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  Suzy surprised him. In one fluid motion she was in front of him, eyes narrowed and attention firmly on his face.

  “I understand you use charm and humor as weapons, so much so that I’m sure people don’t even realize you’re playing them,” she started. “But I want you to know right now, James Callahan, that I’m not some Bates Hill resident or millionaire groupie hanging around for a show. What I am is a single mother to a boy who is still afraid of the dark and needs help with learning the right way to use a bat so he doesn’t keep hitting fouls. A boy who has a deadbeat dad who never was in the picture and an overbearing grandmother who was in it too much at times. A boy who I refuse to leave behind by being careless and treating the real danger like it’s anything but.

  “So, while I can appreciate the smirks and banter and a joke or two to lighten the mood, what I need from you before we go any further is simple.” She spread her fingers out and placed her hand flat against his chest.

  When she spoke again, James had eyes only for her. “I need you to be on your A game, Mr. Callahan. Plain and simple. You bring your best, and I promise you I’ll bring mine.”

  This time there was no humor in his response. All James could feel was her hand against his chest. He wondered if she realized that four months ago he’d been doing the same to her, trying to spot her from bleeding out.

  “I’ve always brought my best with you,” he said. “I won’t stop now.”

  Suzy searched his expression for something—he didn’t know what—until she was apparently satisfied. She tapped his chest before pulling away, a smile lighting up her face.

  “Good. Now let’s get out of here and find your nephew.”

  James held up his finger to stop her from leaving.

  “Speaking of being on our A game, how good are you at role-playing?”

  Chapter Eight

  Cordelia Simmons was short, slim and proud of everything she did. Which was never limited to and always included following her daughter around, room to room, until she got the answer she was seeking. A Southern helicopter mom, born and bred.

  Among many things, how Suzy had managed to get pregnant when she was twenty-one had always been a mystery to the woman. Even when Suzy mockingly went through the logistics of how such things happened, the older Simmons put her hands on her hips and tsked at her daughter.

  The moment Suzy got out of the car, wearing sweats and James’s sister’s flip-flops, she knew her mother would show up in spectacular fashion. Not only had Suzy returned after spending a night away from home, she’d brought company along with her. The businessman was all smiles as Suzy looked over her shoulder and told him to stay in the car.

  “Do you think she’ll let that happen?” he asked. With a nod, he motioned to the front of her house. Suzy didn’t have to turn around to know that her mother was already on the front porch.

  “If you want us to leave within the next few minutes, then I suggest you put your phone to your ear and stay put in the car,” she said hurriedly, her voice low. “As far as she’s concerned, I just spent the night with you.”

  A devilish look crossed James’s face. It was meant to be teasing, she knew, but Suzy couldn’t help but feel her body react to it. She only hoped her expression didn’t give her away.

  James responded with a smirk before pulling out his phone. It would only hold off her mother for a few minutes, at best. Which meant Suzy was already on a deadline.

  She took a quick breath, pivoted and barely made it to the first porch step before her mother was all she could see.

  “Honey, are you okay? Why didn’t you come home last night? Are you feeling good? You look like a mess! Where’s Mara’s dress? Where are your shoes? You don’t wear flip-flops!”

  Suzy chose not to answer anything until she was inside her bedroom. That didn’t stop her mother. She rattled off a few more questions before Suzy knew she’d have to bite.

  “Mom, I’m okay. Like James said on the phone with you earlier, I’ve just been helping him with some things that he needed someone familiar with law enforcement to deal with.” It wasn’t a flat-out lie. Suzy just hoped her mother didn’t see that it was a truth filled with cracks. “You know how I get with some cases. A little too focused, and time slips away from me.”

  Suzy made it to her dresser and started to root around for undergarments not purchased by the head of Callahan’s security. Her mother stood her ground right behind her.

  “So, you sleep with James Callahan instead of coming home? And on a school night, no less!”

