In this thrilling The Coltons of Shadow Creek tale, a millionaire confronts his past to save his child...

When his wife, Tess, died, tech mogul Jeremy Kincaid’s perfect world broke apart. Their young son is the light of his life, but Jeremy can’t shake suspicions that her death was no accident. Did presumed-dead Livia Colton orchestrate Tess’s car accident? Jeremy risks everything by enlisting beautiful PI Adeline Winters to uncover the truth.

Adeline once served as Tess and Jeremy’s egg donor and surrogate. Giving up her baby was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, yet she can’t turn down Jeremy’s plea for help now. But Adeline and Jeremy must push aside their slow-burning attraction when kidnappers place the ultimate bargaining chip on the table: their son.

“I’ve always been so grateful to you.”

He met her eyes, trying to convey his sincerity. “You have no idea what he means to me. I love him so much. It’s...indescribable, the intensity of that love.”

“I think I do have an idea,” Adeline said. “I felt it the moment I held him for the first time.”

Their gazes locked in that moment. Jeremy felt a bond cement between them, one only a mother and a father could have. He let the feeling take him without concern over consequences.

He leaned toward her, turning his head to bring his lips to hers. The first featherlight touch seared him with sensation. When she put her hand on his face, he deepened the kiss.

An instant later, she answered his passion. He leaned more, pressing her down onto the oversize sofa. She bent one knee and his hardening erection found itself against her groin. The shock of sensation pushed him to the brink of no control.

Jeremy went still. If they took this any further...

* * *

The Coltons of Shadow Creek:

Only family can keep you safe...

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the latest book in The Coltons of Shadow Creek series, where Livia Colton lives on—even though she is believed dead. Enter the tantalizing world of scandal and love in Mission: Colton Justice.

The most appealing aspect of this story for me was the hero’s entrepreneurial spirit and his penchant for honor and, yes, justice. The heroine is his perfect counterpart, with equal zest for success and a deep desire to belong to her very own family. May you be drawn in from page one and enjoy the rest of the series!

Sincerely,

Jennifer

Mission: Colton Justice

Jennifer Morey

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Two-time RITA® Award nominee and Golden Quill award-winner JENNIFER MOREY writes single-title contemporary romance and page-turning romantic suspense. She has a geology degree and has managed export programs in compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) for the aerospace industry. She lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado, and loves to hear from readers through her website, jennifermorey.com, or Facebook.

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For Allie, my adorable, loyal and loving

Australian shepherd,

who is always by my side.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Extract

Copyright

Chapter 1

The vision that walked toward his open office door differed mightily from the broke college student he’d last seen a few years ago. Jeremy Kincaid forgot all about the exciting new investment opportunity in a high-tech night vision equipment start-up. Adeline Winters seemed to float with each smooth, graceful stride. She could just as easily be on a catwalk as in his reception area.

Her endlessly long legs made the light gray trousers wave as she moved. The open lapels of her knee-length black trench coat offered glimpses of slender hips beneath the fitted hem of a gray button-up vest. Modest cleavage peeked out from above a soft, silky yellow shirt, very business-like. Thick, shoulder-length blond hair fanned out. He drank in the sight of her. By the time she stopped at his office door, her porcelain skin and naturally pink lips arrested him next, and then her keen, light blue eyes snapped him out of his trance.

He stood, feeling as though he might have to control his drool. Clearing his throat, he got a hold of himself and stepped away from his chair. Did she have the same reaction to seeing him again? She held a leather padfolio in one arm. Her gaze took in his form as he came around the desk, but he couldn’t be sure the same electric sexual awareness afflicted her.

“Ms. Winters. Thank you for coming.” He shook her soft hand.

“Adeline. Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Kincaid.”

“Jeremy.” He smiled as he looked down at her attire. “College seems to have agreed with you.”

A slight answering smile curved her perfect lips. “My business is growing. Maybe after this meeting, it will grow even more.”

She’d turned her criminal justice degree into her own private investigation agency. When he’d learned that, the wheels in his head had started spinning. Not only did he admire anyone with the know-how and courage to blaze their own path—he’d built his own business on the same steam—he could use her expertise.

Putting the padfolio down on one of two plush brown leather chairs facing his big, cherrywood desk, she removed her coat and draped it over the arm. She had a gun holster and an ammo pouch fastened to her belt. While he wondered about that, she looked up at his thirty-six-by-forty-eight black-and-white picture of the moon, half in sunlight and half in shadow.

“That was taken by an imaging satellite,” he explained. “The founder of a start-up I invested in sent it to me.”

She looked over the rest of his office. A whiteboard covered one wall and pictures of ranch land accented a conference table. A credenza took up the space behind his desk.

