Whoowee!” Sylvia called out, standing tall and slapping the countertop. “Talk about drama. I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a drink after that. I’ll go grab the bottle of gin I keep stashed in the back office.”
Just like that, my aunt managed to break through the tension and make everyone smile.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Micah
My cell vibrated on the bedside table, yanking me out of a fitful sleep. I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep more than a handful of times in the past month, even with Hayden curled up beside me most nights.
After the showdown at her flower shop, things with our relationship seemed to move at lightning speed. But it hadn’t seemed rushed. It felt natural to sit Ivy down and tell her that her mommy and her Mike were in a relationship, even if she didn’t fully comprehend the meaning of that.
It felt natural to start spending most of my nights in Hayden’s bed. And in the past month, I’d discovered that slow, quiet sex was just as phenomenal as when we fucked hard and rough. Hell, even the few quickies we had to squeeze in every now and then were out of this world.
None of that freaked me out. In fact, with shit hitting nuclear with the Callo investigation, the only time I’d really been able to breathe over the past few weeks was when I was with Hayden and Ivy.
Knowing who was at fault and not being able to do a goddamn thing about it was slowly starting to drive me out of my mind.
Ballistics on the bullet that killed Evan Webb had come back as a match to the bullets recovered from Darrin Callo’s murder, but without the murder weapon, there was no way to link it back to Cormack.
However, the worst thing about this whole nightmare happened just two days ago when Sidney Callo had come into the department asking questions about her husband’s murder. She still looked like a shell of her former self months later, and the fact we had nothing to give her to put her mind at ease burned a hole in my chest.
Pulling my arms from around Hayden’s soft, warm body, I sat up and threw my legs over the side of the bed as I grabbed my phone and read the text that had just come in. Alpha Omega. 20 mins.
Goddamn it.
Moving across the room, I grabbed the clothes I’d discarded earlier and started pulling them back on.
I was lacing my left boot when the bedside lamp flipped on, casting a golden glow through the room.
I twisted my head as Hayden pushed up onto one hand, using the other to push her wild mass of wavy hair out of her sleepy face.
“Micah?” she mumbled, her voice thick with sleep. “What’re you doin’?”
“Nothin’, baby,” I replied quietly. “Go back to sleep.”
She became more alert as she took me in. “Are you leaving?”
I moved back to the bed and bent over her, tucking her hair behind her ear. “It’s a work thing. I’ll be back as soon as I can, yeah?”
Worry creased her pretty face. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, Red. It’s all good. Promise. Just go back to sleep.” I leaned in and pressed my lips against hers. “I’ll be back before you know it.”