She took the keys and started the car before she spoke into the phone. “I’m on my way.”

  She passed Maggie and Tristan coming down the long drive. She didn’t even wave. With their appearance no one would even notice she was missing.

  ****

  The first thing Greg noticed when he entered the house was the smell of fresh biscuits. Next was sausage and maybe sausage gravy, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “I thought we’d do breakfast for dinner. Sound good?” Mom was at the stove. She wore a flower covered apron and held up a spatula.

  “It does.” What else could he say?

  The next thing he noticed was that Nikki was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee. A red hue dotted her cheeks. He would have gone to her and said hello, but that was when the others entered, and he noticed other things. Maggie and Tristan had arrived, and Ericka hadn’t come inside.

  He cocked his brow in Quinn’s direction. He took out his phone and started typing. Then Greg had a ping. He looked at the text.

  Ericka took the car back to the office. She has a lead.

  Greg frowned. After all they had been through in the town it didn’t seem like a good idea for her to go back alone. Besides it was an hour and a half away from them. Now they were down to one car. They would have to all five ride back in the one sedan. Or his mother might coax them into staying the night, which he really didn’t want to do. He couldn’t do that if Ericka was back in town working alone.

  “Come in everyone. Find a seat. We just finished supper prep. Let’s eat.”

  Everyone gathered around the long table. Dad said grace and everyone filled their plate. While the food looked delicious, his mouth was watering, and his belly was growling, he didn’t feel that hungry.

  “It’s good to see you again, Greg.” The sound of Nikki’s quiet voice and the heat of her breath came at him from his side. She’d squeezed in beside him on the picnic style bench seating.

  “You, too.” He took a sip of the hot coffee and cringed as he burned the tip of his tongue.

  “Burned yourself, huh? You always were in a hurry.” She sipped her own drink while not removing her gaze from his face.

  He let his shoulders slump and continued to look forward as he said, “Nikki, what do you want?”

  “What do I want? You’re kidding, right? You were supposed to come back for me after your stint in the military. I waited. Then I find out you moved to New York and became a cop. A cop! We never talked about that.” She’d lowered her voice and moved in closer, but still she was loud enough that some others turned their heads.

  He lifted his brows, and kept his guffaw held in. They never discussed that. Like he had to go over his life plans with her after she said no to the engagement. She hadn’t changed much. Everything had to be her way or the highway.

  “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Maybe we should take this outside.”

  “Sure. I’d love to. We can go out to the tree where you gave me my first kiss. Or to the lake where you gave me my first hickey. Or maybe to the porch swing where you tried to propose.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  She seemed angry over something, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why. She’d been the one to move on.

  He’d waited.

  He’d come home.

  She’d been taken.

  He almost threw the chair backward against the floor with a crash but caught it right in time. He grabbed her hand and tugged her until she started walking to the back porch. In his memory nothing had happened between them there. However, he was about to make a new memory.

  She stepped out and let the screen door slam shut.

  “Speak.”

  “Is that how you talk to women now? I remember you being nicer.”

  “Let’s see, you’ve weaseled your way into my mother’s good graces and got her to invite you here to make me feel guilty about something, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. So, please just say what you want to say so we can move on.” And he could tell his mother that he was dating Ericka. That he didn’t need help with his love life, he was doing just fine.

  “I saw how you looked at that detective on the ballfield. The one that didn’t show apparently. I guess she’s too chicken to be in the room with an ex-girlfriend.”

  He ran his hands through his hair. The strands were thick and getting a little longer than he liked. But he only liked his barber in New York, which posed a problem.

  She moved in closer leaving only a few inches between them. Her smell of lavender hadn’t changed. Only he didn’t care for lavender now.

  She ran a nailed finger into the V of his neckline. He should have buttoned it up to his neck. Who cared if he could breathe?

  “Tell me that you don’t feel anything for me? Tell me that and I’ll leave.”

  “I don’t feel anything for you.”

  She moved back and swung her arm in the air between them. “You lie!”

  He leaned his head back, studied the ceiling and drew in a deep breath before looking back down at her. “Look, I’ve moved on. I did come to look for you after my time in the military before I left for New York, but you were with someone else. You had a rock the size of Gibraltar on your finger, so I left. Seemed like you were where you wanted to be.”

  She licked her lips and tried to move in close again. “So, you did come looking for me.”

  “I did. But that was then, and this is now.”

  “Are you saying that we don’t have a shot?”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  Again, she leaned back and crossed her arms at her chest. “What if I told you I had to drop out of school because I had your child while you were gone.”

  He snickered. Then he burst out laughing. “I’d say you were living in a fantasy. I know you didn’t have my child.”

  “How?”

  “Pictures that you sent like every day for the first year. And your graduation photo. No baby bump.” He moved his hand over his own stomach in an arc.

  All these questions made him wonder something. A look at her finger showed the distinct line of where a ring had been. He’d play the hunch and see where it went.

  “Let me see if I can get this right. You got married after college, had a kid maybe more, and now you’re divorced. You thought you’d try to reconnect. Maybe get a new baby daddy.”

