“Yes. And I told you the same. You have a history. A small one, but you kicked up enough dirt when you were always poking around, asking questions. And then you went ahead and started a brand where you and your family are on magazine covers and gossip sites. Your youngest brother is all over TikTok too, supposedly.” She shakes her head in annoyance. “You’re making my job really fucking difficult, Riggs.”
“With all due respect, fuck that. We kept our distance. I looked after her the best I knew how, and someone still found her. Her past surfaced and we could only react. And that had nothing to do with me. So, when it comes to making your job harder or not following your direction, fuck that.”
I rub the back of my neck, trying to tamp down my anger right now. I’m pissed off she was put in any harm’s way, but I’m just as angry that it didn’t matter how much we kept ourselves practically miserable by staying away from one another. She was still compromised.
She takes a drag of her clove. “I don’t want to have to relocate her.”
“Then don’t.”
She takes another drag and stares a minute longer, but I need to make sure she hears this.
“This isn’t a fling. I’m in love with her. I have been for years, but I’m not going to put her in unnecessary danger. I’m making adjustments to my life, so I can guarantee that. It may be your job, but it’s my life. And she’s the most important person in it. I’m not going to make your job harder.” I give her a leveled glare. “But I’m going to make sure you do it better. What happened on New Year’s is unacceptable. If she’s in danger like that again, I need you to move fast. And I go with her.”
She doesn’t respond. She just glares back. Not many people, I imagine, tell Agent Harper what to do.
A good minute passes. She finishes her clove, then stamps it out right on the floor of the airplane hangar.
“Remember what she’s been through. She lost everything that ever mattered, and then picked her shit up and made a small life for herself. She’s made friends. Built a business. Hell, it took her years to get the people in Strutt’s Peak to consider her a townie. I think that bitch, Ruth DeMaio, still gives her shit. Make sure you make her life happier, not just more complicated.”
As soon as I nod in agreement,she changes the subject back to the couple of placements I just did status checks for in both Harmony and Laramie. I have the closest thing I’m going to get in the way of an approval, now I just need to convince my girl.
49
Henry
It’s beena couple of days since I told Agent Harper that I was in love with G. I still haven’t said it outright to her yet, but I need to tell her about the plans I’ve been making. That my life is about to take another turn, and hopefully this time it’s in the direction that allows for us to be closer. Be what I want and what I know she wants deep down.
The door chimes when I walk in. She’s sitting at the front desk with Gracie, talking through some kind of program on the iPad. She doesn’t look up until I say, “You’ve avoided me for long enough now.”
Her eyes flit up and I see a pink creep across her cheeks.
Gracie tries to hide a smile by eating a handful of Skittles.
“I have to prep for my next appointment, Henry.” She moves toward the back of the shop. “Grace, you can head out. Let’s talk about that program next week before you head back.”
“You bet, G.” Gracie smiles at me, grabbing her bag from behind the chair. She stops next to me before she leaves and says, “She missed you. Don’t let her get away, Henry. She’s been a totally different person since New Year’s.”
I nod and give her a smile. The door chimes again behind me, letting me know she’s left.
“Stop trying to avoid me, Pixie,” I yell, so she can hear me from the back.
G comes back and starts setting up her materials next to her tables. “I’m not avoiding you. I just was giving you space.”
“Don’t want space.”
“Fine, then I was giving myself a minute to figure out what the hell I’m doing,” she says, still not looking up at me. Focused on charging her tattoo gun and wrapping it in grip tape. “I just don’t think this has a long shelf life. I mean, the sex is…” Looking up at me, she shakes her head when she sees my face. Then she’s speaking again before I can finish her sentence.
“Stop smirking at me like that. The sex is insane. You know that. But we just don’t want the same things and great sex doesn’t change why we can’t work.”
I drag my fingers along her shoulder, and it gets her to stop trying to multitask and focus on the conversation I want to have with her. “I quit.”
Her brow furrows in question. “What?”
“I’m not working for Riggs Outdoor any longer. I knew I needed to make a change after we came back from Grand Cayman, for us to make this work. To be together for real. And I remember something you said… well, lots of things people have said to me over the years, and trying to do something I love seemed like the best place to start.”
“Wait, what? What do you mean? Youquit?”
“I’ve already started sourcing and planning. The start-up capital I need is coming from some of my savings and then my father and David are backing the rest as an investment. I’m opening a pop-up restaurant in the evenings, just a few days to start, at Brews & Books,” I tell her, but before I can continue, she interrupts.