  Suzy let out a half grunt, half sigh—a sound that only her mother could compel her to make—and rolled her eyes. She might grow older every day, but her mother could make her feel like a teen in a second flat.

  “Mom, you know I didn’t sleep with him.”

  The elder Simmons crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. She shrugged. “Well, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you did.”

  “Mom!”

  She shrugged again as Suzy huffed away into her bathroom. A second later and she wouldn’t have been able to shut the door. Thankfully Suzy threw the lock between them. Still, her mother wasn’t perturbed.

  “I’m just saying, you’ve definitely done worse,” she called through the door. “A handsome, suave man like James? I’m just saying, he has my vote.”

  “Did you just say suave?” Suzy hedged, stripping down. “Since when do you talk like that?”

  “Like what? Educated?” her mom shot back. Suzy wouldn’t have done it had her mother been in plain view, but since she wasn’t, Suzy smiled.

  “You know what, Suzanne? I take it back. James probably deserves someone better than your ungrateful, sassy self.”

  Suzy felt her smile grow. Right up until the day her father had passed, he’d always said the thing he loved most about Cordelia Simmons was how feisty she could become over the smallest things. It kept life interesting, he’d say. The same opinion held true for Suzy now. While her mother wasn’t always the easiest to get along with, Suzy knew she’d much rather fight with her mother than be without her.

  “You need to calm down,” Suzy said, half finished dressing. After hearing the plan James had hatched, she’d chosen a shirt she wouldn’t normally wear out and about. For the past three years it had stayed in the back of her closet with the question of will this fit? hanging over it every time she’d glanced in its direction. Now she sucked in and pulled it down over her head, hoping her love of bread and pasta hadn’t betrayed her.

  “You’re just mad because you think there’s something going on between me and James, and that I’m not telling you about it,” Suzy continued, voice slightly muffled as the blouse went over her mouth. She slid it the rest of the way down slowly. It wasn’t until the bottom hit the waistband of her jeans that she let out a sigh of relief. Though one look in the mirror and she realized her mother was going to have a field day.

  Red, sleeveless and with a neckline that plunged down into a deep V, it was a blouse made for an evening out, topped off with the rest of the night spent in. While she had a few dresses that did their job of making her feel red-hot, Suzy couldn’t deny that a good pair of tight jeans coupled with this date-night blouse put them to shame. And the leather jacket she’d snagged made her feel even more slick.

  She admired herself for a few seconds before applying some quick makeup and attempting to make her hair presentable. She even pulled out some perfume she saved for special occasions. It wasn’t until she had her hand on the doorknob that she hesitated, wondering if her concern for how she looked was more for what she and James were about to do, or if it was more for the man himself.

  Suzy took a deep breath. Then walked out to face her mama.

  “Well, good gracious, Suzy Q,” she started, looking her daughter up and down. “You come in wearing sweats and you leave to go clubbing? I know I said you
should date him, but maybe space those dates out a little more.”

  “I’m still helping him with an investigation,” Suzy defended herself. “And before you get all crazy, know that some of it requires some information gathering at a bar in Kipsy.” She motioned to her outfit. “I don’t want to spook anyone by looking like I’m a cop.”

  The older woman’s face pinched. She frowned.

  “That doesn’t sound safe,” she said. Her gaze flitted down to the spot on Suzy’s chest that had a near-perfect circular scar. The shirt just barely covered it, but like Suzy, her mother would always know exactly where it was.

  “It’s important and urgent,” Suzy said, not denying the situation deserved caution. “But I promise you I’ll stay on my toes, keep my eyes open and be back in time to bring you and Justin supper. Okay?”

  Cordelia’s frown stayed put, but she nodded. Suzy gave the woman a quick hug, collected the rest of her things and was out the door and running to the car when her mother decided to get in the last word.

  “Mr. Callahan, you better bring my girl back in one piece, or so help me, you’ll have to answer to me!”

