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Jared
Iwatch Nia pushing my son on the swing and my heart swells. I didn’t think I would find someone who was as in love with my boy as I am, but Nia seems smitten. My kid can be charming when he wants to be. He can also turn into a demon child at the flip of a dime. It’s fifty-fifty which way he might go. Today, he’s turning the charm up full.
“Okay, enough, kid. Let’s go and get some ice cream.”
That’s about the only thing guaranteed to get him off the swing. Nia helps him down and he surprises me by reaching for her hand instead of mine.
All right then…
We’re walking toward the ice cream parlor when my phone beeps. I pull it out and see a message from Slider.
SLIDER:Done at the apartment. Heading over to the store now.
“Problem?”Nia asks. I realize I’m scrunching my forehead and relax my face.
“Slider was just updating me about the alarm systems.”
“Oh?”
“One down, one to go,” I tell her. I don’t want talk of what happened to mar the good time we’re having, but she deserves to be kept in the loop.
“Oh…” she forces a smile. “I really can’t thank you enough for this.”
I wave her off. “Sweetheart, I want you safe.”
I glance down at Coop who is holding my hand and Nia’s. I don’t want him to hear too much of this conversation, and Nia seems to intuitively understand this, because she stops talking about it.
We get ice cream. Coop ends up wearing most of it around his face. I feel relaxed, at ease for the first time in a long time—maybe ever. Nia makes the world around me slow. I don’t know why and I don’t care, I just know when I’m with her everything feels as it should be.
I don’t deserve her. She’s too good for me, but I’m not willing to give her up either. I’ve had her and I want more.
I watch her across the booth, interacting with my son. She’s so good with him, a natural, in fact. I love how patient, how gentle she is.
Her phone rings and I watch her as she fishes out her phone from her purse. Her brows pull together and I go on alert as she slips out of the booth to take it.
“Where’s Nee Nee?” Coop asks, pouting a little at having lost his latest friend.
“She’ll be back in a second.”
I’m not sure who I’m assuring, him or myself, but my gaze tracks her as she moves to a quiet part of the ice cream parlor. I can see the tension in every line of her body and I hate that it’s there. It shouldn’t be.
I focus back on my son and try to clean him up a little.
When Nia returns to the table, she’s smiling, but I can tell it’s forced. I give her a questioning look and she glances at Coop before saying in a far too light voice, “That was the officer who came around the night of the break-in. He spoke to Thomas. He has an airtight alibi for both incidents.”
My stomach sinks. I was so sure it was him doing this, but if it’s not him then who the hell is it? I felt better knowing who the enemy was. This unknown factor has me on edge.
“We’ll figure it out,” I assure her.
She shakes her head. “This… it puts you and it puts Cooper at risk. That can’t happen, Jared.”
“Nee—”
She shakes her head more vehemently this time. “No. This has to end. I’m sorry. I won’t put either of you in danger.”
She moves before I can stop her, heading for the door.
Shit.
