Page 73 of Rule the Night (Blackwell Butchers #1)

POE

I got up before the sun, expecting the house to be quiet. Bram and Remy had business of their own, and I needed to meet a shipment of MDMA that was due into our warehouse in the old part of Carlton.

But the house wasn’t quiet. Maeve was in the kitchen, already cooking even though the sun hadn’t yet come up.

“Morning.” I went to her and kissed her forehead, but she pulled away to pull some rolls out of the oven.

I didn’t take it personally, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried. She’d seemed off when I’d come up from the studio the night before, but she’d been baking up a storm and I’d hoped maybe she was just distracted.

“Good morning.” Maeve was never perky, but she seemed distant, even for her.

I put a travel mug under the coffee maker and waited while it poured. “Getting an early start?”

“Something like that,” she said.

I studied her, beautiful even at five in the morning, her black hair plaited into a long braid that fell over one shoulder, her hairstyle of choice when she was cooking.

“I’m here if you want to talk you know.”

“I don’t.” She forced a smile and stirred something she had cooking on the stove. “I’m fine.”

I nodded, making a mental note to check out Ethan Todd’s channel later in the day. Maybe the dickhead had posted something that had upset Maeve. “Can I make you a cup of coffee?”

“I’ve got one,” she said, nodding at a mug next to the stove. “But thanks.”

“Sure thing.” I removed my mug from under the coffee maker, then hesitated.

I needed to get out the door, meet the shipment, but a knot of dread had formed in my stomach.

A warning, although I couldn’t have named it that.

“Want me to make you something before you go?” she asked, clearly picking up on my reluctance to leave.

I shook my head. “No thanks. No time.”

“There are still breakfast burritos in the fridge.”

I opened the fridge and grabbed one of the burritos but didn’t bother heating it up as I headed for the stairs.

I turned around. “You know we appreciate you, right, little bird?”

She bit her lip, then nodded.

“Good. See you tonight.”

“See you.”