  James leaned across the front seats and called out through the open passenger door. “Yes, ma’am!”

  It wasn’t until the door was shut and they were pulling away that he said anything to her.

  “You definitely don’t look like a cop.”

  There was no humor or charm lurking behind each word. No punch line he was waiting to hit. Instead, his attention was beyond the windshield, focus pulling his expression tight. Which was good. What they were about to do wasn’t a joking matter.

  * * *

  THE BAR WASN’T OLD, but it carried a vintage aesthetic that started with the wooden sign that hung in the window and continued through the main room with its leather chairs and wooden bar stools, and even carried right into the men’s bathroom, where James admired the mirrors, worn, but hanging in there.

  While he scoped the restroom out, along with a door that he assumed led to an office, he couldn’t help but get swept up in admiring the establishment on the outskirts of the city of Kipsy. It probably didn’t help that it was named simply The Tavern. He’d toyed with the idea of starting up a bar while he’d been deployed. Every idea he’d come up with had been just as simple but elegant. He wasn’t a heavy drinker, but he’d always appreciated a good, solid beverage.

  Now, sitting in a corner of the main room, James wished he could have a good, solid beverage other than the beer between his hands. It was for show. Mostly. He ran his fingers down the glass of his bottle, wiping away the condensation that had collected. It was his first beer, and he was doing his best to make it last. The adage “it’s five o’clock somewhere” didn’t feel right at ten in the morning.

  “Are you sure your friend isn’t trying to pull one over on us?” Suzy wasn’t looking at him. Instead, her gaze was bouncing between the one wall-mounted TV over the bar that had been turned on with an old football game playing on it and the front door. Her drink wasn’t as full as his. Neither was her patience. Occasionally she would bite her bottom lip. It made it harder to keep his thoughts on point. “He could be setting us up.”

  James started to peel the corner of his label off. He shook his head.

  “She,” he corrected her. “And Hale might be a lot of things, but a liar she is not. She said her contact called in a favor to get us this early meeting, assuring her friend that we weren’t looking for trouble, just information. I believe her. He has no idea who we’re looking for or who I am.”

  Suzy’s eyebrow rose, but she didn’t meet his eyes. Cheering blared out of the TV as a team scored a touchdown. The bartender, Rudy, who’d had to let them in and start his shift early, and had done so without comment, watched the game with little interest. He didn’t watch James or Suzy at all.

  “So, not only do you have a lot of contacts, but your contacts have a lot of contacts,” she stated.

  “What can I say? Everyone knows someone.”

  “True,” she conceded. He watched as her long, thin fingers wrapped around her bottle and she took one lengthy pull. Again, James wondered what it would be like to be out with Suzy without the cloak-and-dagger, danger and deceit, and hidden guns. It was true, he’d spent the time she was in the hospital trying to get to know her when he could, but that had only resulted in polite miscommunications and then straight-up avoidance. He’d then taken to internet searches and veiled inquiries of people he knew who had grown up with her or worked alongside her. He had been curious then, just as he was curious now, about who Suzanne Simmons was outside of her job. Outside of the Riker County Sheriff’s Department.

  “Hale Cooper is the sister of one of my buddies from my old Air Force unit,” James explained, hoping to make her feel more at ease. “Between deployments, I would tag along to some of their family get-togethers. Sometimes Chelsea was included, too. After I left the Air Force to come back here, I kept in touch with everyone, including Hale. She still comes to Chelsea’s birthday parties every year.” He smiled. “Basically, she’s a good friend and wouldn’t steer me wrong.”

  Suzy turned to look at him now. Her eyebrow had come back down, but he could still see a question there. One he usually got when Hale was around. “We never dated and never wanted to,” he added. “It’s more of a sibling bond. I would assume like the one you seem to have with our fearless sheriff.” A barely-there smile crossed her lips. He’d hit the nail on the head with that observation. Not that it had been hard.

