“I’m painting music. Well, what I see when I hear music.”

“Girl! Good for you!”

“Really?” Brick’s mouth was still pursed in a frown, but his eyebrows showed his interest.

“I started to dabble with it in art school. Apparently there’s a market for what weird brains see.”

“What’s the coolest place a Remi Ford original hangs?” Darius demanded, leaning in to snatch a French fry off her plate.

“There’s one in the mayor’s house.”

“Chicago or Mackinac? Because one of those is much more impressive than the other,” he pointed out.

She grinned. “Chicago. The mayor saw it at a gallery and liked it.” Actually, the woman had “fallen in love with it,” according to the gallery curator. But repeating that just felt like bragging.

“I always knew little Remi Ford would be going places,” Darius said as he poured a pint of lager from the tap.

Brick disappeared without a word.

Without his disapproval hovering over her, she snuck a bite of burger. It was so good she ate an entire slider in four neat bites.

She did feel pleasantly woozy. Enough so that she’d forgotten about the envelope and the man who’d sent it. Crap. Now she was remembering it.

“What?” Brick demanded from across the bar.

She jumped, slapping a hand to her heart to make sure it restarted properly.

“Jeez. Warn a girl!”

“Why are you so jumpy? And what’s wrong with your face?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my face, ass!”

She could feel the breeze from his exhale across the bar.

“I meant, you made a face like you were upset,” he clarified. “Do you want something else to eat?”

She propped her elbows on the bar and put her face in her hands. “No. The sliders are great. And the broccoli is necessary. Thank you.”

“It concerns me when you’re agreeable.”

She dropped her hands. “Brick, I just need to escape for a little bit tonight. Okay? No questions. No worrying about consequences. I need out of my head.”

He gave her a long, charged look. “Fine. But you’ll eat. You’ll drink an entire glass of water between every drink. And you’ll let me walk you home.”

“And you won’t try to pry anything out of me?”

“I won’t try.”

“Promise?” she pressed.

“As long as you let me walk you home,” he agreed.

14

Remi Ford was shit-faced. She was one of those charming, adorable drunks who just got happier and more excited to talk to people until she fell asleep.

By Brick’s guesstimate, she was about ten minutes from falling facedown on the bar and snoring.

She didn’t notice when he took the half-empty glass out of her hand as she questioned the Ashburn twins about island gossip.

“I’m going to walk our little problem home,” he told Darius, nodding in Remi’s direction. She was so close to Walter Ashburn’s face, it looked like she was trying to breathe the same air.

“Sure you don’t mind?” his partner asked.

Brick shook his head. “She’s less of a pain in the ass when she’s drunk.”