“Dad jokes are thepunical of humor.”
“Oooh, blueberry,” she squeaked, making a beeline for the muffins. “My favorite.”
She grabbed the breakfast treat, offering one to me, which I eagerly accepted.
“Is Lord protective?” I asked as we ate.
“Extremely,” she said. “He’s a rescue. I got him a year ago from the SPCA in Denver. He was two and had been surrendered to them twice for aggressiveness.” She grinned. “But he just needed love and training.”
“You keep him with you at all times, yeah?”
“Well, I live upstairs, so unless I go to the market, that’s not really a problem,” she said, taking another bite of her breakfast.
“If you need to go anywhere you can’t bring Lord, call me and I’ll go with you. I don’t want you goin’ out alone for a while. Not until I have this shit with Stanley Morter dealt with.”
“What do you mean? ‘Dealt with’?”
“I’m not sure yet. I need to find out more about Stanley and about the fifty million dollars he’s convinced you have.”
“That’s the real reason you’re here, isn’t it?” Rowan asked.
“What?”
“The money.” She bit her lip. “It’s okay. I’m not offended. But be honest, that’s the only reason you and your club showed up here.”
For some reason, her thinking this bothered me, so I decided to make my intentions clear immediately. “I came here yesterday because I didn’t want to see an innocent woman murdered. My brothers came with me because I asked them to. We make our own money our own way and that has never involved murder for hire.”
“Okay. So, you’ve warned me about Stanley. Why come back today? Why not let me go to the cops? Why the need to protect me yourself?” she asked.
“I told you. Because the cops in this town are controlled by guys like Stanley Morter. And I’m only involved becauseheinvolved me.”
“That’s theonlyreason?” she challenged.
“Damnit. Are you really gonna make me say it, Rowan?”
Her eyes met mine.
“I think I’m addicted to Dusty’s pie.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I do get that.”
I smiled. “Just don’t go anywhere unless you call me, got it?”
She scoffed. “I am not going to expect you to drop whatever it is you’re doing to drive Miss Daisy.”
I bit back a laugh following her back into the kitchen. “If I can’t come, I’ll send someone. The point is, I don’t want you goin’ anywhere alone. Yeah?”
She sighed. “I guess.”
“You guess, or, yes, sir, I’ll call you before I go anywhere.”
She let out a little snort and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, sir?”
I winked. “If you’re lucky.”
She licked her lips. “I’m, ah, I’m gonna go check on Dusty.”
I’d never seen a woman move so fast, skittering away like I might burn her. Jesus, I’d love to get her under me, begging to call me ‘Sir.’ But she seemed way too sheltered to be the type of woman to ‘play.’