I drove us in near silence away from the police station, as the sun set that evening.

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time," I finally said, flipping down the visor because the sun was in my eyes.

"You're not going to hold that against me."

"They took my lock-picking kit." I had spent hours crafting those picks. I couldn't believe I'd let Rob know about it in the first place: it was the most random, slightly embarrassing hobby to have picked up. I couldn't believe Rob had been impressed.

"They didn't charge us with anything."

"Not being charged with a crime is not how I want to come to define a good day."

"Sorry," he said.

I didn't want Rob to apologize. I felt bad for badgering him, if that was how he took it. I wanted to make him feel better. To make small talk. To be playful even though all I felt was exhausted.

"It's all right." I pulled over into the minuscule parking lot of a city 7-11. I’d been too eager to get away from the police, and we hadn’t talked about where we were going besides not jail. "Where do you want to go now? Hospital?"

"No," he said shortly. "No good going there, he's not awake. We can head back to the house for now."

"And then what?"

"Then I'm going to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this. Make sure you and my family are safe."

"And in the meantime..." I trailed off.

"In the meantime, you can take a vacation."

"There's no such thing as a vacation for me. Especially not with your grandmother in the house."

"I told her, she can make her own tea."

"You said that to her?" I glanced over at him from the road.

"I did. We Delaneys are blunt with each other, at least."

"Rob. She must know..." I hesitated. I couldn't put it on him, not right now, that his grandmother might be interfering with my business. The whole thing seemed too preposterous to say out loud. Why would Rob’s grandmother see me as a threat to his eventual marriage to an appropriately WASP-y, Ivy-educated type?

Rob shrugged. "I told her, I'm worried Naomi is in danger because she's been seen with me. Which is true. That's the only reason that man might have accosted you in the hospital. Otherwise, no one would know..."

Rob's voice was cool, but his hands flexed, as if he were fighting the impulse to make a fist.

I couldn't resist. "No one would know what?"

The look he gave me was pointed. "Naomi."

I shrugged, turning back to the windshield. Fat plops of rain began to ping against the glass, and I hit the wipers. "What are you going to do next?”

"Are you trying to drive home that I don't have much of a plan?"

"I'm trying to figure out where we're going, actually. As your chauffeur."

He sighed. "Once my brothers fly in, you don't have to worry about that. As soon as we make sure you're safe, everything can go back to normal for you."

"Oh."

"I thought you'd be happy about the idea."

"I am." I'd gotten a text from Alice that they'd lost yet another client while we were at Mitch's condo. I had to find out ASAP if Rob's grandmother really was behind this, and if so I had to put a stop to it. But would that mean confronting her or quietly exiting Rob's life? Either way, the thought made me ache. "If it actually goes back to normal."

"What does that mean?"

I waved the question off.

He sighed again. So I was surprised when he said, "It's late. We haven't eaten. We should stop."

"I thought you only relaxed in Castle Delaney."

"It's going to be a lot more of a castle. Joe's got quite the security set-up on order for me. But for now?" He slung his arm casually over my seatback, and even though he didn't actually touch me, I felt a shiver of desire and tension run through my body.

"For now, you're safe with me, wherever we are," he promised.

I wished that was true for my heart.

* * *

Back at the house, I found Alice waiting up for us when we came inside.

Alice looped her arms around my neck. "I was worried about you.”

"You should be," I said, gently disentangling from her arms.

"What does that mean?"

"It means Rob almost got us arrested. Did Mom check in on my cats?"

"Yes."

"Why are you still here?" I chided Alice. "You have work and homework and a million things to do..."

"I'm not leaving you to swim in the pool and eat Thai delivery on your own."

"Are you worried after all?" I felt a flat edge of fear, a reminder of that moment I'd run from the man in the elevator.

"I like free food."

"Speaking of. I have to run this to the fridge." I took the leftover pizza box from Rob and headed back through the house into the kitchen.

Rob's grandmother set the kettle on the gas stove with a clatter.

I stopped abruptly in the doorway. I was still unseen, but it would obvious if I walked away now with the pizza box that I was trying to avoid Rebecca. That I was afraid of her.

In such a big house, how was it possible I couldn't get away from the woman? I had been thinking about what I would say to her for hours, but now that we were both here, I didn't want to.

Rebecca turned, raising her eyebrows. "Hello, dear. Would you like a cup of tea a well?"

I squared my shoulders. "I would love one. Thank you."

I headed over to the big stainless steel fridge and set the pizza box on an empty shelf. Someone had spilled orange juice in the fridge. I stared at the small, sticky orange spot for a second and then forced myself to close the door without wiping it up.

I didn't owe these people perfection. Not right now.

Honestly, the Delaneys would probably be better people if they all cleaned up their own messes anyway. Like Rob had been trying to do when he headed into the Navy.

"Are you all right?" Rebecca asked, her tone cool.

I took that as an invitation. I closed the fridge door as if I hadn't just been caught staring into the crisper in a moment of transcendent understanding. Rob might not be able to talk about his feelings very well, but I thought another piece of his puzzle had clicked clearly into place for me.

"I've had a long day," I said. "We keep losing clients. For some reason. Usually, people are quite happy with us."

"Oh, dear." Rebecca said. She pushed the wooden tea box across the island towards me. "Well, I recommend mint tea for clarity."

I looked over the tea bags and plucked out a teabag of apple-cinnamon. I smiled sweetly. "I think I've had as much clarity as I can handle."

"Oh?" Rebecca asked. "That's wonderful."

"I think maybe someone is trying to ruin my family business."

“Oh? How peculiar. You seem like such a sweet person."

"Mm," I said. "So why would someone have it out for me? Maybe they want me to just sit this situation of Rob's out. To disappear from his life. Right when he needs me."

"Oh, I don't think you need to make decisions for Rob's sake. He has his family to help him in this tough time." Rebecca smiled tightly at me across the island. "How often does anyone really need their own personal locksmith?"

"Yeah," I said. "Well, that's beside the point. I won't be bullied."

"When did you and Rob start this relationship, anyway?" Rebecca asked tartly. "A week ago?"

"I'm not sure I'd call it a relationship." I said, quoting Rob.

Rebecca shook her head. "In my day, we believed sex was precious. For within a marriage."

"In your day, almost every firstborn baby was 'premature', even if they weighed eight pounds. And those rules were only for women."

Rebecca smiled thinly. "So you claim you’re doing this for… equality?"

"I wouldn't want to marry someone who wasn't any good in bed." I said. Then, softly, so my words couldn't carry out of the room, I added, "Rob is very good in bed. I'm willing to take out another ad or two for new clients."

"In my day, we would have called a girl like you a shameless hussy." Rebecca said.

"In my day, we have some choice words to describe women like you too," I promised. The kettle began to whistle. My hands felt like they should have been shaking with anxiety from the argument, but they were steady. I shut off the burner, lifted the kettle and filled our mugs with hot water.

"You don't want to go to war with me, honey," Rebecca said.

"It seems to me like the Delaney family is already at war." I took my mug and tea bag. "Thank goodness this is all out in the open now. I thought I'd have to sneak into Rob's room tonight to be polite. Instead I can go share this mug with him."

I headed for the doorway, but even though I held my head high and walked away, Rebecca wasn't going to let things go without the last word.

"He doesn't like tea," she said to my back. "You don't even know that. You don't know the first thing about him or his family or his world."