Page 62 of Keeping Knight

“Oh, no.” He rises from the couch. “I don’t want you to let your team down.” To me, he adds, “Evie’s a pro at darts. She won a national dart competition a couple of years ago.”

Evie laughs. “It was a regional competition. And it wasn’t a big deal.” She claps her hands. “Daisy. Come.”

Immediately alert, Daisy bounds over to Evie. Evie reaches into her belt bag and takes out a leash, then clips it to Daisy’s harness. “It’s been really nice meeting you, Ruby. Anytime you want to visit with Daisy, I’m happy to bring her over. And if you want to convince Micah to put a dartboard up in here…”

“Do you want a dartboard?” Micah asks me. “We could put it in the TV room.”

“Oh, it would mess up the wall,” I reply while envisioning dozens of tiny holes in Micah’s undoubtedly expensive wallpaper.

Micah waves his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

I tug on his arm. “I’m not good at darts. At all. Like, the last time I played with Kylie and Jordan, the manager of the bar had to ask me to stop. He was afraid I might accidentally hurt someone.”

“He told you to stop playing?” Micah scowls. “You were a customer trying to enjoy herself. He shouldn’t have done that.” His eyes narrow. “What bar was it?”

Seized by an image of Micah storming into Jack’s Corner Pub and berating the manager for his perceived slight against me, I reply quickly, “Oh, I don’t remember. Some place in Hell’s Kitchen. It doesn’t matter.”

Micah doesn’t look convinced. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s fine. Really. But that’s why I don’t think a dartboard in your condo would be a good idea.”

“We’re getting a dartboard,” he states firmly. “I don’t like the wallpaper in the TV room, anyway. And I’ll teach you how to play.”

“Oh, and then you and Micah can join the dart league,” Evie interjects. “After everything’s back to normal, I mean.” Then she moves towards me to give me a quick hug. “It will be. Soon. I’m sure of it.”

Once Evie and Daisy are gone, and Sampson's in the kitchen, enjoying his own dinner, Micah comes back into the living room and sits down beside me. He loops his arm around my shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of my head. “What did you think?” he asks. “Did you enjoy meeting Evie and Daisy?”

“Oh, yes. Definitely.” I smile at Micah. “Evie’s really nice. And Daisy is so cute. Energetic, but cute. It was cool seeing how you train the dogs. You’ve told me about it, but seeing it in person is different.”

Micah’s expression turns thoughtful. “If you’d like, I can take you to Fox & Falcon to see our training facility. It’s got an agility run and an area for the dogs to track scents. Then you can see the dogs go through some of their more advanced skills.”

“I’d love that.” A beat later, my enthusiasm plunges. “I guess I have to wait, don’t I? Until…”

Until the person who tried to kill me is caught, I leave out. Because, despite the evidence pointing to Sylvia as the culprit, the district attorney claims it’s not enough. “There’s motive,” the DA explained, “but we don’t have anything actually linking Mrs. Ashe to the attempted murder. Or the bomb. No receipts, nothing in her search history, and the warrant at her house didn’t turn up anything incriminating. I’m not saying she’s innocent. But there’s not enough to charge her. Not right now.”

Micah is convinced that Sylvia’s guilty. He thinks the evidence is out there, and they just need to find it. So the investigation continues.

F&F isn’t just focusing on Sylvia, though. Until her conviction is a certainty, they’re still looking into other suspects, too. Liam, a couple of people in my building with criminal records, my angry author client, and even Aidan in our cooking class, because, as Micah put it, “I just get this feeling about him. It might just be because he’s irritating. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Do I think Sylvia did it? I’ve thought about it countless times in the three days since I watched her interview. Sometimes I think yes, she could have. If she really believes the things she accused me of, then yes, she could have motive to kill me. But then I think about the Sylvia my dad married. Not because he had to, but because she made him happy.

Would that Sylvia kill me? I’m not sure.

“I could arrange for you to visit F&F safely,” Micah replies. “I can get the guys to help. We can use the company SUV for transport, set up some extra surveillance… and Rogue just installed a garage at the office. So it would be safe getting inside from there.”

My stomach sinks as I listen to all the precautions Micah would have to take just to take me into Midtown to visit Fox & Falcon. There’s no way I’m going to ask him or his friends to do that.

“It’s okay,” I say quickly. “I don’t need to go. Meeting Daisy is more than enough.”

Micah frowns. “But you just said you would love it. And I’d like to show you around. You could meet the rest of the people on my team. Plus there’s Jamie—he’s the security guard who adopted Wilson. He’s great. And Kurt and Axel and Beau⁠—”

“It’s just a lot of effort that you don’t need to do. I mean, you already asked Evie to come over, on her day off no less…”

“Evie was happy to come over. I didn’t make her.”

“But you’re her boss. It’s not like she could say—” My mouth snaps shut. Heat rises in my cheeks. I didn’t mean to make it sound like Micah pressured Evie into coming over, especially when I know he was just trying to help me.

“Anyway,” I add, “Here is fine. I don’t need to go anywhere else.”