There was lamb terrine served with tangy tomato chutney and a fish platter with salmon, squid, and prawns so fresh I could taste the sea. We shared crispy fish and chips fried to perfection and a duck salad with sesame, plus panzanella that tasted like our summer — almost gone — with Cassie, and chili broccoli with sea salt.
We ate like animals, even Cassie, all of us famished from the long flight to England and the drive to the house, to say nothing of the hurried, last-minute prep we’d done for the trip.
We were all pretending it was forever. Even Cassie, I thought, although that part might have been my imagination.
She’d come to us to lose her virginity and get justice for her parents. We’d more than taken care of the first order of business. What would happen when the second was checked off the list?
“No!” Cassie groaned when I insisted on ordering dessert. “I’m stuffed!”
Vigo grinned. “There’s always room for dessert, mouse.”
I caught the promise in his voice and my dick got hard thinking about what we would do to Cassie when we got her back to the cottage in the trees.
Tomorrow we’d talk to Anna Reed, try to find out how she’d known Cassie’s parents, but tonight we were going to eat and fuck like there was no tomorrow, and we continued gorgingourselves on sticky toffee pudding, strawberry Eton mess, and chocolate mousse.
“I feel sick,” Cassie said when we finally stood to leave.
The sun had set, the ducks gone quiet.
“Worth it,” Vigo said, taking Cassie’s hand as we left the Mayfly.
I was happy to stand back, watching him swing their arms like he was a teenager on a first date, Hawk following like an overprotective dad.
Somehow these people had becomemypeople and an unfamiliar swell of affection tightened my chest.
“Let’s check out Anna Reed’s place,” Hawk said when we got to the car.
“I thought we were going tomorrow,” Cassie said next to me in the back.
“We’ll talk to her tomorrow,” Hawk said, punching Anna Reed’s address into the car’s GPS. “but I want to case her place first, make sure we can get access.”
We’d checked the place out on Google Earth but had only been able to see the road, the house invisible behind thick stands of trees.
Hawk put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb.
It only took a minute for the tightly-packed buildings of town to give way to open space. It was dark but in the light of the moon I caught sprawling meadows and fields broken up by forests as green as the Blackwell Preserve, although not as dense.
We entered a stretch of road with hedges as tall as trees on either side. It was almost claustrophobic, the road narrow and damp, the hedges boxing us in, and my heart rate kicked up a notch when I spotted Hawk staring not at the road unfurling in front of us but at the rearview mirror.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He was working to keep his voice level and I understood immediately it was for Cassie. “Just keeping an eye on that car behind us.”
I turned to look and saw the headlights on the isolated country road, the make and model of the car hidden behind the glare of the lights.
Cassie twisted in her seat. “You think we’re being followed?”
I hated the note of panic in her voice, realized it was probably more pronounced because of what had happened to her on the mountain.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure at all.
Hawk’s gaze moved smoothly between the rearview mirror and the road in front of him, and about twenty minutes after we left the village he slowed down, crawling to a stop next to a gravel driveway that led into the trees, his eyes locked on the rearview mirror.
I reached for the door handle as subtly as I could, preparing to leap out if the other car stopped, prevent whoever was inside from getting close to Cassie.
The car drove past us, its running lights fading into the darkness.
“See?” I took my hand off the door. “All good.”
