Page 57 of But For You

I growled at him.

“Okay, so I’m a dick, and I messed up, but⁠—”

“Tell it to Duncan. He’s on his way.”

“Shit,” he groaned, taking a step toward me.

I took one back. “You’d better take a fucking shower because you smell like really gross perfume and cigarette smoke, and you have lipstick on your jaw.”

He let his head loll back on his shoulders in the Lord, give me strength posture that I really hated.

“That’s bullshit, Sam!” I railed at him. “You scared the shit out of me, and you know better, and you were obviously not very concerned that I was worried, or you would have done a better job of communicating with me!”

“You should trust me to take care of myself,” he thundered. “I’ve been taking care of myself a whole helluva lot longer than you’ve been taking care of me!”

I could feel my face get hot, felt a tremble run through me. “Is that so?”

“Yeah,” he said flatly. “Between the two of us, J, I am so not the one who needs saving. You get in more trouble than ten people combined!”

I was nodding fast, utterly furious but letting him get it all out, vent.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get everyone to stand down from the clusterfuck that you created.”

I pivoted and stalked back into the lobby.

“Jory!” Milt called my name as he ran to catch up with me and joined me in the elevator.

I was silent as we rode up together.

“Are you okay?”

“I will be,” I assured him through clenched teeth.

“I guess being married to a marshal can be hard sometimes, huh?”

Yes, it could.

I relieved Regina, sent her back to her room, and watched her from my door until she went inside and I heard the door lock behind her. I bothered only with taking off my shoes before I crawled into bed between Kola and Hannah, who were, as usual, sleeping together. I needed to calm down before I did anything else, but at the moment, I thought I would lie there all night, fuming.

The anger didn’t last; I was much too relieved. The man had reappeared, unscathed, and I was so very thankful. Not that he wasn’t in trouble. He’d texted the wrong phone after all and not even bothered to check, but … he’d tried to do the right thing. His intention had been good. Of course I was still going to rip him a new one, especially because the display downstairs hadn’t been fair, but I could possibly let him live until the morning.

Maybe.

I let out a deep breath, releasing the last of the tension, until I saw something move on the balcony.

Shadows didn’t shift without cause. There was no wind, and it was a cloudless night, so there was really only one conclusion to draw. With my kids on either side of me, I was suddenly freezing, my whole body flushed with cold. I had never been so terrified in my whole life. Fear for my children was like nothing I had ever imagined.

Slowly, carefully, I muted the phone so the buttons would make no sound, keeping it tilted so the light would not be a dead giveaway, and then sent Sam the 911 call for help—or for us, what translated to it. I texted his name to him and then put down my phone and tried to breathe.

Trying to think of what I would do, I narrowed my eyes, even as I heard the glass door open and saw a man step inside the room.

“I know you’re not asleep, Mr. Harcourt.”

I didn’t move.

“Please don’t make me hurt you or your⁠—”

“Freeze!” Sam yelled as he kicked the door open and charged into the room.