Jamie walked out of the bedroom, and she knew right away Merle was in the kitchen. She could hear him clanking around dishes, and she wished Daryl wasn't in the bathroom. She stood in the doorway of Daryl's room contemplating and she was about to go back in Daryl's room when she heard Merle call out to her.

"Don't be a shy mouse, come get some coffee." Jamie blanched at the thought that he may have heard them, but she continued towards the kitchen. She stood in the doorway, wishing Daryl would get out of the bathroom, but knowing Merle was not someone to fear. In fact; she saw him as a big teddy bear of a man and a softie. Still, she knew they were louder than they thought, but they couldn't help it. She had never been so into a man before or been with one that was so into her.

It felt good and right.

"Good morning Merle."

"Morning." He grinned at her and she just knew he had heard them. "You're some firecracker aint ya; my brother stepped in shit didn't he?"

Jamie didn't say anything, and Daryl was out of the bathroom and coming up behind her as she struggled with what to say. He was not one to mince words at all, he spoke plainly, but truthfully, so unlike Greg or any of his asshole friends from New York.

They were all liars and crooks, and it made her happy to know that there were real men out there. Good men.

Greg had no sense of humor at all and Jamie loved to laugh, she felt like she was the one who stepped in shit when Daryl pulled over to pick her up just two days ago. He talked to her as an equal, and he made her laugh more in two days than she had in the last year. She felt like she was the lucky one.

"Very funny Merle," Daryl said coming into the kitchen and getting two cups of coffee for himself and Jamie. "Leave her alone."

"Oh," Jamie said. "He wasn't…"

"He's teasing you, and I don't like it," Daryl said sitting down at the table. "Come on Jamie, sit."

Daryl poured cream into her coffee and added sugar.

"You look like a cream and sugar girl." He smiled up at her.

"Just so happens I am." She said accepting the coffee from him and taking a sip. The coffee even tasted better this morning; everything was bright and new, and for the first time in a long time she didn't dread the day.

"Sit, I'll make breakfast as soon as I get some coffee in me."

"He's a bossy motherfucker isn't he." Merle cackled as she sat down, and now she knew for sure he had heard them.

Jamie sipped her coffee. "Yes, he is." She said making eye contact with Merle, and he smiled back. Jamie couldn't resist grinning right back at him. He was like and older version of Daryl, a little rougher around the edges, but a good man. He made her laugh too, and she hoped some lucky woman was with him because he was just as wonderful to her as Daryl was.

"You sticking around cookie," Merle asked. "Cause I'll be needing my other kitchen chair back and some ear plugs if that's going to be the case."

Daryl shot him a fierce look, but Jamie took it in stride. "I'll bring you some later Merle, but we need the chair. We aren't done with it yet."

Merle broke into a wide grin. "Hang onto her brother; she's a pistol."

"Seriously, though, I am sorry if we disturbed you this morning." She said.

"Oh no worries Sis, I heard Y'all last night too," Merle said sipping his coffee. Jamie considered him, thinking of how to handle this situation. Merle was a man that liked to keep you off guard, but not in a mean way; she knew that. He just loved to rile people up, and again Jamie was happily surprised by a Dixon man.

Merle had a sense of humor, and to her, it was a breath of fresh air.

"It won't be the last time," Jamie said.

"Didn't imagine it would be," Merle replied. "I hear you're staying over at my girl Andrea's."

"She ain't your girl," Daryl mumbled from his coffee cup.

"She's a'ight, we have kinda what you call friends with benefits thing." He said, with a wink to Jamie. "She told me you were very quiet and kept to yourself. She thinks you're running from the law."

"Not the law," Jamie said quietly.

"Well." Merle leaned back. "Aint that something; you remember what Mamma always said."

Daryl looked horrified about what he was going to say, but that didn't stop him. It was true; he had a love of animals and the downtrodden. He always had, and this was an example of the kind of thing Daryl would do.

