Her stomach rolled on its emptiness, creating a slight grumbling sound. She was hungry. “And if we eat it all up?”
“I guess he’ll be out of luck, but I don’t think he’s in any trouble about that happening.” Cam peered into the basket. “Aunt Alice sent about twenty pieces of chicken and at least a half gallon of potatoes and gravy. He might lose out on the corn, though. There are only three ears. If he hurries, he might get one. If not? Oh well.”
“Cameron, let’s leave him one. If you don’t, I’ll tell your aunt you ate his,” she teased.
He reached over and touched her cheek. “Okay, sweetheart. Whatever you say. Tonight is all about you.”
Heat rolled through her and she smiled. “Thank you for this.”
“Enough talk. Let’s eat.”
“Amen,” she said, before taking her first bite of the most perfect fried chicken on the planet.
After devouring a leg and a breast, two helpings of mashed potatoes and gravy, an ear of corn, and another glass of wine, Erica stretched out on the blanket and looked up into the sky. The full moon washed out many of the stars so only the brightest and closest could be seen. Dylan had still not arrived. She wondered why. What had Jason discovered about Niklaus from Alexei, the Russian who was from Bliss?
She thought about asking Cam to call Dylan but decided against it. Cam kept checking the time on his cell. He clearly was wondering what was taking his brother so long, too.
Cam finished gathering up their dishes and putting them back in the basket. He left the food out and a clean plate, knife, and fork for Dylan. “That was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.”
He got on the blanket beside her, his arm and leg touching hers.
“Me, too. Alice sure knows how to cook, doesn’t she? I bet if she ever put Chinese food on Blue’s menu, she’d even run Hiro Phong out of business.”
“Don’t say that around town,” Cam cautioned. “You know what happened when the diner started making burgers after Lucy’s opened. That nearly started a civil war around here.”
She laughed. “It was nearly as bad as the fight about what the park should be named.”
“Damn. I forgot that you’re in the Citizens of Tradition camp. Just being here with you I’m breaking ranks with my Destiny’s Citizens League.”
“Oh my.” She sat up and put both her hands to her mouth in mock surprise. “So far, my peeps have kept the park’s name the same. Central Park. It shall be that until the end of time,” she said in the most serious condescending tone she could muster.
“We’ll see about that,” Cam said with a laugh. “You know I am a damn good attorney. I get paid to argue with people.”
As Cam stretched out next to her on the blanket, she realized she felt better tonight then she had in two months. Now if only Dylan would show up, things would be perfect.
Chapter Nine
With his hands gripping the steering wheel like two vises, Dylan sat in his car in front of the sheriff’s office.
Cam and Erica were out on Lover’s Beach right now. The date. A proper date. That was what his brother had called it. He’d agreed to go, to take another step in a direction he knew couldn’t be. Why? Because he loved his brother and he loved Erica. When he’d said it at the diner to Cam, he’d meant it, too. Now, he was late. He was supposed to meet them at seven after a conference call in Jason’s office.
That call had ended at five after seven, and he’d been in the car ever since, frozen in place. The key was in the ignition, but he’d been unable to turn it to start the engine. Instead, he just sat there like a moron, torn in two directions, but doing neither.
One direction—the direction that fit into his plan for Cam and Erica’s happily ever after—was to leave town instead of heading to the beach where she was. That was the right thing to do. Leave. Don’t look back. The exit plan had been in place ever since the first day he’d come home. Call it old habits or whatever, but having several contingencies at the ready was something he felt comfortable with. It had served him well many times in some pretty close calls.
Erica was the closest of all his previous calls. He’d almost lost her to those fucking assholes in the warehouse. Almost lost her for good.
But had he gone too far, felt too much?
He took a deep breath, reining in his swirling mind. “The case. That’s what I need to focus on.”
Alexei had learned, though it still couldn’t be proven, that Niklaus Mitrofanov had recently received a huge influx of money from an investment back in Russia. Those funds had to be from the Knights’ purchase of the shill company demanded for Erica’s return. Ten million US dollars. The other forty was back in TBK’s accounts, since the foreign companies they’d bought into had turned out to be legit. It might be a drop in the bucket when it came to Scott and Eric Knight’s fortune, but it was money lost during Dylan’s watch. He vowed to get it back, whatever it took. Going after the motherfucker was something he was chomping at the bit to do. Niklaus had set up Erica’s kidnapping. Though the mobster had covered his tracks quite well, Dylan had no doubt about who his next target would be. He didn’t need the Agency’s sanction this time.
Thankfully, the heat was clearly off Erica, now that Niklaus had the money from her abduction. His beef wasn’t with her but with Jason and the Stone brothers, though the whole town was likely a target for the murderous bastard. His eldest and favorite son had been killed in Destiny. Him talking to Kip Lunceford likely was only a fishing expedition to get intel on what weaknesses were in Jason’s armor.
Keeping his emotions in check had never been difficult for him until now, until her. For years, he’d been drawn to her like a wolf to a lamb, but he’d resisted. Deep down he’d always known that opening up that Pandora’s box would end in disaster.
A tap on the glass of his driver’s side window got his attention. He turned and saw Ethel O’Leary and Gretchen Hollingsworth standing just outside his car.