“Not much to tell,” I call over the grinder. “Just this and that.”
The grinder shuts off and the house falls silent. “You work?”
“Bartending, mostly. Been out west for the last couple years.”
“Yeah? What brought you back here?”
I clench my jaw and rein in my annoyance. He’s starting to sound a lot like Axe did last night. I don’t have the energy for another interrogation or the time to get all friendly with the guy I’m about to extort. “Just passing through,” I say.
He sighs. “What do you want in this?”
“Three sugars.”
I peer out the large window overlooking the backyard, and the sight instantly makes me smile. “You kept the treehouse.”
“Yeah. I uh, guess I didn’t have the heart to tear it down. Emily loved that thing.”
“I remember.”
Jack’s dad—Linc’sdad, I guess—had a bad temper. And I wouldn’t exactly describe my mother as a woman with a steady disposition. The two of them together were a fucking disaster. They drank, they yelled, they fought. He’d bruise up her face and she’d threaten him with a kitchen knife. It was a hell of lot to listen to.
From my bedroom window, I had the perfect view of the old wooden roof of the Decker family treehouse. Life looked so peaceful on that side of the fence. One night, while the screaming match on the floor below me persisted, I grabbed a blanket, flashlight, and Jack’s old Gameboy, and took asylum within its weathered walls.
I was nine the first time Linc and Emily found me there. Instead of tossing me out, Linc barked at me to turn my flashlight off so his dad wouldn’t see. Then he left. By then, he had to have known how dangerous Rick McKenna could be. Maybe he could hear the yelling, see the bruises on my mom’s face. Maybe he wondered if I had bruises too.
Emily was always kind to me. Sometimes she’d leave magazines up there for me to flip through. It was easy to like her. And Decker too, back then. Before I understood our differences and why our families couldn’t be friendly. His father was the chief of police. The enemy. Which made him the enemy too.
With a slow exhale, I turn away from the window. Decker is leaning against the countertop, mug in hand, studying me. Staring at me just as hard as he did last night.
I swallow past the apprehension clogging my throat. “I’m sorry, Linc. About what happened to her. Really. Emily was…” I sigh. “I really liked her.”
That accident shook this town to its core. Drunk driver crossed the centre lane, Decker swerved and lost control. It killed her on impact. The guy in the other car had a good lawyer. From what I remember, he barely got a slap on the wrist.
Decker takes a sip of his coffee, expression shuttered. “There a reason you’re here?”
“Oh. Yes.” Pulling my shoulders back, I make my way into the kitchen. I pick up the mug he set on the counter for me and take a long, deep swig of piping-hot coffee. My eyes fall shut and I have to hold back a moan. He made it strong, like I asked. “I’m here to blackmail you.”
He blinks. “You wanna… run that by me again?”
“You know…” I take another sip. “Like, I tell you to do something for me, and if you don’t, I ruin your entire existence. Blackmail.”
“I’m familiar with the concept, Grace,” he says, setting down his mug and pushing up to his full height.
Unlike last night, I’m not wearing my high-heeled leather boots. Without the extra inches to add to my five-foot-three frame, Decker towers over me. If I didn’t have the upper hand here, I might actually be intimidated.
“What I’m confused about…” he says, stepping forward.
Without my permission, my focus falls to his torso again. The scar. The muscles. The tattoo. That little line of hair.
“Is why you think you’re in any position to blackmail me.”
There’s no stopping my smile. “How do you think the chief of police would react if I told him you were tangled up with the Soldiers of Sin?”
The distance between us closes very quickly, and when I try to back up, I’m met with the edge of his marble countertop. Like last night, we’re pressed together. This time, though, he’s not wearing a look of remorse. That little bit of kindness he’salways carried with him is nowhere to be seen. This is a different Decker. An angry one. Maybe even a dangerous one.
“I’d beverycareful saying shit like that. Those are the kind of words that could get someone killed.”
Chin lifted, I raise a brow. “Don’t threaten me.”