  She bit her lip and moved into the shadows of the porch. “You always were too perceptive.”

  “I’m not sure whether to be hurt or flattered.”

  “Neither.” She turned and spit at his feet. “I wouldn’t have married him if I’d known you came back for me. He was a poor substitute. But I was tired of being alone. Now I have three kids and no one to help me. I can’t work. I can’t make money. He has them half the time, so I’m stuck.”

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Of course you are. You’re living the life I wanted in New York! Big hotshot cop. I could have been a big hot shot lawyer, if…”

  She stopped talking. He finished.

  “You’d finished law school.”

  She balled her fist. He saw it coming but was too late to stop it. It struck his jaw with a pop.

  The door opened at that moment. “Nikki!”

  “Martha, I’m sorry.” Nikki ran down the back steps and around the house.

  “What in the world happened out here? What did you say to her?”

  “Mom—”

  Mom held her hand up, palm facing him. “I do not want to hear it. Just come in and finish eating before I get more upset. I just now found out you’ve been dating Ericka.”

  The door slammed. Mom continued to mutter to herself.

  Greg swallowed and followed his mother inside. The scolding to come already hurt.

  ****

  Heather entered the dry cleaners. Through the opening past the counter and through the hanging clothes, she could make out Chet Mahon. He leaned forward and studied a black and white image on a large TV screen.

  She swallowed.

  That image was of her and the guys at the Crabtree farm. There were pictures of the field as well.

  That meant…

  Heather pushed air out her nostrils and pulled her shoulders back. Quickly, she used one finger to unbutton the top of her shirt. Since no one else was there and no one was coming to the counter, she marched around it and straight to the office.

  There were cameras, she could see them.

  She hoped they saw her.

  She moved in a slinking type of motion toward Chet. He was on the phone.

  “Can you come over? I think I have something you might want to see?”

  Heather’s heart thundered rapidly in her chest.

  Most cameras didn’t have sound, right? She just needed to strike the correct pose with her body and her voice. She could do it. She’d been practicing for her big screen debut. She had this.

  “Joey Malone.”

  Chet turned. His mouth formed a thin line. “There isn’t a Joey Malone here, you must be mistaken.”

  “Oh, I’m not mistaken.” She ran her long-lacquered nail along the neckline of his shirt. “My cousin, Russ Thomas, told me exactly who you are. Little Joey Malone and the mob Malone family from big New York City.”

  Joey gritted his teeth. “What do you want?”

  “Oh, nothing much.” She hitched her hip up on one side and scooted onto a low bookcase.

  He didn’t move.

  “What?”

  “You see, I don’t want that video there to fall into the wrong hands, you get my meaning.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Then I’ll spell it out. You keep that video to yourself, and we’ll be all good.”

  “What will you do if I don’t keep it to myself?”

  “Let’s see. I did a little bit of research, and I bet the cartel would love to know where the Malone family is hiding out after putting them behind bars.”

  His eyes darkened and he fisted his hands at his sides. He didn’t seem happy with the threat. But she didn’t care.

  “Chet, did the food arrive?” An old woman entered through a back room.

  Joey didn’t move anything but his mouth as he answered, “No, Ma, not yet.”

  Heather left the room, rebuttoning her shirt as she went. The bell rang above her as she exited onto the sidewalk. She probably should have grabbed the zip drive, but she knew he wouldn’t show it. The man was in witness protection. If the cartel knew he was here, then he and his family would be in danger. Love for his ma would keep him from doing anything stupid. She was sure of it.

  She sashayed along the sidewalk, practicing her runway walk. When she married her baseball star husband and he was signed to the L.A. Dodgers, she really wanted to live in L.A., then she would take a job as a runway model. She was perfect for it.

  She had the walk down and everything.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ericka opened the door to the dry cleaner’s and stopped. Joey and his family stood at the counter with suitcases nearby. Frankie and his father were arguing. They didn’t notice her entrance, but Mary did. She poked Joey in the ribs.

  He looked up from what he’d been doing, securing a suitcase she thought, and sighed. Then he closed the gap between them. “Here.”

  She opened her hand, and he dropped a zip drive into her palm. “What is this?”

  “It’s a video of the Crabtree place. We’ve been living there for a while. We’ve continued to let the baseball team use it so as not to blow our cover, but when we heard about Ann Marie, we opened up the security footage.”

  “What did you see?” Ericka gripped the drive harder than she should. More was going on here than just giving her information.

  “Not much. More than a few people visited Ann Marie on the hill. It really wasn’t possible to tell who killed her from the footage. But I know who did it.”

  Ericka shook her head. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly.

  “Heather Worley.”

  “The teenage cheerleader girl?”

  “Yeah, one of many. She came in today and threatened to tell that we were in witness protection if I gave anyone this video.”

  “I see.”

  “As I live and breathe.” The sound of Frankie’s voice had Ericka turning her head. “What are you doing here? And still looking as fine as ever.”