After taking those in, she returned her attention to him. “You like ranching and stargazing?”

“Ranching is in the family. Not me. I’m a businessman.” He looked over the photos. “I like investing in technological concepts, seeing entrepreneurs take an idea and turn it into a success. I built my first company from nothing and started investing after I sold it.”

“To the moon and back.” She smiled wider than before. “I knew you invested but I didn’t know you sold your first company. Tess never mentioned that.” She wandered to the whiteboard where he kept a list of tasks and an unclassified flowchart of a new night vision scope for a military rifle.

“I didn’t have much money. I had my engineering degree and a partner with an innovative idea to make a garage door opener that could read license plates. Kind of like electronic toll optics.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know some people who have one of those.” She turned to face him. “Fascinating.”

“My partner bought my share of the company. That’s what I used to build this.” He opened his arms.

She met his eyes with softening warmth. He hadn’t known her long before his wife had died. He and Tess had chosen her from a donor pool.

He suspected she was thinking of that time along similar lines, perhaps how she didn’t really know him, either.

Tess had been so excited with the prospect of having a baby. He had been thrilled to make her that happy. The sting of loss caught him as it often did. He still could not let her go.

Lingering too long on the sparkle in her glowing eyes, he gestured to the chairs. “Please, have a seat.”

He stepped back and then around to his chair behind the desk. She adjusted herself until she found a comfortable position, crossing her sexy legs and leaning back to patiently await his purpose in inviting her to his office.

“Is there a reason you’re armed?” he asked. The college student he once knew wouldn’t have packed heat.

“Only when I work cases that make me nervous.”

“Hopefully that doesn’t mean me.” He kept his tone light. If she had any idea why he’d asked her to meet, she’d have a good reason to be armed.

A brief breath left her, seeming to stem partly from a response to his lightness and partly from patient tolerance. “No. A mother hired me to track down a drug dealer her son has gotten mixed up with.”

“Ah.” He leaned back with his fingers to his jaw. “You do target practice?”

“I wouldn’t have a gun if I didn’t. I assure you, I’m legal and qualified.”

“I wasn’t questioning your experience as an investigator.” He knew nothing about her experience. Her website had glowing reviews from clients, and everything about her presented professionalism. He’d take a chance on her, which was better than he’d get from the local sheriff’s department. Other than Knox Colton, he didn’t trust anyone.

“Why did you ask me here, Mr. Kincaid?”

“Jeremy. I want to talk to you about Tess.”

Adeline’s gaze faltered with the mention of Tess, making him wonder if that part of her past bothered her, being an egg donor and surrogate to fund her college tuition, giving up her baby.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been two years,” she said.

“Yes. The first year was pretty hard on me and Jamie.” He’d spent the next year trying to get deputies to look into the car accident that had killed her. That had proved futile.

Her eyes lifted and he saw the hungry need for more information about the boy. Jeremy couldn’t deny her link to him, and Jamie had influenced his decision to call her.

“He’s doing much better now. He misses his mother, but he’s adjusting,” Jeremy said.

Adeline only met his eyes, seeming to be caught in ponderous thought.

“He looks like you.” Jeremy didn’t know why he’d said that. After Jamie had been born he’d focused on thinking of him as his and Tess’s baby. But it had been difficult not to make the comparison. “He’s got blond hair and blue eyes.” He breathed a laugh and pointed to his dark, short cropped hair and brown eyes. Tess had dark hair and gray eyes.

Adeline made no comment and lowered her gaze. Talking about Jamie must make her uncomfortable.

He used to tell himself that Jamie’s bright blue eyes resembled Tess’s. Jamie had a lot of his own features, but the blond hair and blue eyes were always Adeline’s. He’d often felt he had to convince himself that Jamie was his and Tess’s and not his and Adeline’s.

“Sometimes I wish I wouldn’t have been so impulsive,” Adeline said at last. “Being an egg donor and surrogate for Tess.” She shook her head. “I wanted and needed to finish college, but...wow.”

Jeremy wasn’t sure what she meant by “wow.” “You regret it?” She’d given him and Tess a priceless gift. Why would she be anything but proud?

“No, not regret. I know how much Tess wanted a baby. I saw that when I met her. And the money did get me through college. It was worth it just for those two things.”

He heard the but she didn’t say. Giving up a baby would be hard but she’d gotten past that...hadn’t she?

Tess had lost her ability to have children due to polyps in her uterus. When she had found out, she had been devastated.

Catapulted back in time, he remembered certain key things about the in vitro fertilization process. Using his sperm and Adeline’s egg and implanting the fertilized embryo into Adeline, her growing stomach through the pregnancy, and then giving birth to Jamie—to all accounts, his son with Tess. He’d tried to experience it all with Tess, but there had been moments when he felt connected to Adeline in an intimate way only a man and woman who produced a life could understand. That’s why he’d kept his distance from Adeline as much as possible. Adeline had spent most of her time with Tess when visiting them during her pregnancy. Thankfully he’d had work to fall back on.

