Page 44 of Wrecked By You

Kayla scrunched up her nose. “Yes. If you don’t have the password, you can’t take part in the conversation.”

He thought for a minute and then grinned. “Skittles.”

Kayla laughed and gave him a high five. “You remembered.”

McCrae and Kayla were good friends, maybe closer than the rest of us. But we were all close, so there was really no jealousy.

Canyon snapped his fingers. “That was from that movie the other night.”

Both McCrae and Kayla laughed. Suddenly, I felt a little bit on the outs, because I didn’t know what movie they were talking about.

Isla took my hand. I gazed down into her eyes and knew that I only wanted more inside jokes with this woman. It just felt right.

McCrae’s police radio went off. He turned away from us, then circled back to me. “Can I speak with you?”

I gave Isla’s hand a squeeze. “Excuse me. I’m going to talk to McCrae for a minute.”

McCrae walked with me around the corner and then said, “There’s been talk of break-ins. There were two break-ins over by the school, in those older homes that have renters in them right now. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal until I heard about one of them leaving a dead chicken on the porch.”

Adrenaline spiked through me. “What?”

McCrae looked somber. “I heard that this morning and thought I should probably let you know. I mean, if we hadn’t heard about Kyle and how he’d left a dead puppy on her porch, I probably wouldn’t think much about it, but I don’t know.”

Every part of me went on alert. “Thank you. I guess just continue doing your good police work. Keep an eye out.”

McCrae put a hand on my shoulder. “Do we let the rest of the police force know about this threat?”

I knew that Isla would not like that. “She already has so much to face with the parole hearing this week. I don’t want to make it worse. But I do want to talk to Noah about getting some security up at her place. I’ll do that now.” I moved back toward the crowd and tapped Noah on the shoulder. “Can we talk?”

Noah took a step back and gave me a look of concern. “Always.”

I tapped Canyon and Dylan on the shoulders too, as well as my dad. “This way, gentlemen, for just a minute.”

My mom gave me the kind of look that told me she knew something was going on. “Damon?”

“Mom, will you go stand by Isla and the kids?”

Kayla suddenly appeared at my side, looking vexed. “Just because I was a cancer kid doesn’t mean you need to shield me from things.”

I rolled my eyes, feeling exhausted by my sister’s argument that we tried to leave her out because she was a cancer kid. “Fine. Follow me.”

We went to the other side of her home, and I explained the situation. McCrae joined us, adding what he needed to let everyone know about the threats to the town.

Kayla looked worried. “What kind of jerk would be killing chickens?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Canyon cocked an eyebrow. “You need to bring Isla into this conversation.”

“You do.” My father nodded, and so did everyone else.

I winced, and angst stirred inside of me. Then I decided they were right. If we were going to build trust between us—something that she had been missing in her old relationship—I couldn’t be running operations behind her back. “Let me go grab her.”

I moved over to Mom and Isla on the sidewalk and put an arm around each of them. I whispered, “Mom, can I steal Isla for just a second?”

My mother nodded and turned back to the kids. She was a fierce defender of children, and she would definitely agree with me later that the children needed to stay out of this.

Isla looked worried and followed me. When she saw the group waiting for her, she asked, “Is everything okay?”