Detective Fortier studied me carefully. “If there’s something you know or something you’re afraid of, it’s in your best interest to tell us right now, Ms. Noble.”
My father frowned. “Valentina, what’s going on?”
I opened my mouth to lie to all of them, but both Rhett and his partner’s phones started ringing. Sirens filled the air outside, and my father’s phone started ringing as well. And so did the crime scene techs’.
What in the world?
The people on their phones looked at each other, and everyone froze for a moment before asking rapid-fire questions to whoever was on the other end.
From what I could hear, there was a bomb threat called in on all government buildings in the parish. Police stations, city hall, courthouses, and the like.
Suddenly my little broken window was no longer important.
My father turned to me first. “I’ve already got someone on his way to board up the window, and then I want you to get home. It isn’t safe to be out and about right now. I’m going to get your mother. She’ll want you to come to the house, but you decide what you want to do.”
“I’m fine, Dad. Go do what you need to do. I’m sure whoever you sent will be here in a minute. This is no big deal compared to whatever else is going on out there.”
“Okay, baby. Call me if he isn’t here in five minutes.”
I hugged my dad. “Fifteen minutes. It’s going to be a madhouse of traffic out there.”
Sirens wailed from streets all over the Quarter.
My dad nodded and turned to go. “Call me when you get home too.”
“I will.”
The crime scene techs reached for their gear bags and packed up the evidence. Before it was gone, I snapped a picture of the piece of paper that had been wrapped around the brick. You’d better believe Rix was going to be explaining what the hell was going on.
Rhett and Fortier were wrapping up their calls, and I watched them out of the corner of my eye as I reached for my phone to text Rix.
But there was already a text from him.
RIX: I just heard about your window. Sending someone to fix it. Don’t leave until I come for you.
How had he heard?
VALENTINA: Waiting for the repair guy now. My dad sent someone too.
His response was instant.
RIX: Be there in 10. Get your company moving out.
So he knew the cops were here too? How did he know that? Seriously, the things Rix knew were creepy. Had he called in the bomb threat to get the cops out of the gallery?
And you’ve officially picked him over the cops.
I’d made my decision. That much was clear. I had a side, and that side wasn’t the right side of the law.
Rix came in the front door, glass crunching under his feet from the pieces I’d missed with my broom. He didn’t stop to look at the window. He didn’t look at anything but me.
“You okay, duchess?” His hand cupped my face as he stared down at me, his silver eyes soft but his jaw muscle clenched.
I nodded. “Just shaken up, I guess. That was a first for me.”
“My guys are just behind me. We’ll get the window boarded up, and get you out of here.”
“Is that going to be secure enough? Or do I need to move the artwork?”
Rix’s thumb skimmed along my jaw. “No one will touch this place. I’ll have people on it 24/7. No one targets you.”
He dropped his hand and I reached for my phone, the picture of the note on the screen. “What the hell is going on?”
Rix’s gaze dropped to the screen, but before I got an answer as to why her picture was with the brick, two young black men walked up carrying large pieces of plywood.
“Later. I gotta go. Shit’s unfolding and I need to be on top of it. I’ll meet you back at your place in a few hours.”
He turned, and I reached out a hand to grab his arm. “That’s it? You’re not going to tell me anything?”
Rix met my concerned gaze. “There ain’t nothin’ you can do right now to help your girl. I’m the one who’s got a lock on that. Get home. Set your alarm. When I’ve got news, you’ll hear it from me in person.”
I cocked a hip, not altogether sold on Rix’s non-informative decree. “And what if I’m not okay with that?”
One move. That’s all it took for Rix to reach out and yank me against him. “Thought we were on the same page, duchess.”
I pressed both hands to his chest. “I’m starting to wonder if we’re in the same story.”
His silver gaze was determined. Unyielding. Possessive. “There’s only one story. The one where you’re mine, and you chose me. You didn’t say jack shit to the cops, and you cemented that choice. I’m gonna protect you and your girl, but I’ll do it my way.”
In my peripheral vision, I could see the men working on the window. Rix must not care about our audience because he didn’t release me.
“We clear now, duchess?”
I wasn’t used to this level of caveman behavior in any man of my acquaintance, but Rix had been different from the beginning. He didn’t ask permission. I wasn’t even clear on whether he asked forgiveness. He wrote his own rules, and instead of being completely put off by that, I was drawn to it like metal to a magnet. Something in me responded to his constant display of confidence.
How a man could be that sure of everything all the time, I didn’t know. But not having to have all the answers and be expected to make all the decisions . . . it freed a part of me. Yet that didn’t mean I didn’t want to have some say, and it surely didn’t change the fact that I wanted to be kept informed.