“That’s not Damon.” The sound of sliding fabric was a background to a solid-sounding Rose. “If you were wondering,” she added. “I don’t recognize him at all.”
“Just like you didn’t recognize the men at the auto shop.”
“Just like I didn’t recognize the men at the auto shop,” she repeated.
There was strength in her voice, but that voice went quiet. So did James. Over a week of two attempts on her life, three counting the bomb, and there she was still standing. Not silent, not silenced.
James marveled at her resilience.
Even when he felt something against the middle of his back.
His mind was fast to stay his reflexes when he realized it was Rose. She was leaning against him, her forehead warm even through the back of his shirt.
He felt her sigh out more than he heard it.
There was no denying that it shook. So did her voice when she spoke.
“Good news, we survived another round. Bad news,I—I think this round was a little too much for me. I—I might cry. C-can I stay here until they arrive?”
James knew she was already crying. He wasn’t going to point it out.
Instead, he nodded.
“Do what you need to do, Wildcard. I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter Eleven
The Seven Roads Motel wasn’t actually out of business. Instead, it was waiting in a limbo between the former owner and the one who was taking it over—his ex-wife. Her name was Brandy Lane, and she was the disowned granddaughter of the Lanes whom the hospital was named after.
She was also close friends with Detective Darius Williams, one of the few people in the sheriff’s department who knew about what had happened at James’s home.
And knew that Rose and James were now about to stay at that motel. Room 6, to be exact.
“Brandy’s no-good ex is living in Texas now, so he won’t barge in here asking questions or anything,” Darius explained. “Not that he cares about the property. He just wanted to tie Brandy up in legal fees and paperwork before she could open it back up.”
He helped them into the room and, along with James, was inspecting every inch. Rose stood in the corner, throat hurting and head throbbing. The smell of lavender was unavoidable. She suspected there was still soap in her hair.
Someone sidled into the patch of old carpet next toher. Rose could make out the braids in her peripheral. That and the very pregnant belly.
Blake might not have been a sheriff anymore, but her presence was no less intimidating. Thankfully, Rose had known Blake since they were kids, and that intimidation had never put her off the woman. She found it instead to be more of a comfort.
“Are we going to gloss over the fact that our dear Detective Williams seems to be closer to Brandy Lane than we originally thought or are we going to talk about it at length and with a lot of imagined details?”
Blake was smiling. She was trying to lighten the mood.
Rose appreciated it.
“You think there’s something there just because our stern, closed-off, very blunt Darius suddenly has this trust in someone we’ve never even known he was on speaking terms with?” She snorted. “Of course we’re going to talk about this. Just let me see if I can survive this Brandy Lane’s kindness first and then I’m all in for gossip.”
Blake stiffened next to her. The little lightness she had tried to bring in was gone. She lowered her voice even though James and Darius were in the bathroom.
“This time, we made sure that only a handful of us know you two are staying here. In fact, only a few of us even know about what happened right now. Liam and Price are dealing with that man with a firm grip. We’re keeping a lid on the whole attack as much as possible.” She thumbed over her shoulder to the motel room’s door. “We have different cars now, we all made sure no one followed us from James’s house, and all communicationbetween you and us have gone to personal phones and computers.”
“You think someone at the department leaked that I was staying at James’s instead of my apartment? Even after we tried to be careful about it?”
It had been a question dogging all of them already—how anyone could even know she was at James’s house in the first place—but Rose had a hard time believing someone at the department had been the one to spill the beans. At least, not on purpose. A sentiment Blake seemed to agree with.
“Not intentionally, but we can’t ignore the fact that we’re all human and live in a small, usually boring, town. If even one person mentioned it to their friends or family, that would be all it took to get the town’s gossip mill up and turning. So this time, we’re locking the knowledge up as tightly as possible.” Blake, who had switched out with her husband at James’s house once it was time to leave, looked thoughtful for the first time since then. “What about James, though?” she continued. “Do we need to worry about him talking to anyone? Anyone close to him?”