  “My dad used to say that family isn’t blood. It’s who you decide to love and who decides to love you back. You work for it. You’re not just born into it.” Suzy’s smile became more pronounced. James was surprised she was opening up at all. He’d only shared about Hale to ease her mind. Or maybe to let her know that he wasn’t interested in his friend. At least, not in the way he was with Suzy.

  The thought entered his mind so quickly that he nearly missed what she said next.

  “One of the last things he ever said to me was about Billy,” she continued. “He told me to look out for him because he was a good kid and he didn’t have any brothers or sisters.” Her smile started to fade. “I didn’t know he was sick then, and trying to give me as much advice as he could, while he could, but after he passed I made sure to take what he said seriously. Though it wasn’t hard. Billy’s always been there, and when he couldn’t be, he made sure someone was.”

  She snorted. It made James smile on reflex. “I got pregnant when I was twenty-one. Not ideal, but it happened. When I told Justin’s father, he called me a liar and then said several very bad things. Half the school heard, because in my mind telling him at a college football game was an awesome idea, and I remember getting so sad. But then so mad. He just kept saying horrible things to me. He wouldn’t stop. I was two seconds from punching his lights out just to shut him up when Billy appeared out of nowhere and did it for me.”

  “Good man,” James added, meaning it. He’d already done the math and knew Suzy had to have had Justin when she was around twenty, but beyond that he hadn’t known what had happened for sure. Especially not with Justin’s father.

  “Yeah, I can’t deny it was really nice to have him shut up, but—” She held up her index finger. “The real moment I knew Billy had become my family for life was just after that, when Justin’s dad left town. I hadn’t had the guts to tell my mom yet, and my sister was out of state, so there was no buffer.

  “I was sitting on the front porch, trying to get the nerve up, when Billy shows up in his dad’s Bronco. I remember being so scared about the future, about being a mom, and a single one, at that. And there he was, goofy as hell with a smile to match. He walked up and just said ‘You two are going to be fine.’ Just like that. No lie, just confidence. He believed it so much that it was enough at that moment to help me believe it, too.” She shrugged. “He’s been Uncle Billy
ever since.”

  Suzy’s affectionate demeanor shifted so suddenly that James tensed. There was ice in her words as she spoke.

  “Which is why we need to figure everything out before he gets back into town,” she said. “I don’t want to lie to him. Not after everything he’s done for me.”

  James wanted to assure Suzy that he’d do everything in his power to make sure it all worked out, but the moment he opened his mouth to do so, a man walked into the bar. He nodded to the bartender, who immediately stood up and left.

  The man didn’t look their way until Rudy was out of the room.

  Then the man walked toward them with purpose.

  Chapter Nine

  The man, burly and tall, bald and bearded, pulled a chair over and sat down heavily. He wore a dark shirt and dark jeans, and had tattoos across the skin that showed. Suzy estimated his age around upper forties. She didn’t recognize him, and by the look on James’s face, neither did he. However, he got right to the point, which Suzy appreciated.

  “So, you have a question for me. What is it?”

  Suzy wanted to adjust her stance so she could more easily get to the gun hidden beneath her jacket. It was an urge she had to tamp down, however. The point of their cover story was to hide the fact that she was law enforcement for as long as they could. They didn’t want to spook the man if he wasn’t on the good side of the law. And if he had any affiliation with Hank or Gardner, it was safe to assume he wasn’t.

  James kept playing with the label from his beer. He seemed so relaxed. A cool cucumber.

  “We’re looking for a man named Hank,” James said. “A mutual friend told me and my girl here that we could trust him.”

  The man didn’t give anything away. His expression remained the same one of slight annoyance that he’d shown them the moment he walked in.

  “I’m sure there are a lot of Hanks in the world,” he answered. “What makes you think I know where this one is?”

  James motioned to the bar on the other side of the room. “Because that same friend told me this is where he likes to drink, and since you own the place, I’m betting you already know who I’m talking about.”