“It’s okay,” Sam assured. “It didn’t bug me.”
“I’m going to get there first and handle it.” Irina said, standing beside Courtney and then moving to Sam. She held out her hand. “I’m Irina, and I am pissed.”
Very still, Sam took the offered hand. Shook it.
“I’m really more of a hugger, and you are now part of our family, so if you’re good with that, I’d like to give you a hug?” Irina asked.
Sam nodded, sliding her gaze to Tanner as Irina went in for a hug. The woman gave an excellent hug. Strong hug. Precisely what Sam needed.
“You left out the part where she criticized your appearance,” Tanner said, eyes on Sam as Irina pulled away.
She shrugged. “It wasn’t the important part.”
He begged to differ, seeing that this woman beside him was the most gorgeous person he’d ever seen in his entire fucking life. Seeing as she didn’t know how gorgeous she was, the catty club could get their claws in her and he was not about to stand by and watch that happen.
“We need a plan. She knows who you are, and if she knows about my secret apartment, she probably knows where you work and where you live,” Tanner said, running his hand down the back of her hair. He paused.
“Secret apartment?” Bax asked. “What secret apartment?”
“If it’s a secret, then we aren’t supposed to know about it.” Mach gave a curt nod to Tanner.
Of course, Mach had figured it out.
Dan whispered something to Bax, but that wasn’t the important part of what they had to deal with, so Bax didn’t keep asking.
The fact was that Tanner’s hands were tied. Dimefront had a record to cut, and tickets, and logically he couldn’t go back to Denver to sort this out with Catiana.
He chewed on his bottom lip. “We’ll come up with something.”
“I can probably take a leave of absence,” Sam said with a sad smile. “It’ll jack with my bank account, but Babushka offered to pull some strings at work. I think they’ll give me some time off.”
He liked that. Liked that she had not only Dimefront at her back, but his friends at the Purple Peony, too.
“You should know Babushka is ecstatic that I want to take a break and stay with you,” Sam continued. “Great Aunt Etta is already making ridiculous plans for our future.”
“What plans?” Becca asked. “I hope they’re good plans. You need a hit of goodness.”
“We don’t need to go there.” She gestured to the rest of the room. “Not now. I told her one step at a time. Though it involved real estate tours of homes for Tanner and me. The ones with a guest house for her to live in.”
“Tanner already has a house,” Mach said, frowning. “When you’re ready, you move in. That’s what we do. Family stays together.”
Well, they shouldn’t get ahead of themselves. He’d be over the moon to have her there, but she had to make that call, not Mach, and not him.
“I have a guest house.” Bax raised his hand. “Just next door to Mach and Tanner’s place on my side of the property line.” Then he stopped, looked to Courtney. “We. I mean,wehave a guest house. You’re welcome to it whenever.”
“It’s for our parents so they can all come see Harley,” Courtney added. “Unfortunately, they have decided that since Bax and I are now happily together, they deserve to go on all the cruises to celebrate. We aren’t invited.”
“We told ’em they couldn’t take Harley on a world cruise without us. It was a whole conversation,” Bax added with a shiver.
“Which means the guest house sits vacant a lot,” Courtney added.
“Well, the simple part is settled then,” Sam said. “But, um… I’m Sami Jo, and I think I’m ready to stop running.”
This was excellent. But even in all that excellent, a lump of worry stuck in his throat. Sami Jo had to be safe. Sam had to be safe.
“Courtney,” Hans said, doing the thing he did where he took charge of the room. “This situation with Catiana will be handled, but we need to plan for if it blows open.” He gave Sam a long stare. “When it blows open because you sure as hell look like yourself. And eventually there will be Sami Jo sightings all around you that will lead to you. You could dye the hair. Maybe change the makeup. But… damn, you look like you.”
“Quick thoughts,” Courtney said, pulling her lips into a line. “The line between love and hate is super small. Like razor thin. Usually if you love someone you can hate them fast, and if you hate someone you can love them, too.”
