“After buyingmyhouse, buying this one seemed like a good investment,” he defended. “It is, as you might have noticed, right next door after all. Not only a good investment but an easy one to manage, since all I have to do to see it is look out of the window.”
He put the shirt on the hanger and then went back to the duffel for another. There were two pairs of pants, all bunched-up together. Darius took both pairs out. He walked them over to the dresser against the wall. He wasn’t going to point out that it washischildhood dresser.
Eve might not have been sentimental about these things, but Darius had surprised himself with his own soft spot for them. He had seen her old nightstand and couldn’t help but feel like it needed something to match it.
What better piece of furniture than something from his childhood too?
“And no one knows you own it? Mitchell being held here was a coincidence?” Eve was standing in front of the window. The curtains over it were drawn save for a sliver between. The world outside had grown hazy and dark from an overcast sky. Still, she stood in the small strand of light and gazed out.
Darius finished putting her pants away before he answered, careful with his words.
“Mitchell being taken here, if I had to guess, was an act of opportunity since this place has been empty,” he said. “Other than the sheriff and his friend who was the Realtor before he moved, the purchase didn’t get broadcasted like other news seems to around here. The fact that Seven Roads has been through a lot through the last few years helped too, I’m sure.” He laughed a little. “Compared to the rest of town, I’ve been the least interesting one here. If the gossip mill has found out, no one has shared the info. Who cares if the grumpy detective buys an empty house?”
Darius’s attention had already slipped back to the duffel he had placed on top of the dresser. The next items he could see inside were small, black and cotton. He was already wondering if it was right for him to put them away when he heard the floor squeak a little behind him.
Two arms wrapped around his back. Eve fastened her hands at his chest to close the circuit.
Then all he felt was warmth.
The warmth of Eve as she burrowed into his back and flattened her cheek against his shoulder blade.
Her voice was small.
“I care.”
Silence overlapped the two simple words. One wave coming to shore before returning to the sea. Strong, natural and then gone.
Darius took a moment to enjoy the wave before it crashed.
He put his hand over hers.
The heat came on in the living room, its buzz soft but noticeable.
Darius’s phone made noise next, also soft but noticeable.
He patted her hand. She let him go.
The caller was Rose. He turned to Eve before answering the phone.
“I know you’re worried about being found here, but I promise you we’re safe now,” he said. “This place is ours.”
He meant to say it was their secret.
He didn’t amend his words, though.
Instead, Darius watched as Eve nodded, a small frown at odds with the cuteness of her fuzzy little sweater.
“I trust you,” she said.
Darius nodded in turn.
He excused himself to the living room, past the spot where Mitchell had been held the night before, past the living room window that looked out at his house, and answered the phone.
He listened to every word Rose said next, but part of him was still in the bedroom, Eve pressed against him in the quiet.
THERE WAS ANupset at the hospital as the afternoon rolled around. Apparently, the woman who was hired to come after them was tougher than she looked. After the surgery she’d had on the wrist that Darius had broken, she had tried to escape. Not only had she tried to do so without a weapon but also while still coming down off anesthesia.
The deputy assigned to her had been able to disable her before she could get on the elevator.
