He looked up, brow creasing.“For what?”
“For making me take a break,” she admitted.“I needed it.”
He huffed, but there was no heat in it.“Don’t get used to it.”
She smiled anyway.
When the food arrived, her stomach reminded her just how long it had been since she’d eaten.The first bite nearly made her groan.Havoc watched her with an unreadable expression, one corner of his mouth twitching.
“Good?”he asked.
“Embarrassingly,” she said around a mouthful.
That earned her a smirk.They ate in comfortable silence for a while.The tension between them didn’t disappear, but it shifted.Settled into something warmer, something that hummed low and steady beneath the surface.
Outside, the sun dipped lower, casting long shadows across the parking lot.Ivy glanced at him over her coffee, heart giving a quiet, traitorous thud.She didn’t know what this was or where it was going—hell, if it was going anywhere at all.
However, she did know this.Little by little, Havoc was letting her see him, even if he wasn’t fully aware of it yet.That felt dangerous in all the right ways, but Ivy had never been one to back away from a challenge.
Chapter Six
Idon’t need a babysitter.Ivy repeated it silently as she rode into town in Havoc’s truck.She folded her hands in her lap, her gaze fixed on the familiar stretch of road sliding past the windshield.The Devil’s Crown compound faded behind them, replaced by cracked asphalt, and weathered storefronts.
“I’m fine,” she said again, turning toward him.“This is literally just paint and brushes.”
Havoc didn’t take his eyes off the road.He rested one hand on the steering wheel while he draped the other casually on the door.Havoc looked relaxed, but she knew him well enough now to recognize the tension threaded through him.Like a coiled wire under leather and muscle.
“King didn’t say babysit,” he replied.“He said keep an eye on you.”
“Same thing,” she shot back.
That earned her a sideways glance.He twitted his mouth, like he was holding back something sharper.
“Town’s not as quiet as it looks,” he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes, though her pulse ticked up anyway.“I’ve been on my own a long time, Havoc.”