"This one brought home every stray dog in sight, every cat, every critter you could think of, that cat in the living room? That was him too." Merle said. "Mamma always called him the soft touch."

"And now me." Jamie sighed.

Jamie's phone started ringing in Daryl's room, so he went and got it for her.

"I'm just teasing you Sis; you know that right?"

Jamie nodded as Daryl returned with her phone. She took it and listened to the message from Tara. Daryl could tell by her face it wasn't good.

"Well?" Daryl said.

"It was Tara; she said my ex was at the bank bitching out the president and saying he had a private investigator looking for me. She said he thinks I went south."

"Wonderful," Daryl muttered, and Merle eyed him from across the table.

"You two wanna let me in on the secret?" Merle asked.

Jamie and Daryl looked at each other, and she nodded her head. She trusted them both, and that was a first. Tara had been the only person she had trusted for so long. She felt safe, and she had almost forgotten what that felt like.

"Jamies on the run from her ex that she's kinda still married to, she clocked him on the head with a Lily Brenner sculpture, in their New York penthouse after he hit her, and not the first time." Merle nodded his head as Daryl spoke and they could both tell he was getting pissed off.

Hitting woman was the lowest of the low in Merle's book, and he could not abide that someone had done this to her. He could already tell that she was a sweet woman and Daryl liked her a lot, that was plain to see.

"Brother, you know how I feel about this. How can I help you darlin." He said to them and his eyes were soft and caring, a rare thing for the usually gruff man.

"There's more," Jamie said.

"Of course there is." Merle laughed slightly.

"I stole some money from him, and he's low-key mob."

"How much money?"

"A lot."

Daryl looked over at her and nodded.

Jamie swallowed and spoke softly. "Half a million dollars."

Merle rubbed his hands together. "Well, got to give it to you brother, this is the best situation you ever got us into."

Daryl just rolled his eyes at Merle and Jamie took a deep breath.

"I can leave Merle, keep moving, maybe he'll give up."

"You'll do no such thing, I'm calling Andrea, and we're going to get your stuff, you're moving in with us."

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Andrea walked up behind Jamie while Merle and Daryl collected her meager belongings, some clothes, and toiletries that she had bought. She had been right about Jamie; she had a secret, and she was pretty sure it was more than an angry husband.

Merle and Daryl would keep her safe if that was what she needed, whatever or whoever was after her, they wouldn't let get near her.

Jamie pulled her sweater over her shoulders as the breeze blew through the trees behind them. It would be fall soon, and she always loved that time of year. She had a smile on her face for the first time in a long time; she looked forward to a new day instead of looking at it with dread.

"You'll be safe with them; Merle didn't want anyone bothering Amy and I," Andrea said.

"I didn't want that either; I didn't think…"

"I knew you weren't going to back to wherever you came from after that kiss yesterday," Andrea replied.

Was it only just yesterday?

"I've known him a long time, and I haven't ever seen him put on such PDA, hell he dated my best friend a few years ago, and I never saw him kiss her, not once."

Jamie looked over at the other woman.

"Don't you dare hurt him, you'll answer to me," Andrea murmured. "You understand me?"

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Eugene Porter was a smart man, and he knew someone broke the rules at the bank. There was no other reason that he could think of that Jamie could have gotten into the safety deposit box. His client said she was not a signer on the box and that he didn't know that she even knew about it. Eugene didn't know about that; she did have a key after all, but she could have lifted it from her husband.

He stood in the lobby and watched everyone going about their business. There was a youngish girl there with dark hair, and he decided that she was as likely as anyone to have helped Patterson's wife.

Women tended to stick together; that was just a fact, and the probability that a man would break the rules in such a way was not likely. Not where money was concerned and certainly not to help a wife run away from her husband. This had woman written all over it.

He watched the dark haired girl as she went about her day and waited. Eugene had all the time in the world, and New York City was a nice change from the suburbs of New Jersey where he laid his head down every night.

He took a final look around and walked out of the door, he set himself up in a coffee shop across the street, with a view of the bank doorway and now he would wait.