“I heard you and Grandma Kate had lunch together at Kelsey’s. And that you insisted on driving her there and then home again.”
“She walks plenty and can certainly manage the few blocks from the restaurant to home, but…” Mary shrugged because she didn’t quite know how to finish that sentence.
Adam grinned. “Grandma Kate tolerates our looking out for her. There are days—most of them—when I believe with all my heart that she, in fact, is taking care of all of us instead of the other way around.”
“I think so too. I have some tea in the fridge. Would you like to come in?”
“I would, thanks. It’s technically springtime, here. Must seem hot to you, though.”
“There’s no seems about it, cousin. Mid-eighties edging into the nineties is hot at any time of year anywhere.”
“Ah, the glib certainty of my northern-born cousins, just before experiencing their first real Texas summer.”
Mary chuckled. She led the way up to her porch and unlocked the door. Because she knew Adam well, she stepped inside, knowing he’d shut the door behind him.
“I’ve heard I may be in for an experience in that regard,” she said. “Makes me want to take you on a February vacation to Upstate New York, kind of to return the favor.”
“Went to Alaska once to visit Sean and Noah,” Adam said. “I hadn’t understood the concept of cold-to-the-bone until that visit. Once, as they say, was enough.”
Mary didn’t waste any time heading to her kitchen. One good thing about the house being on the small size, the air conditioning worked well.
While Adam did his usual thing—walked through the rest of the house causal like, all the while checking that there was no one else lurking about—she got down some glasses, filled two of them with ice, and pulled out her jug of tea. We’re a well-timed pair. Adam came back into the room just as she poured the tawny liquid into their glasses.
“Have a seat, Adam, and tell me what brings you to my door today. Please.”
“I do appreciate your following our social conventions of easy conversation first and not jumping right in with the questions I see dancing in your eyes.”
Mary shrugged. “When in Lusty.” She took a moment and met his gaze. “You checked out the place. Do you think I’m in danger?” That’s better. She’d been tucking away the ickiness that was happening in the larger world, pretending there was nothing going wrong anywhere. But it really wasn’t her nature to live in denial.
It felt much better dispensing with that particular coping mechanism, at least for whatever it was that would bring the sheriff of Lusty to her door.
“Perhaps not. But in an abundance of caution, I think it might be a good time to review your…um…. personal safety protocols.”
“My panic button and my can of pepper spray are in the bedroom, tucked away in a drawer. Do you want me to start carrying them with me again?”
Adam actually shivered. “Good Lord, no. It chills me to know that all the time you were in New York City you actually carried those around with you.”
“Except of course within the sanctity of my own home—and look how well that turned out for me.”
“Now you’re just trying to give me nightmares.” Adam was good at distraction, Mary decided, when he shivered again, purely for affect.
Because just then the front door opened and her guys arrived, looking a tad hurried and worried but trying not to, and a whole hour and a half earlier than expected.
Mary had set two more clean glasses on the counter and was able to reach over for them and the bowl of ice.
“Get yourself some sweet tea, guys. It’s good for calming fraying nerves.”
Toby looked over at Anthony, who just shook his head. “You’ve got a smart mouth, woman. I have to admit I kind of like that about you.”
“Even when it’s not well aimed for your purposes?”
“Even when.”
“Since I’m the only person who appears to be out of the loop, it would be nice if someone would tell me what’s going on.” Mary was losing her patience, but she did realize the arrival of Anthony and Toby was what Adam had been stalling for.
Adam looked at Toby then settled his gaze on Anthony.
Mary swore she could almost see the lines of mental communication—a few grunts punctuated by a crotch scratch—pass between the two men.
Then Anthony turned to her. “Apparently, just after we got together, the three of us, Thomas Northcliffe managed to swap places with another inmate who was due to be released. The two men did share a passing resemblance. No one apparently checked fingerprints, or any other fucking thing else, because he was successful. And he’s been walking around on his own—location unknown—ever since.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Did you think I was going to swoon? Have some sort of what they used to refer to as a fit of ‘female hysteria’? Or maybe go sit in the corner and shiver in fear?”
Mary gave her guys full credit. They didn’t flinch, and they didn’t waver. Because she had begun to expect it in moments when they thought their asses were more or less hanging out there, it didn’t surprise her when Anthony was the one to answer her.
“No. We did, actually, expect you to demand somebody’s head on a pike—somebody at that so-called facility where they’d fucked things up and let that psychopath go free.”
“What good would that do?” Mary sighed. She really hated it when her inner bitch emerged. “Sorry about my pissy attitude just now. I am furious, but it’s not on you guys. Now, having Adam babysit me until you got home…that could be another matter.”
Anthony lifted up his hands. “He just told us he was going to find out where you were and make sure you were safe. We were incredibly grateful for that, because we were scared shitless that asshole Thorncliffe might somehow be here, and we were too damn far away to do that little thing
