Chapter 83: Jake
How much time in jail for killing two employees?
I’m genuinely asking. Because right now, I might be willing to find out.
I like Finn and Liam—hell, I really do. They’re good guys. Solid in the field, loyal, smart when they bother to focus. They’re the kind of people you want on your team. But today? Today they’re a goddamn problem.
Because they want something I want too.
And I can’t even blame them for it.
She’s beautiful. Smart. Funny without trying to be. She landed in this town full of fishermen and workers and very few women, and she still manages to light up every damn room she walks into. Of course they want her.
We all do.
But what does that even mean, wanting her?
Do those idiots want her as a girlfriend, or just in their beds until the next pretty face walks by? And what about me? What the hell do I want?
All I know is that from the second I saw her at that traffic light—hair shining under the moon and red light, her big green eyes surprised to see me there—I haven’t stopped thinking about her. She’s been in my head since that night. I didn’t even know her name then, and somehow she still managed to get under my skin.
And I don’t know if I can live the rest of my life without her in it somehow.
Which is ridiculous. I don’t even know everything about her. I don’t know what she’s running from, what makes her panic when someone mentions the city, or why Reid looks like he’s one bad day away from losing it around her.
But I know I want her safe. And close.
I try to focus on my laptop, but every time I glance up, she’s there—laughing with Charlie and moving her hands all over the place when she speaks. Finn and Liam are laughing about something she said earlier, voices low, but I hear enough to make my blood boil.
Reid hears it too—I can tell by the way his hand curls into a fist under the table.
They don’t mean harm, not really. They’re just boys talking. But they don’t get it. They don’t understand that she isn’t some harmless crush or pretty distraction. She’s—
God, I don’t even have a word for it.
She’s the calm and the chaos all at once.
And I’m supposed to be the reasonable one, the older one, the one who takes the high road. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep pretending I don’t see the way they look at her.
Or the way I do.
Madeline comes back to the table a few minutes later, her cheeks a little flushed from laughing with Charlie. She drops back into her seat, brushes a strand of hair out of her face, and opens her laptop like nothing happened.
I’m watching her, still trying to reel my thoughts back from where they were five minutes ago. The things Finn and Liam said are still echoing in my head, and I can’t shake them off. Reid’s pretending to type, but I can see the muscle in his jaw ticking.
“Everything okay?” I ask her.
She looks up, surprised, like she hadn’t realized either of us were watching her. “Yeah. Why?”
I nod toward the door. “What did Charlie want?”
“Yeah,” Reid says, voice calm but with that sharp undertone that always makes people confess shit. “What did she want?”
Madeline groans and puts her hands up, shaking her head. “No, no, no—don’t ask me that.”
I arch a brow. “Why not?”
“Because—” she starts, gesturing wildly. “Because I’m terrible at keeping secrets, and this one’s actually supposed to stay a secret, and if you ask again, I’ll crack. Like instantly. It’ll be humiliating for everyone involved.”
Reid chuckles, low and quiet. I can already tell he’s enjoying this. “Then just tell us, your torture will be over.”
“I can’t!” she blurts. “I mean, technically, I could, because you’re my bosses and probably legally I’d have to if you asked me directly—but I’m begging you not to. Please. I really don’t want to screw this up. I’ll literally combust.”
That earns a laugh out of Reid, a real one. “Combust?”
“Yes! Like spontaneous combustion. Poof. Gone. Dead. Fired. All in that order,” she says, snapping her fingers. “So please, torture those two instead.”
She points behind her to Finn and Liam’s table, where the idiots are whispering and laughing over their empty coffee cups.
“Gladly,” I mutter, which makes Reid smirk faintly.
Madeline sighs dramatically and collapses into her chair again, pretending to focus on her screen. “You two are the scariest people alive, you know that? HR would have a field day with this conversation.”
Reid chuckles again, his mouth twitching into something that might almost be another smile. “Good thing HR doesn’t really exist here.”
She groans. “Oh my God, of course it doesn’t.”
And just like that, the tension that’s been hanging over the table all week breaks for a moment—three quiet laughs cutting through the sound of rain and espresso machines.
After another hour or so, the three of us are the only ones left still working. Reid shuts his laptop with a quiet snap. “That’s enough for today.”
Madeline blinks up from her screen like she’s coming out of a trance. “Oh. Yeah, okay.”
“Go home,” I tell her. “We’ll see you tonight.”
She blinks a few times, confusion flickering across her face. “Tonight?”
I lean back in my chair. “We’re having a team dinner?”
Her eyes widen slightly, then she lets out a small laugh. “Ohhh, right. That’s tonight.”
I chuckle. “Go home, we'll see you there later.”
“Alright,” she says, gathering her stuff.
She slips her laptop into her bag, tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, and gives us a small wave before heading for the door. Reid watches her go, quiet. I do too.
For a long moment, we just sit there in the quiet hum of the café—her empty chair in front of us, the ghost of her perfume still faint in the air.
Then he finally exhales, slow, his jaw tight. I drag a hand across my face, lean forward, and let out my own breath.
We don’t say a word. We just look at each other.
Because we both know—this whole thing’s turning into a fucking mess.