Chapter 4: The Signature

I went out to the porch with my coffee.

I didn't hurry.

Lorcan got out of the truck and stretched.

He was in a good flannel, freshly shaved.

He'd dressed for this.

Meriel came around the hood in a cream sweater, hugging herself against the river wind.

[Wait till she's watching.]

I was watching. I was also drinking my coffee.

He caught Meriel by the waist and kissed her.

Not a peck. A long, slow kiss with his hand in her hair, turned so I'd get the angle.

[Now. Now she breaks.]

I took another sip.

The coffee was terrible. Gwenna had made it.

Lorcan pulled back from Meriel and looked over at me. His face was arranged into something apologetic.

[Why isn't she moving?]

"Mirren," he said. "I didn't see you there."

"You parked facing my door."

Meriel giggled into his shoulder.

[Come down the steps. Grab her arm. Do something.]

I set my mug on the rail and picked up the pry bar I'd left there.

The old shingles over the porch roof were rotten through.

I'd started on them at first light.

I went back to it now, working the bar under a row and levering it loose.

The shingles came off in a satisfying crumble.

Lorcan came up the path.

[This isn't how it goes.]

"What are you doing?"

"Roofing."

"You can't live out here."

"I lived in a tent on the Line for seven years. This has a stove."

He looked at the inn and the stable.

Then he looked at Gwenna, who'd come out onto the porch in her socks with a piece of toast and was openly enjoying herself.

"Morning, Alpha," Gwenna said. "Nice kiss. Real nice. Very natural."

His ears went red.

[Who the hell is that?]

I pried off another shingle and tossed it in the pile.

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