Page 55 of Tempest’s Torment

My mind drifts back to Rogue's call. Four months he's been in Boston. Four months to learn her routine while she went about her life, believing she'd finally put enough distance between herself and Connecticut.

Her bedroom door opens and I look up.

She walks into the kitchen carrying something wrapped in an old tea towel, she unwraps it carefully and sets it on the counter. I know the mug before I read it.

I'M NOT ARGUING, I'M JUST EXPLAINING WHY I'M RIGHT.

The same one she'd been talking about, she notices me looking. "It was in the box."

I nod.

She runs her thumb over the handle. "Lucy gave it to me for my twenty-fourth birthday." A small smile touches her lips. "She said it suited me." She lets out a quiet breath. "It felt like the right time." She disappears back into her room, the door clicking shut behind her.

I head to the window out of habit, resting one hand against the frame as I look down at the street where headlights catch my eye and a black SUV rolls into view.

I straighten without thinking, every instinct I have starts screaming.

He knows where she lives and he's making damn sure she hasn't gone anywhere.

Lilah's finally sleeping; tonight; she remembered her sister and opened something she hadn’t taken out in three years. Tomorrow can bring whatever it wants, but tonight, she gets to sleep.

CHAPTER NINE

lilah

I wake up, and he's not on the couch. I fully expected him to still be here, and now that he’s not, I’m disappointed and I’m not sure what to make of it. I feel as though I’m getting attached and I don’t even know why.

Then the front door opens and Tempest walks in carrying a paper bag from the bakery down the street, phone in his other hand. "Morning," he says as he spots me standing in the doorway of my bedroom.

I look at the bag and then back at him. "You snuck out," I say.

He gives me a flat look. "I don't sneak."

I cross my arms over my chest and stare at him. "You left without telling me."

"You were asleep." He holds up the bag. "I was gone all of ten minutes."

I don’t move, I just continue to look at him. "You could have woken me."

"You needed the sleep more than you needed to know I was getting breakfast." He moves past me to the kitchen and puts the bag on the counter. "The almond croissant is yours."

I open my mouth to argue, but stop in my tracks. How the hell did he know I love almond croissants?

He opens the bag without looking at me. "You looked at it twice in the bakery window yesterday. I wasn't planning to go back but I passed it this morning and it seemed like the right call."

I look at the back of his head. "You noticed that?" I ask as I move toward him.

"I notice everything." He hands me the croissant wrapped in paper and goes back to whatever he was doing. "Coffee's already on."

I stand in the kitchen holding the croissant, unable to comprehend that he remembered. "Thank you," I say.

"Don't make it a thing," he says, staring at me like I’m about to sprout horns.

I narrow my eyes at him and stick out my tongue as I sit at the table with my croissant as he slides my coffee mug over to me at the same time he reaches for my still-wrapped croissant and slides it back to himself.

I frown at him. "I thought you said the almond one was mine."

He nods. "It is."