“Hey, I just overheard you on the phone. Is everything okay?” Cassidy asks from the door of my office, concern all over her face.

I grab my gun and badge off my desk and shrug on my jacket, heading out of the room not stopping to chitchat. My mind’s now heading down a one-way street to Lindsey.

“Boss, hey. Stop. What’s wrong?”

I look over to Charlotte who’s sitting at her Uncle Roam’s desk, messing his shit up and drawing on some paper. I keep my voice low. I don’t want to catch her attention. “Lindsey thinks she was followed after she left here. She’s home and locked up, but I’m wary because I had the same feeling all day, like we were being watched.” I shake my head, trying to make sense of everything. I kept my eyes peeled. I never saw anything or anyone out of place, but fuck if it didn’t feel like someone was keeping tabs on our every move. I thought it was just me, but now Lindsey’s said the same thing, my concern just shot through the fucking roof.

“Look I’m gonna go get Lindsey. Can Charlotte stay here with you until I get back? We’ll swing back past here on the way home and pick her up. I just can’t risk taking her to Lindsey’s.”

“Yeah, of course, you don’t even have to ask but what about Alison? Who’s with her? Should we be checking in with the uniforms on duty at the clinic?” Cassidy asks as she grabs her phone, already moving her fingers on the screen a hundred miles a minute.

“Yeah, do it now. Find Elias and ask him to head over and check it out. I wanna know everyone who’s been in and out of that place in the last twenty-four hours. He so much as finds one thing out of place, have him lock it down.”

Cassidy nods. “On it, boss.”

“Baby girl,” I say, leaning on Roamyn’s desk. “I need to collect Lindsey from her place so I’m going to have you stay here with Cassidy until I get back, okay? I won’t be long, promise.”

I try to sound calm, steadying my breathing and my voice.

Charlotte’s eyes light up at the mention of my woman. Because, without hesitation, that’s exactly what she is, has always been. “Really? Is she going to stay for a sleepover?”

“Yeah, she is. All right, I’ll be back as soon as I can, baby girl.” I cup her head between my hands and lean forward to kiss her on the forehead.

Charlotte happily chats away with Cassidy after waving goodbye to me, and within ten minutes, I’ve got the squad car parked outside Lindsey’s building and I’m standing on her doorstep.

Lindsey

“I’m tired.” Charlotte mumbles at the same time as yawning and rubbing her eyes. Mason took me back to his place for the night and while he and I have been on edge, trying not to say too much in front of Charlotte, she’s been absorbed with the show she’s watching on the television.

“I’m going to go to bed, Dad.” Charlotte stands up but stops in her tracks, turning back to Mason and me, where we are sitting in the two chairs by the fireplace.

“Lindsey, will you tuck me in, please?”

I look between Charlotte and her father, her question catching me by surprise. Love smothers every inch of me and my lips curve up into a smile.

“Sure, honey. Why don’t you say goodnight to your dad first?”

She clicks off the TV with the remote before setting it back down on the couch and trotting over to Mason, who sits opposite me. “Night, Dad.”

Mason tugs her toward him, squeezing her tight with his head in the crook of her neck. He pulls back and drops his head to look her straight in the eyes. “How much do I love you?”

She replies without a sound of doubt in her voice. “There is no end to your love, Daddy.”

Happiness dances in my heart. These two are invading my world with a feeling I never want to let go of.

Wrapping an arm around Charlotte’s shoulder, we walk to her bedroom. She grabs my waist and leans into me. The movement lights a feeling inside of me that I haven’t felt before and I wonder if she enjoys my company as much as I love hers.

“Okay, bedtime,” I say, turning on the light. I pull back the covers and Charlotte jumps in, whipping them up around her neck.

“Goodnight, Char,” I whisper, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead, using the nickname I’d given her today at the park. Arms come around me and wet lips hit my cheek in a quick kiss.

“Goodnight. Love you.”

She rolls over closing her eyes to go to sleep after telling me she loves me as casually as she announced she was tired. I’m glued to my position, unmoving as her words take hold of my heart.

My throat closes up and I have to cough to push through the lump. I stand and walk to the door. Stopping to turn the light off, I look over at Charlotte’s sleeping form one more time and let the foreign words fall from my lips. “I love you, too.”

And I do. There is not one part of her anyone could not adore. I will cherish her, learn from her, and show her compassion. I’d give all the things I ever wanted from my own mother and shower her in love. I could never replace her mom and I never wanted to. But it appeared I need not worry anyway, for now I had my own special place in this little girl’s beautiful soul.

I head back out to the living room and I feel him before I see him. His hands are on my hips and I turn in his embrace. Face to face, he’s so hard to resist. Charlotte’s barely been asleep two minutes and I already want to kiss him and never come up for air. Pushing us backwards in his arms, he guides us past the living room and into the kitchen. My ass finds itself sitting on the counter.

Mason heads over to a cupboard. Two wine glasses clink together as he pulls them out one handed. Opening the fridge door, he searches for something and I assume he’s looking for the wine bottle I saw on the bottom shelf.

I open my mouth to tell him where it is when the sound of my ringtone blasts from beside me.

I quickly pick it up and answer, hoping the noise hasn’t woken Charlotte. I should have checked the caller ID first.

“Hello?”

A chill runs the length of my spine and my whole body stiffens. I suck in a breath while my heart pumps rapidly in my chest. I grip the phone tightly to my ear while listening to the man speaking on the other end of the line. I recognize his voice, and when he mentions his name, I remember. It’s a mass of jumbled words in my head, District Attorney’s office. Jeremy Stiles. Attica Correctional Facility. Need to talk. No, I don’t want to talk. I quickly hang up and stare at my cell in my hands as my chest heaves in pain from the breath I was holding. The phone shakes, my hands unsteady. I stare at it, ignoring the world. I can hear nothing, see no one. My mind warps as I rack my brain to come up with one good reason why they’d make contact after nearly a decade of radio silence after Jeremy’s sentencing.

“So I’m thinking with how often you’re staying here, I’m going to need to do some more shopping. We’re running out of food.”

Mason’s light voice pulls me back to reality and I cough, hiding all emotions along with it. We had enough shit going on without the concern of a phone call about a ghost. I can’t let that asshole have any effect on me now.

I smile and jump off the counter to wrap my arms around Mason, hugging him from behind. I inhale the scent I’ve come to long for at the end of each day.

“Well, we’ll go shopping tomorrow then.” I smile, hoping I’ve successfully masked my emotions enough to put off any questioning from him.

“Can’t, sweetheart. Not after today. I didn’t want to mention this before in case Charlotte read too much into it, but I felt it too. All day it felt like we were being watched. So I’m going to have to go into the precinct in the morning. Gonna call Roam in a minute and fill him in. Cassidy and Elias know what’s happening so we’re gonna go over any footage of the park we can get a hold of, find what other footage is around and get the fucker who was following us. I just don’t know what to do with Charlotte though. Cora’s out of town this weekend so she can’t babysit.”