“So Damon knows everything about John?” Quinn asked pointedly.
Evie shook her head. “Not everything.” She not-so-absently rubbed the scar on her arm. “That’s on a need-to-know business and he doesn’t need to know. I’m just hoping that with that one prank, John got his digs in and he’s done with me.”
“I hope so.”
But they both knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t in her ex’s nature to give up.
“So, how’s that adorable baby?” Evie changed the subject to Quinn’s favorite topic.
“Jenny is so cute! She knows my voice and turns toward me when she hears me. And she smiles at us. Close to a laugh.”
Her eyes lit up as she described the baby that had been left on Austin’s doorstep and turned out to be his. He’d asked Quinn, who’d been his assistant at the time, to move in and help, and they’d fallen in love. Which effectively made her Jenny’s mother since the baby’s biological mom had signed away her parental rights.
“And I want to go shopping this weekend for furniture. She can’t stay in a Pack ’n Play forever and we need to make her room into a nursery.”
“Sounds great. I’m thrilled for you. You know that, right?” If anyone deserved happiness, it was Quinn. She always did things for others. As a child, she’d helped her parents raise her siblings, and she was the perfect executive assistant. She hadn’t planned on a family of her own, but now that she had one, she literally glowed with happiness.
Evie expected Austin to propose any day now and she knew Quinn would say yes. Because happily ever after was in the cards for some people. Just not for Evie. Damon was a job and she intended to handle it and him well.
* * *
Evie drove home, more aware of her surroundings than she’d ever been before, hyper-focused and more alert than since she’d moved and tried to put John behind her. She left her car and locked it, heading inside. She kept a hand on her hip, where she could easily reach her gun, and walked into the lobby, taking the elevator to her floor.
Soon she was back in her apartment, where she locked up tight and closed her shades. One more incident and she planned to ask the landlord’s permission to install an alarm. She didn’t want to overreact in case John had just been looking for one last-ditch opportunity to frighten her with the flowers and the snake. If he was on a mission of terror, she needed every means of keeping him out.
Pushing those thoughts out of her head she ate some quick leftovers. Then she took a shower, wrapped her hair into a bun, and slid on her favorite soft-as-butter tank top and panties.
Instead of obsessing, she took out her headphones and pulled up an app her yoga instructor had recommended for sleep and stress, headphones being an important part of the meditation and sounds.
Then she lay down, turned on the soothing voice, and followed the instructions, getting lost in her breathing and the calming exercises. As usual, when it ended, she pulled off the headphones and rolled over, immediately falling into a deep sleep.
She woke when she heard what she thought was the building’s fire alarm going off. The sun was just beginning to peek through the sides of the window.
Since it wasn’t a normal occurrence, she rushed out of bed, pulled on a pair of jeans, slipped her flip-flops on, grabbed her phone, her keys, tucked her gun into the back of her pants, and left her apartment. Once in the hall, her neighbors exited en masse as well. They walked the four flights down the stairs and crossed the parking lot to stand outside just as fire trucks and police sirens alerted them to their arrival.
* * *
Damon woke up at seven a.m. He’d left his phone in the kitchen last night, crashing early thanks to his head, and when he walked in to make a smoothie, he picked up the cell and pressed the side button. A stream of messages from Austin poured in, each one more annoyed than the last. The gist of it was to call his brother back, and Damon’s gut churned because it obviously wasn’t good news.
He tapped his brother’s name on the screen and waited for him to answer, which he did on the first ring.
“Hey, bro. What’s up?” Damon asked.
“Where the fuck have you been? I called you all night.”
Damon winced at the frustration in Austin’s voice. “I shut my phone off. Sorry.” He drew a deep breath. “I lost the appeal, didn’t I?”
“I’m sorry, Damon.”
His stomach tumbled at the news.
“We knew it was a long shot,” Austin was saying. “Without being able to argue the validity of the testing, we never really had a chance. They don’t call it a zero-tolerance policy for no reason.”