Page 58 of Dreams and Reptiles

When he slid the paper away, he gasped and put a hand to his throat. “Kendall!”

“I hope I had them spell it correctly.”

It was a bronzed plaque that said Maison De Reve, Est. 2026.

He hugged it to his chest and looked at me with tears in his eyes. “This is perfect. Thank you so much. I want to hang it up right now. What do I need? Is everything in there?” He grabbed the tool bag and ran for the front door.

I followed him, chuckling to myself as he turned off the alarm—but all laughter stopped when he opened the door.

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

Francis

I don’t know if it was the high from my successful first event the previous night, the consummation of my relationship with Kendall, or my elation at the thoughtful gift he’d brought me, but I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at on my porch. Until I did.

And then I screamed.

“Francis, come back inside.”

Kendall’s firm voice and hand on my arm made me flinch, and I juggled the plaque in my arms.

“Come inside, baby,” he said, more gently this time. He pulled me back inside and leaned out to look around before shutting and locking the door.

The pounding of footsteps on the stairs above us startled me again, until I heard Derek calling my name.

“It’s okay! I’m okay.” I looked at Kendall and nodded. He took the plaque and tool bag. “I’m okay.”

He placed his hands on my biceps and looked at me. “Baby, do you have camera feed for your porch?”

Dazed, I shook my head, then I realized what he was asking.

“Yeah. Yes, let’s go in my office.”

Derek came around the corner and pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Derek, will you call our moms and make sure they stay inside with the doors locked and alarm set until I figure this out?”

“Yeah, yeah, but what⁠—”

Roger and Arnie were right on Derek’s heels, and they put their arms around him as I led Kendall into my office.

“Pretty sure the alarm guy said the feed stays in the cloud for two weeks.” I pulled up the app, clicked on the events, and scrolled through them until I got to three in the morning.

A car pulled into the driveway, staying in the darkness, with no lights on. There were no plates on what appeared to be a beat-up Lexus. A lone person climbed out of the car covered from head to toe in black with sunglasses on. Their lower face was covered, and they carried a bundle in their arms. They came up onto the porch, unwrapped the bundle and dumped out the contents, held up a middle finger to the camera, and walked back to their car, thinking they would get away with this act of horror.

But they’d made a fatal mistake.

“Kendall? Can you call the police for me and ask someone to come out. I need to make a report.”

“Yeah, baby. Are you okay?”

I gave him my bravest smile and exhaled. “I am.”

If this would have happened before my opening event, if I hadn’t made this move and had success getting everything started, I might have been more thrown by my past paying me a visit. But with Kendall by my side, helping without hovering, I knew I could handle it.

I wasn’t afraid anymore. Not of Robin LeBlanc.