“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Mallory asked. “You know how I worry about you in that big old house all by yourself now.”
My stomach twisted at the reminder. A few weeks before the wedding, Mallory had started moving her things into Mosley’s house, which was only a few miles away from the Northtown mansion I had shared with my grandmother for the last several years. I had no problem living alone, but I hadn’t realized exactly how…emptythe mansion would feel without her. It was like a priceless painting was missing from its longtime place of honor on the wall, and I noticed its absence every time I walked by that special spot.
Despite how much I missed my grandmother, I wasn’t about to interrupt her wonderful new life, so I smiled at her. “I’ll be fine. As much as I love you, I’ve enjoyed having the house to myself. Playing my music as loud as I want, sleeping until noon, leaving crumbs and dirty dishes all over the kitchen for days at a time. Why, it’s like I’m a teenager again.”
Mallory chuckled at my joking words, although her face quickly turned serious again. “Well, if you’re sure…”
“I’m sure,” I replied in a firm tone. “I’m going to drive home, make some hot chocolate, and curl up with a book in front of the library fireplace.”
She gave me a speculative look. “You could always ask a friend to join you, like Hugh Tucker.”
“Your attempts to play matchmaker are duly noted,” I drawled.
Mallory shrugged. “You can’t blame me for trying. He is one fine-looking man.”
“He also happens to be one extremely dangerous man,” I pointed out. “Or have you forgotten all the horrible things he did for Mason Mitchell? Like having Emery Slater kidnap me, Gin, and Bria from the Posh boutique parking lot when we were trying on dresses for your wedding. Tucker might not have been at the boutique, but he helped plan the attack, and he was there when Emery handed us over to Mason.”
Anger pinched Mallory’s face. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten about you being kidnapped and threatened. One day, I’ll give Hugh Tucker a piece of my mind about all the danger he put you, Gin, Bria, and everyone else in while he was working for Mason Mitchell.”
“But?”
“But you told me how he saved you that night at the Mitchell mansion. How he pushed you out of the way of the falling rubble that would have flattened you like a pancake.” She paused. “Besides, I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“And how is that?”
Mallory’s blue eyes twinkled with mischief. “The same way I look at my Stuey, like I just can’t wait to get him alone.”
I pantomimed clapping my hands over my ears. “If there is one thing I know for sure, it’s that I absolutely donotneed to hear about my grandmother’s sex life.”
“Then forget about my sex life, and go have one of your own,” Mallory countered, nudging me with her elbow.
I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t keep a smile from creeping across my face.
Mosley pulled his car up to the curb. I leaned down and hugged Mallory, who hugged me back hard enough to crack my spine. Despite the fact that she was more than three hundred years old, she was still incredibly strong.
“Be careful. It’s a wicked ole world out there. I’ll call you in the morning,” Mallory said. “Love you, pumpkin.”
“I love you too.”
Mallory hugged me again, then got into Mosley’s car, and the two of them zoomed away. I retrieved my own car from the valet and left the restaurant.
Instead of driving home, I steered in the opposite direction, moving away from the downtown area and crossing over into Southtown, the less affluent part of Ashland that was home to all sorts of deadly, desperate, and down-on-their-luck folks. I followed the curve of the Aneirin River, then made the appropriate turn to go to my shipping yard.
My headlights illuminated a sturdy white wooden shack sitting next to a twelve-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire, motion lights, and security cameras. Inside the shack, a fifty-something giant with cropped black hair, dark brown eyes, and bronze skin got to his feet, his seven-foot frame taking up most of the space inside the structure. The giant was wearing a thick blue coat over a matching security-guard uniform, and his hand dropped to the gun holstered to his black leather belt.
I pulled up to the shack, stopped my car, and rolled down my window, letting Dario Valdez, one of my watchmen, get a clear look at me.
“Hey, Dario,” I called out.
He nodded. “Lorelei. Everything’s quiet. You working late again?”
“Something like that,” I replied, instead of admitting I didn’t want to go home to an empty house just yet.
I pointed to a small TV sitting inside the shack next to a bank of monitors that showed the feeds from the various security cameras. A basketball game filled the tiny screen. “How’s your team doing tonight?”
A rueful grin spread across the giant’s face. “Losing like usual. Ain’t that the way it always goes?”
I joined in with his laughter. Dario hit a button, and the metal gate buzzed open and slid back. I waved at him, then drove through to the other side and parked in my usual spot outside the main warehouse in the center of the shipping yard.
