I have to bite my cheek to keep from crying, and my throat aches, but as soon as I get in the shop, I lock the door behind me. Just as expected, Murph is sitting in his office, shutting down his laptop and filing away today’s receipts.

“Ready?” he asks as he looks up at me.

“Yeah,” I breathe.

He pauses for a moment as he stares at me, and I wonder if my face is still red from the tears I held back. I force a smile on my face, but I can tell he’s not buying it.

I can brush it off as last night jitters. Things are about to change no matter what, and we made a deal. Once the will is read, we return to our normal lives.

As we pull out on his bike, I notice Hugo’s car still sitting there, parked in front of the shop. Murph pauses when he sees it, and I lean forward to see his expression. He has a tight-brow scowl on his face, but I just brush his arms with my hands and whisper, “Let’s go home.”

After a moment, he listens and turns in the opposite direction.

I just need to keep it together for one more night.

That fucking car again. Is he following me? Following Savannah?

The house is quiet when we get back. It’s well past midnight, and Savannah is pulling me to bed directly from the garage. I have a very bad feeling in my gut and seeing that car didn’t help it. But just as I start to ask her about it...she’s unbuckling my belt.

It’s our last night.

The last night before everything changes. Like she said, I’ll move back into my house. She’ll start her new life, look for a new job, maybe even leave Wickett.

But I want her to stay. I want her to stay so bad, but something stops me from speaking up.

It’s suspicion, and I hate myself for thinking it. This whole time I’ve been saying I couldn’t trust her, but now that I want to...it seems even harder to do.

She slips off her panties in the dark and curls up to my body. I kiss a trail down her neck to her breasts and try to hush all of the thoughts screaming in my head. When I push inside her, I hold her tight, hoping in some way it will tell her how much I want her to stay.

Stay on Wickett. Stay at the house. Hell, stay at my house. I don’t care. Tomorrow could reveal a lot, and I admit I don’t expect much out of the meeting. I expect to inherit ownership of Wicked Ink, maybe a few stocks, but that’s it. It’s all I need to carry on with my life as normal.