CHAPTER 14
I did a thing. I changed my regular spot at Roots, and I’m now sitting at the little bar in front of the kitchen. Dean suggested it, because he likes to talk to me when I’m there while he still has to do things in the kitchen. So I moved my laptop and am now finishing up the very, very last comments before I will be done with this book. I don’t care if it flunks, I just need it to be over.
“So I was thinking broccoli for dinner,” he says from inside the kitchen while I try to figure out if I really want to give my character the emotional stability my editor suggests or if I want to keep her being a little nuts.
“Dude, it’s just after breakfast time, we’re not seriously talking about dinner.”
He gets out of the kitchen and brings me a plate with three huge white chocolate and macadamia nuts cookies.
“Never mind, you can talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. I love you.”
His face lights up. “Were you saying that to me or to the cookies?”
“Both, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yeah, I know I love you, but the cookies could be bad.”
It might be the first time I’m telling him I love him, and I’m not doing a very good job at it, but I don’t mean it any less. He leans over the bar, gives me a kiss on my nose and steals one of my cookies.
“Hey!”
“That’s for implying they could be bad. And I love you too.”
Leaving me with a dorky grin on my face, I take a bite out of one of the goddamn delicious cookies and decide that my character is staying exactly like she is and my editor can suck it.
The door of Roots opens up. Which is weird, because it’s Wednesday morning, so all the regulars won’t be here until midday and senior yoga class is still underway. I turn back and look over my shoulder, to see one of my least favorite people ever walk in the cafe.
Miss Lewis. Also known as Jonah’s mother. All she means is trouble, and I’m so beyond done with trouble. Give me a dull day and I’ll gladly accept it.
“Morgan,” she says in that voice of hers that makes the hairs on the back of my arms stand up. Realistically there’s nothing wrong with her voice, it’s just her presence that upsets me.
“Hey Miss Lewis,” I say a little louder than I usually would. She makes her way to the bar where I’m sitting as I hear Dean getting out of the kitchen.
“Hello, Dean, is it? I don’t think we’ve met yet. But I’ve heard all about you.”
Wow, that doesn’t sound intimidating at all.
“Yeah, heard all about you as well. Can’t say it’s been something I really enjoyed,” he answers.
“Well, I’m not here for fun, so that’s fine. I’m here for business.” She focuses her cold eyes on me again. “Have a shipment coming in in three days, will need an address just like you promised.”
I nod my head, unable to form words. She then gives me a little piece of paper.
“Text the details to this number. And remember how easy it’ll be to take one of your guys if you screw this up. We won’t be so kind to them as we have been to dear old Meggy. They’ll get the Julia Collins treatment.”
A shiver runs down my spine. That’s a threat, right? She’s telling me that if O and I don’t deliver her a safehouse for people or for drugs that she’ll have the people who are behind this kill one of us. I fucking hate this situation.
She walks up to me and hands me a little paper. “Text that number with the details, like a good little girl.” I’m starting to develop a love for being called a good girl, but the way this psycho says it leaves me feeling dirty. Then she has the audacity to pat me on the head before she heads outside.
Dean and I watch her go, before he gets out from behind the bar and wraps me in his arms. “I hate that woman,” he summarizes. And I couldn’t agree more.
I grab my phone from my back pocket and dial O’s number while I nuzzle myself in Dean’s neck. O picks up immediately.
“We need a place in three days,” I say by way of answering the phone. To hell with pleasantries.
O sighs. “Sure, I’ll figure something out. You call that FBI agent to set something up?”