“Don’t,” he muttered, still half asleep.
Her lips curved. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His eyes opened as he blinked twice, orienting. Then he remembered she saw it happen as his jaw softened and his gaze warmed. “You’re still here.”
“I am.”
He studied her as his eyes adjusted to the light. “You okay?”
She nodded. “More than okay, you?”
His thumb brushed over her hip, taking his time.
“You meant it,” she whispered.
He didn’t pretend not to understand, which surprised her. “Yes.”
“You didn’t want me to move,” she said.
“No.” He held her gaze when he said it. “That scared you.”
“Yes.”
He leaned over to kiss her. “I think we’re building something, and I don’t want to watch it leave.”
Her throat tightened. “Me either, and I don’t regret last night.”
Wyatt’s hand moved. “Good, because I don’t regret it either.” He readjusted. “Can you tell me why staying here scares you?”
Letty swallowed and then bit her lower lip. “My mother was an addict.”
Wyatt nodded.
“She left me and Livvy alone with our baby sister, Tessa, a lot. Sometimes she’d be gone for a month or more. The last time, the power went out, we didn’t have any food, and it was summer, so no food from school.” Letty exhaled. “Livvy and I relied on each other. We’ve been apart since Livvy left for college, but she was in Virginia, and I was in North Carolina. We saw each other often.”
Wyatt took her hand. “Dallas isn’t that far. We’ll go whenever you want.”
She wiped a tear that fell down her cheek. “I guess I saw myself living near her, and the thought of being away from her seemed wrong.”
He brushed more tears from her cheek. “And now?”
She ducked her head. “Now, I think I’ve found where I belong.”
CHAPTER TEN
LETTY
The safe house seemed smaller in daylight, like the walls had crept closer during the night. Letty had taken over the dining table again. Her laptop lay open next to her notebook, spread wide, with a highlighter tucked behind her ear. Outside, the marsh looked deceptively peaceful. Egrets moved through shallow water. The world did not look like it had burned three nights ago.
She took a cleansing breath. Disasters always look calm before and after. It is the middle that wrecks you. She zoomed in on the Tidehaven marina development map, cross-referencing dock permits from the last eighteen months. The council website wasn’t user-friendly, but she’d learned how to read chaos.Patterns emerged when you looked long enough, even inside the bureaucratic chaos of council permits and temporary approvals.
Letty studied the permit revisions and the dock expansions, but it was the temporary service approvals and event access documents that caught her attention.
Her pulse picked up. The Palmetto Royale had received a temporary service dock exemption two days before the gala. She frowned.That dock section wasn’t normally accessible to outside vessels without clearance.
She opened a window on her laptop to cross-check the authorization signatory. Well, shit, Assistant Harbor Master Jared Pike signed it digitally. She clicked deeper and opened another file. Vendor access logs with a temporary fuel transport permit issued. She stared. The approval time frame coincided exactly with…
Her fingers froze on the keyboard. All this happened the morning of Salt & Steel’s training drill.
