Her chin came up as she focused on Levi’s piercing eyes. “I’m not going to let them intimidate me. I didn’t do anything wrong. Let’s go home.”
Levi’s mouth tipped in a grin. “Thatta girl.”
She drank in the approval in his eyes. It felt good to make him proud. But her ankle chose that moment to let itself be known. It throbbed with each beat of her heart.
Her ankle. The crutches.
“Ugh. I don’t want to hobble past them. It’ll start a whole new thread to this stupid scandal.” Exactly the opposite of Nolan’s advice not to feed the beast.
Levi glanced in the back where the crutches lay. He gazed out the window thoughtfully for a moment.
“I have an idea,” he said. Then he put the car into Drive.
twenty
Levi was a genius. He drove them to Adam’s house, borrowed his boat, and brought Mia back to the inn by way of the lake.
Once they arrived at the inn, Molly ushered them inside. “If only you’d answered your phone an hour ago,” she said to Levi. “I tried to warn you.”
Molly had already pulled all the blinds. The phone had been ringing off the hook too. Levi was returning Adam’s boat now, which meant he’d have to come up that sidewalk. Mia hated that she was putting them all in this position.
She propped her foot on the coffee table and listened to Nolan’s monologue on the phone. He’d been surprised that the vultures had found her tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“It’s your call, Mia,” Nolan was saying. “You can come home now and face them here if you want. Either way I advise you to avoid answering their questions. We need to let this die a quiet death.”
She made herself at least consider leaving Bluebell. Levi’s buddy could fly her to the nearest airport, and she could literally go anywhere in the world. Maybe someplace in Europe: Paris, Barcelona, Rome. They wouldn’t find her over there, surely. She wasn’t well known globally. Parisians wouldn’t give a hoot about her.
But then everyone she knew would be halfway around the globe. Suddenly it sounded like a very lonely escape.
And going elsewhere meant leaving Bluebell behind. Leaving this inn behind. And then there was Levi. She really liked him. And even though she’d known him less than a week, she’d come to trust him—against her better judgment. But he’d proven himself trustworthy, hadn’t he?
As much as she wanted to escape the press, she couldn’t bring herself to leave. Not yet.
“I think...” Mia said. “I want to finish out my week here. Maybe the press will get bored with me and leave soon.”
Plus, she was dying to figure out what had happened to that necklace.
***
Levi pushed back the lobby drapes and grimaced. Darkness pressed in on the front yard, but he could see the shadows skulking near the curb. Those hounds were still out there. When he’d returned home they’d crowded him, shoving microphones in his face.
“Is Mia Emerson staying here?”
“What’s your name?”
“Do you know Mia Emerson?”
“Is she in contact with Jax Jordan?”
“What can you tell us about their relationship?”
Levi had pushed through the crowd, not making eye contact, not responding, but by the time he closed and locked the door, his blood was boiling. He didn’t want Mia or his sisters facing this every time they left the house.
He called Chief Dalton and asked him to stop by. Maybe he couldn’t do anything, but his presence would at least alert the group that one violation of their so-called rights, and Levi would gladly have them hauled away.
Please. Cross the line.
The phone had been ringing continuously, but they’d stopped answering it hours ago. He hoped they weren’t missing many actual customers. He’d changed the voicemail, directing potential guests to their website. Still, not answering the phone was never good for business.