“Why don’t we talk about the reason you asked me here?” Adeline said.

“Of course.” They’d ventured a little too far into the past. He sat forward and placed his hands on the desk. “There is no easing into what I have to say. So I’ll just say it.” He watched anticipation brighten her eyes. “I think Tess was murdered.”

Adeline’s head moved back in unexpected surprise. “Murdered? She drove into a pole.”

She hadn’t injected herself into his and Tess’s lives after giving birth, but she had attended the funeral. She had also done her research before meeting him. He liked that. “Yes, and her blood alcohol level was high. But a few months ago I spoke with a local who said he saw Tess having lunch with a man the day of her accident. She left upset over whatever the two discussed. Her death always bothered me but I didn’t start thinking there might be more going on than a simple accident until then. What if she had relations with people I didn’t know about? Why did she meet this stranger and what made her upset? It’s too much of a coincidence that she died the same day.”

“Who is the man?”

“The local didn’t know. I tried to get the sheriff’s office to look into it but they haven’t. I get a brush-off every time I go there.” Renowned local criminal Livia Colton had her tentacles buried deep into the department in Shadow Creek, Texas. Jeremy knew her through his ties with other Coltons. He wouldn’t put it past Livia having something to do with the lackadaisical mindset of the sheriff’s department.

“I don’t see how Tess’s lunch could have anything to do with her accident. She may have been upset and that may have contributed, but...murder?”

Adeline clearly thought he was taking a leap. Jeremy expected her to be analytical.

“Even in prison Livia still had contact with a few of her followers. Someone I know heard one of them talking at a cocktail party, saying how she’d love to see Tess suffer somehow. ‘Like some kind of terrible accident, something to mess up her perfect, fortuitous life so she can see how the rest of the world lives,’ she said. Livia did not like Tess. She hated her youth and goodness.”

“Why do you think she had motive to kill? And from prison? Tess was young and beautiful and she married you. Maybe Livia was just jealous.”

Jealousy was enough. She didn’t know Livia well enough if she didn’t agree. “I know there has to be more and I don’t have much to go on right now, but Livia is capable of paying lackeys to do her dirty work. She could have paid someone in the sheriff’s department to cover it up. She’s a sociopath. Matthew Colton was her brother, remember, and a serial killer. Even he feared her. She worked in the highest ranks of an organized crime group, trafficked drugs—and people. She’s been convicted of murder before, so why not do it again if it made her feel better or gave her some kind of gain?”

“I agree she’s capable, I just need more of a motive.”

“I agree with that, too. That’s why I called you. I want you to find out, either way. Was Tess murdered and if so, did Livia do it? Tess’s accident report said her car swerved off the road and there were no skid marks before she hit the pole.”

“She was drunk.”

“Something Livia would capitalize on.”

Adeline seemed to ponder that awhile. “Who is she to you?”

“Livia? Wrecker of my friends’ lives.” He knew several of the Colton clan. “Destroyer of a community I love. And someone who I know for a fact hated my wife—for whatever reason.”

“You talk as though you know she’s still alive.”

“I believe she is.”

Again, she fell quiet and considered him. “Livia is dead, Jeremy.”

“Livia has escaped capture before. She was on the run for months until she was found hiding in her La Bonne Vie estate. Her kids all thought she would finally go back to jail when the vehicle crashed and went into the river. Her body was never recovered.”

“The SUV was swept downstream during a heavy storm. She’s probably buried in mud somewhere.”

He enjoyed visualizing Livia dead under several feet of gooey mud. “Right where she belongs.” Was there a more fitting demise? “Ever since Tess’s accident, I’ve had a feeling she shouldn’t have died, that the accident seemed too staged, that she wouldn’t have driven into a pole. Livia never liked her. Now I find out Tess met with a man she never told me about. I just need answers. I need someone I can trust to look into it, to make sure she wasn’t murdered.”

Her expression eased of skepticism. “All right. I can do that.” She picked up the padfolio and opened it. “What’s the local’s name? I’ll start there.”

He sat back. “Good. Why don’t you pack some things and stay at my house until this is over?”

She looked up from the padfolio. “Excuse me?”

“If Livia is involved, this could put you in danger. Besides, when you aren’t busy investigating, I thought you could help me with Jamie. Spend some time with him. I had to let his nanny go for stealing some of Tess’s jewelry. Emily Stanton seemed like a nice woman, but I had her pegged all wrong.”

“I’m not... I’m a private investigator, not a nanny.”

