Page 52 of Rule the Night (Blackwell Butchers #1)

MAEVE

I spent the next few days skulking around the house, avoiding the Butchers as much as I could. I didn’t want to talk about what had happened in the city and I definitely didn’t want to talk about our conversation afterwards, when Remy had brought me home.

Thankfully they seemed to pick up on my avoidance, and they mostly left me alone to cook and work.

I was still following Ethan Todd online. There weren’t many details about what he was up to, but he was still posting videos, and I kept an eye on the real estate listings in Blackwell Falls, especially the lavish ones that were typically bought by city people for summer holidays or skiing.

After six months overseas, I had a hunch Ethan would return to familiar stomping grounds, and someone with his money and his taste for the high life wasn’t going to rent some apartment above one of the storefronts on Main.

By noon on Wednesday I was sick of stalking Ethan Todd online, so I put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and strapped Rose on under my jacket. I was reaching for my sneakers when I heard June.

Boots! It’s fall. You need boots!

I sighed and switched to flat boots.

“Where are you headed?” Poe asked when I got to the living room.

He was sitting at the island, looking at his phone while Remy played video games and Bram worked on his computer at the dining room table.

“Why don’t you check the app?” It was snarky but they deserved it.

“I’d rather just ask.”

I picked up my bag. “I’m going to the farmers market for apples.”

June was right. It was the end of September. The leaves were changing and the air was cooler, and I had some killer recipes that might just pull me out of the funk I’d been in for the past few days.

Poe stood. “I’ll go with you.”

“Me too,” Remy said, shutting down the gaming system in the living room.

“No, that’s not…” I sighed. “That’s not necessary.”

“We know it’s not necessary,” Poe said. “But it’ll be fun.”

“You’ve never said the farmers market was fun before.” I frowned. “You’re just trying to keep track of me, aren’t you?”

“Maybe we just want to hang with you,” Poe said.

They’d hardly left the house over the last few days, and when one or two of them did, someone else always stayed behind at the loft.

“Sure.” I could see they weren’t giving up. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Poe looked at Bram. “You coming?”

I headed for the stairs because Bram never went with us anywhere.

Then Bram spoke behind me. “I’m coming.”

I turned to look at him, already getting up from the dining-room table and ambling across the room the way only he could, looking both sexy as fuck and mind-numbingly arrogant.

“You’re… coming?”

He brushed past me to start down the stairs and I caught a heady whiff of his scent: leather and sweat.

He was halfway down the stairs when he spoke again. “I’ll drive.”