  Heat rushed to Ericka’s cheeks. “Still the flirt, I see.”

  “Doesn’t really matter, does it? I heard that you were dating that Detective Kane.”

  Joey gazed at her, sadness filling his eyes.

  “Don’t worry,” Frankie continued. “We’re leaving. So, we aren’t going to affect your time with your new beau. Joey here decided that the threat was too much to stay. I told Russ Thomas that we shouldn’t be here.”

  Joey frowned and faced his brother. “What? Wait, you’re the one who told Russ?”

  “Yup. I couldn’t stand another day of being Doyle Mahon. Doyle? Really? Do I look anything like a Doyle?” Frankie wore a silk suit and ran his hands up and down in front of his frame.

  “You look like an idiot.” Mary slapped him with the back of her hand. “I just made friends and now we have to move again. Your father just remembered his new name!”

  They took the bickering to the back room and Joey returned his attention to her. “Kane, huh?”

  Ericka nodded. “Yeah.” Although she wasn’t one hundred percent sure about that at the moment.

  “Sounds like a good choice.” Joey turned away, but not before she’d seen his pinched look of sorrow.

  If he thought about it long enough, he would realize that he’d only ever been a mark. She had started to like him at the end, but nothing could ever have come out of it. He was a criminal in a manner of speaking, and she was a cop.

  Plain and simple.

  “Did you ever like me?” He’d faced her and she’d not noticed.

  “I did.”

  “But you knew nothing would come of it, right? The whole point of you being in my life was to find my father and get him to turn.”

  “I won’t lie. Yes, that was the point of our first encounter.”

  He ran his hands through his hair. Then he straightened his spine. His voice deepened with an emotion she wasn’t sure of.

  “Our handler will be here any minute. I suggest you go. Take that video. See if your computer wizard, Quinn, I think it is, can figure out the point where Heather does the deed, then take her down.”

  Ericka nodded. “Thank you.” She turned to walk toward the door before tears spilled over her eyes. She was crying more lately than she had in her entire life. Maybe she needed her hormones checked.

  “One more thing.”

  She turned.

  “Heather’s stepfather is Dr. Rose.”

  “The medical examiner?”

  “The very one. I wouldn’t put it past that girl to change evidence. Don’t give her the chance to do it.”

  “I won’t. And again, thank you. Maybe one day we’ll meet again.”

  “Sorry to say, I hope not. That’ll mean I have to move again.”

  He turned away, and she hurried to the door. By the time she reached the car, she could hear the bolt turning and locking her out. In the car, she leaned against the steering wheel and watched them moving around through the tinted glass.

  Mary had a cane. Big Tony had one as well. Both parents were in bad shape and the team’s intrusion into their town had caused them to be shipped elsewhere.

  If someone back in the New York office knew that they’d been placed here, then Alpha Team should never have been sent. That had put their entire family in jeopardy.

  She turned the key, and the motor roared to life. She needed to return to the office and get Quinn to come there as well, but he was an hour away. She also needed to get to the ME’s office and protect the DNA samples.

  She put the phone to her ear and made a call as she drove. The decision to go to the ME’s office came as she drew near to the four-way stop. Cars were parked outside Dr. Rose’s office.

  Lots of cars.

  One car was a hearse.

  Something was wrong. She could feel it.

  ****

  Susan had kept the homeplace in spotless condition, although, it seemed she was in Florida more than she was here now. Some of the furniture was still covered in sheets.

  “Stop pacing, Greg. You’re going to rub a hole in the carpet.”

  Mom had told him that on multiple occasions and a few times already today. He didn’t care if he wore a hole. Ericka had been gone for hours and hadn’t even texted. The entire thing was unlike her. Especially since they’d started dating. Since then, she texted or called all the time.

  Maggie came and patted his shoulder. “I think we should be getting back.”

  “Have you heard something? Anything?”

  “Sadly, no. I just have a feeling in my gut that maybe we’re needed.”

  “Better not go against your gut.”

  She nodded.

  Maybe she’d noticed that his gut was saying something was wrong and they needed to move. Whatever had happened, he was grateful for the assist.

  “Mom, we’re going to have to run. I’ll try to get back by while you guys are in town.”

  “I’ll make sure of it.” She gave him a big hug.

  He hugged back.

  Nikki had hidden in the corner of the room after their encounter. She didn’t speak to anyone that he could tell. He was sorry for her plight, but he couldn’t fix this mess for her. If he thought about it, he’d been fixing messes for her for a long time. In school he’d been the one to keep her on the straight path. He’d helped with homework. He’d helped her study for tests. She wouldn’t have gotten in college if not for him. He didn’t regret helping her, but he was glad that life path hadn’t worked out.

  In the car, he let Quinn drive. He squeezed in the back with Tristan and Maggie, who were scrolling through Tristan’s phone looking at houses like excited school kids. He wanted to ask what was happening, but felt doing so would be intruding.

  Fanny had no such qualms. “What are you guys looking at?”

  “Oh, we’re just dreaming of the future.”