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“Okay, maybe a little, but I can handle this.” She rubbed her palms up and down her thighs with a sigh. “What’s the plan?”

“We ask some questions and get some answers. Be on our way.” I hoped to hell it was that easy. In my experience, things like this never were.

“And if we don’t get answers?”

“We will. We have to.” There were no other options.

“Okay,” she said, her voice too bright. She swallowed as the words and their meaning, sank in. “Okay,” she repeated the words as if she needed it.

“Let’s grab a drink to settle your nerves.”

She flashed a wide grin my way. “Just my nerves?”

I shrugged. “Mine too,” I agreed. “But only because your nerves are making me anxious.”

She laughed as I meant her to. “Yeah, okay. One drink. Strong.”

I didn’t let myself think too hard about the fact that I held her hand as we walked inside the bar.

And once we were back outside half an hour later.

Or that we both stood on the doorstep of a small bungalow at the end of a cul-de-sac with a small yard filled with flowers. The place was well looked after. Carla Price cared about her surroundings.

“This isn’t what I was expecting,” Ivy said, giving voice to my thoughts. “I just can’t believe Rex knows someone who would care for anything like this.”

“Ready?”

“No,” she sighed. “But we’re here and it’s too late to turn back now.”

I knocked. We waited.

And waited.

Ivy went very still beside me, bracing her body for whatever came next. Her hand tightened in my grip, and I took a step forward, putting myself between her and whatever was on the other side of the door.

“You’re going to be okay,” I whispered to her. “We both are.”

Her grin was shaky, but she nodded. “Yeah,” she sighed. “We are. But I’m still scared shitless.”

That surprised a laugh out of me before I knocked again.

She gasped when the curtains twitched, not a big one, just enough to know someone was inside. “Knox.”

“She’s here,” I said and stood tall. “Whatever happens, don’t freak out.”

“Don’t freak out,” she repeated the words over and over, like one of those yoga phrases people say to keep calm.

It wasn’t working.

The lock turned and then the door swung open, revealing a woman in her forties or fifties with brown hair streaked with silver. Freckles dotted the bridge of her nose. Her lips were pursed into a wary line but those green eyes?

I’d know those fuckers anywhere.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Ivy

Ishook my head in disbelief. No. It couldn’t be.