Livvy cursed, too. Because the owner back then was none other than New Hope.
Chapter Nine
There was blood. So much blood.
Livvy could feel the panic taking over. She needed to run. To escape. To put some distance between the blood and herself. But her legs wouldn’t move.
And God, she couldn’t breathe.
“It’s okay,” she heard someone say.
A familiar voice. Familiar words. From Ethan.
Then, there was something else familiar. His arms were around her, warm and strong, and he had pulled her to him.
That jolted her awake, yanking her out of the nightmare. Again. It was the same dream but worse. So much worse. Because she’d been the one dead in the bathtub. It was her face. Her lifeless eyes.
Her blood.
“It’s okay,” Ethan repeated, and he eased back enough to meet her gaze. “You’re all right now.”
His voice soothed her. His eyes. Everything about him worked its magic, and she felt the icy chill leave her bones.
She wouldn’t dare tell him about the details of what she’d just dreamed. No need to put those images in his head, especially since he was already worried about the baby and her.
Livvy looked down at the parts of their bodies that were still touching. Her breasts were against his chest. She was braless and wearing the loose night tee that she had picked up from her place before coming here. But no sleep clothes for Ethan. He was dressed in his usual jeans and shirt. Ready for work.
“You were awake,” she muttered, thankful that her nightmare hadn’t gotten him out of bed.
He nodded. “It’s nearly eight.”
Sweet heaven. She never slept that late, and her attention fired to her phone on the nightstand to verify the time. Yes, it was 7:55. By now she was usually at work or on her way in. But Grace had told them to stay put until they heard otherwise from her, so Livvy hadn’t set her usual alarm.
“You should have gotten me up,” she said, moving back from him and tossing off the cover. Not the best idea she’d ever had because the sleep tee had ridden up, showing her panties and baby bump.
And Ethan noticed all right.
She saw the mix of emotions swirl in his eyes: The heat and the love for their child. Some discomfort, too, since this had to remind him of the night they had sex and she’d gotten pregnant.
Livvy quickly wrestled with the tee to shove it down, and she got up from the bed. “Have you gotten any updates on the case?” she asked. She’d showered right before bed, so she headed straight into the en suite bathroom to change into the clothes she’d left in there.
“A few,” he replied, and she heard the dread in his voice. “None good though. We still haven’t been able to get a search warrant for the records or inside New Hope.”
Livvy made a sound of frustration even though she’d expected it. Yes, Zadie’s body had been found at the house that had once belonged to New Hope, but they hadn’t owned the property in over twenty-five years. Which meant New Hope’s connection to it was all circumstantial.
“No hits on it yet, but Eden’s got a working list of former clients, surrogates and employees at New Hope,” he went on, “and she’s divvied it up among all the deputies and reserve help. She emailed us our share about thirty minutes ago.”
Good. They could get started on that right away. And maybe they’d get one of those hits. All it took was one to blow this investigation wide open.
“The CSIs have processed both the murder scene and the grounds of New Hope and haven’t turned up much.” Ethan continued with the updates. “They did find some motorcycle tire tracks on a trail behind New Hope, but Hank Stover didn’t own a motorcycle.”
Livvy considered that a moment. “Are you thinking the tracks were made by someone else?” Because their working theory was that Hank had attacked Sunny and then tried to murder her in the hospital.
“It’s possible. We might be after several hired thugs,” he said, spelling out what she knew they had to consider.
She finished changing into her jeans, top and boots and came back out to find him sitting on the foot of the bed. Their gazes instantly connected, and yeah, there was the heat. The worry, too.
“What’s wrong?” she couldn’t ask fast enough.
