Leo rattled off the digits and a few seconds later, they heard the whoosh of a sent text.
“Anything we can do?” Helia asked.
“Stay safe,” Leo answered.
“Oh shit,” Monk said. Three sets of eyes turned on him. “I didn’t tell Leo about your house.”
“What happened?” Leo demanded.
“Someone broke in. Nothing was taken, but they pawed through my closet,” Helia replied, her hand tightening in his as she answered.
Leo let out a low whistle. “I’m sorry to hear that. Any idea what they might have been looking for?”
“No clue,” she said.
“The door wasn’t forced, but I didn’t examine it closely. I’ll do that tomorrow,” Monk said.
“I…” Helia hesitated. “I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but is this somehow all tied to me? I mean, I’m the one who’s been questioned about the murders, people I know are cropping up from my past, and my home was broken into. I have no idea how itcouldbe connected, but, I don’t know, it feels as if I’m a part of this somehow.”
He shifted his other hand, enclosing hers between his. “We don’t know enough to make those kinds of connections now, but I agree, it feels closer than it should.”
“Which is why you’re here at the castle,” Kendall said.
“I can’t stay here forever. I have to be at Sundaram tomorrow to prep for this weekend’s events,” she said.
“I’ll go with you,” Monk said.
“And Dulcie will stay here with me,” Kendall said. Dulcie’s lips ticked up. She’d been alone for two weeks. Monk would haveexpected her to assert she was fine on her own. He liked that she hadn’t.
“I will,” Dulcie confirmed.
“Then that’s the plan for now,” Leo replied. “Touch base again tomorrow night? Or sooner if there are any changes?”
Everyone nodded and mumbled their agreement. Monk reached for his phone sitting on the table to end the call, but Kendall’s voice stopped him.
“Leo?” she said, sounding far less confident than seconds earlier.
“Yeah?”
“Can you…can you look for my mother? Her name is Cindy Jacobs.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Helia watched Dulcie and Kendall head upstairs to bed—Kendall to her third-floor nest and Dulcie to a room on the second floor Kendall told him he should pick. Apparently, it had a suit of armor and peekaboo windows that made it feel like a fairy tale and was sure to inspire interesting dreams.
Leaving her and Collin in the tasting room with the Christmas tree still lit up and the fire dwindling.
“Where do you want me?” she asked. The heated look Collin shot her told her she might have chosen her words better. But in a very Collin way, he didn’t follow through.
“You can sleep in my old room. It’s already made up,” he said. “I don’t know about the others.”
“I can sleep somewhere else. I’ve made a bed or a thousand in my time.”
His short strands of brown hair swayed as he shook his head. His beard hid his sharp cheekbones and full lips, though it highlighted his rich dark eyes—not a man who’d stop traffic, but one who’d garner a second look. Still, it had never been his looks she’d been attracted to. They didn’t hurt, that was for sure. But despite his hardened body, his toned and inked arms, and the lethal way he moved earlier that night as he searched herhouse, he possessed a softness to him. Something gentle and…childlikewasn’t the right word, not by a long shot, but something inherentlykind. He’d been her best friend before she’d fallen in love with him. Now, standing here, watching him watch her, she wondered if she ever fell out.
Their lives had changed and gone in different directions. Hell, she’d married and divorced. But from the moment she’d seen him standing on the stoop of the castle, staring at the security keypad, he slid right back into her life as if he’d never been gone.
“You’re thinking awfully hard over there,” Collin said, his voice a low rumble in the quiet room.
