Page 50 of The Devoted Husband

Several Hours Later

The Next Afternoon

“Hello, Smiley.”

“Good afternoon, handsome.”

He held her waist, giving her a few pecks on the lips before pulling away.

“I missed you last night and this morning.”

Dante sat at the island as she poured him a cup of coffee. Last night, she was asleep when he got in bed and still asleep when he got up and left this morning.

“Thank you,” he said, accepting the coffee. “I need this.”

“Did you get any sleep at all?”

“Not much. What I found at Jones’s house disturbed me. I was too anxious to sleep. When Foster returned my call, I headed to his office.”

“You were at his house yesterday? What did you find?”

Sade moved the cutting board from the counter to the island so she could look at him while he talked. She eyed him as she chopped the onions for her greens as he spoke.

“Yeah. He had a shrine to his daughter and a wall dedicated to you and the shit that happened in Vanzette.” Dante pulled out his phone and handed it to her after a few swipes.

“I shared this with Agent Foster, and he suggested we use this to get a restraining order against him. He said they weren’t able to track the money to an account that is attached to him, so that was a dead end.

They tracked the phone to someone in China, which was a bust too.

At this point, he thinks the restraining order, breaking and entering, and vandalizing will be the things that he can be charged with, which will stick. ”

Sade had to tear her eyes away from the pictures on Dante’s phone.

With a nod, she cleared her throat. “I want to be happy because this is progress, but I can’t lie and say this isn’t bothering me.”

“Same. It really creeped me out. I didn’t want to tell you, but I felt you needed to know.”

“Thank you for not keeping this from me. If all else fails, at least we have his address now. I don’t want you to have to kill him. We have enough blood on our hands.”

“I agree, but if he does something else, I’m going back to his house, and I’m not leaving until he’s dead. I know we said he deserves to suffer, and prison will be the best place for him to do that, but this needs to end, Sade—now.”

Not bothering to disagree, she told him to rest while she prepped their dinner for later. But Dante wouldn’t be able to rest until he knew Jones would be out of their lives for good.

Four Days Later

The only downside to being at Sade’s island was that you had to wait for the ferry to enter and leave.

They had to wait three days before the ferry would be available, but now that they were there, it was more than worth the wait.

Dante understood why the island was her place of peace.

Completely secluded, she didn’t have to worry about anything or anyone.

She had the kitchen fully stocked, so they decided to cook together after a brief rest.

They agreed not to talk about Jones or anything else happening in Memphis. Their ex parte hearing would be held in six days, which was the only reason Dante was looking forward to returning. The restraining order was a start, though Dante wasn’t sure if Jones would even take it seriously.

Dante started his Kem playlist. His arms wrapped around Sade from behind, and as Kem sang about sharing his life with his woman, Dante serenaded Sade.

She turned in his arms, wrapping her arms around him.

They swayed around the kitchen, singing and staring into each other’s eyes.

By the time the song was over, Dante was sure he loved her a little bit more.