I approached cautiously and murmured her name so I didn’t spook her.
Her attention whipped to me, and then she was climbing out and throwing herself into my arms.
“Baby,” I murmured as I held her tightly, the endearment slipping free without my permission.
Reagan either hadn’t heard it or didn’t care to acknowledge it, because she simply clung to me, her hands fisting in the front of my shirt, pressing as close as she could possibly get. I bracketed one arm around her waist, the other cupping the back of her skull, resting my chin atop her head.
Fuck, it felt good to hold her again.
Like two crazy people, we stood there for a long while, until she finally pulled back.
“Thank you for coming,” she whispered.
“I’ll always come for you.”
She gave me a soft smile, then shifted—though, I noted withno small amount of satisfaction, she didn’t let go of me—and pointed to a piece of printer paper resting on the center console of her vehicle.
“What happened?”
“Found that under my wiper. Freaked me the fuck out.”
“What’s it say?”
“‘Welcome to Dusk Valley, Reagan Lindsey. You’ll be seeing your sister very soon.’”
As she recited the words, my distress immediately morphed into a rage that had me wanting to raze this entire fucking town to the ground.
“I’ll kill him.”
Reagan choked on a laugh. “I have no doubt you could, soldier. With your bare hands too. But we don’t even know if itisa him, and that’s not your job.”
“What is my job, then?”
“To protect.”
Our gazes collided as a third word hung unspoken in the air between us.
To protectme.
Something shifted in that moment. For all her talk of not being able to do this with me, not while her sister was still missing, I’d still been the first person she called when she felt threatened. The sheriff’s department was right around the corner, and she’d still calledme.
“‘Protect’ is my middle name,” I grinned, trying to diffuse some of the tension in her body.
She giggled. “Is it really?”
“Nah, it’s Conrad.” I brushed a lock of honey hair behind her ear, leaning closer so my lips brushed against the shell. “But I will stop at nothing to protect you and keep you safe, belle. Don’t forget that.”
Reagan sucked in air, a quick, breathy gasp, and I chuckled as I pulled back.
“Noted,” she clipped. “Now what the fuck do we do about that?”
“We call my brother.”
She groaned, and I remembered they were supposed to have a meeting this morning. I wondered what had happened during it to make her apprehensive to call him now.
“I’m working,” my brother said when he picked up. “What do you want?”
“Reagan found a creepy note on her car. Seems like something you might want to check out.”
