Instead, he steps back.
Smart men live longer.
Cowards too.
“I’ll be back with an officer,” he says.
Legend smiles again. “Bring two. One might get lonely.”
Jeremy’s gaze cuts to me. “And you. Whatever game you think you’re playing with another man’s wife, I promise you, it will cost you.”
I lean against the gate.
“Good,” I say. “I like expensive things.”
His eyes go flat with hate.
Then he turns and walks back into the dark toward a black SUV parked crooked along the road, headlights off, engine running. I clock the plate. So does Whiskey. So does Wildcat. So does every man in the yard with sense.
Jeremy gets in.
The SUV rolls away slow, like leaving is his choice and not the only thing keeping his teeth in his mouth.
No one speaks until the taillights disappear.
Then Amelia makes a sound that takes every bit of heat out of me.
It ain’t a sob.
It’s worse.
It’s the sound of a woman whose body has just realized the danger is gone for one minute and has decided to collapse before the next one comes.
I turn.
She is still standing.
Barely.
Sophie reaches her first, but Amelia’s eyes are on me.
Wide.
Shocked.
Angry.
Afraid.
“What did you just do?” she whispers.
Fair question.
I look at the gate, then at the empty road, then back at her.
“Improvised.”
“That wasn’t improvising. That was telling my husband I came here for you.”