He suspected she might react this way. She hadn’t seen Jamie in a long time. As his biological mother, she would have to have some kind of feelings on the matter, wouldn’t she? While he didn’t want to push too hard, concern for her safety was his primary motive. If Livia was involved, he needed to know Adeline and Jamie were safe and the only way to do that was to have her close to him.

“I’ll pay you,” he said. “In addition to your investigation fee.”

She looked down with a befuddled grunt.

“Jamie would love to meet you.” His son had gone too long without a mother figure around.

She looked up with only her eyes and he saw her reluctance. Is that the reason she stayed away after giving Jamie to him and Tess? Was it too painful to be with Jamie and know the boy didn’t belong to her? He’d often wondered. Not that he would have wanted her to be a permanent fixture. That might have been awkward, but a friendly visit every now and then would have been just fine.

“Please.” He had to convince her. “You’re the only person who’s capable of helping me. I don’t trust anyone else.”

After several seconds she closed her padfolio. “I’ll think about it.”

“Then come over for dinner tonight. We can talk about strategy going forward. I’ll give you the name of the local then.”

She half smiled, wry. “Are you bribing me?”

He answered her smile with a grin. “Just giving you a little incentive.” If he was honest, he’d have just said yes.

* * *

Jeremy’s handsome grin stayed with Adeline long after she left his office. Dark stubble had begun to make its presence known and matched the black color of his hair and arches of his eyebrows. His playful but determined brown eyes and the deeper crease on the right side of his mouth haunted her thoughts most. Sitting in her four-door Audi A3 with the headlights off in case Jeremy watched for her, she gripped the steering wheel and looked at his house. She hadn’t driven up to the gated entry yet, just parked on the street to be sure of whether to do so.

She could see his house through a stone pillar and iron fence, a veritable mansion by her standards. She had a nice house but it wasn’t big, just a fixed-up older colonial with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. She could get lost in Jeremy’s house. On a huge plot of land where the nearest neighbor was a tee shot away, the modern English country manor had no front yard. Exterior light lit the impressive home. She pictured a carriage rolling to a stop before the arched front entrance, over square stone slabs that extended right up to the house with some kind of ground cover growing in the spaces between. Four symmetrical casement windows lined the first and second levels on each side of the door. This part of the house was made of varying earth-toned sedimentary stone blocks that gave it a rough texture. Three attic windows jutted out from a dark slate roof. The front of the house stood out from a recessed back portion made of much smoother, monotone stone.

Was she really going to do this?

Reaching over to her laptop case, she unzipped a pouch along the outer side. Pulling out the last photo Tess had sent her of Jamie, she stared at his one-year-old face. At the time, she’d thought sending the surrogate and egg donor a picture of her son odd. Why had Tess done it? Her note had said something to the effect of, “Thought you’d want to see what an angel we have, thanks to you.” She’d been tempted many times to reach out to Jeremy just so she could see her son again, but doing so would only make her want more. Had Tess sent the photo as a warning not to try to come see her baby? The original photo showed all three of them, Jeremy and Tess smiling, Jamie in Tess’s arms. Tess hadn’t struck her as that type of person, and she had to admit her reluctance to see Jamie had been the only thing that had kept her away—nothing Tess had done either intentionally or unintentionally.

Now here she was, parked outside Jeremy’s house, knowing full well that she’d go inside and not leave, help him investigate Tess’s accident while they both watched over Jamie. The drug dealer she’d investigated had been arrested just this afternoon, so she had no other cases. That had only given her another reason to come here.

Putting the photo back into the pouch, she was about to drive to the gated entry and onto the stone slabs when she noticed a car across the street. It hadn’t been there when she’d pulled up. In fact, it must have just pulled up. The headlights went out and no one left the vehicle.

Adeline stayed in her car and watched.

A few minutes later, a man got out and walked toward Jeremy’s property.

Removing her pistol, Adeline loaded it and got out of her car. The man disappeared into the darkness along the fence lining Jeremy’s property.

Adeline ran after him. Seeing him clear the fence, she did the same. On the other side, she saw the man go into a cluster of trees between Jeremy’s house and the one next door. At the trees, she hid behind a trunk and spotted the man continuing along the same line. He reached the backyard and stopped. Looking at the house where light shone from an upper level window. Jamie’s room?

“Hey, you!” Adeline raised her weapon. “Don’t move!” She stepped out from the tree and walked toward the man.

He ducked into the trees and ran.

She ran into the trees after him, hoping to cut him off. She heard him crashing through the trees, breaking branches and shuffling leaves. When he stopped, so did she, taking cover behind a tree. Peering out, she searched the wooded area. She heard water flowing through a small stream. Jeremy lived on a large parcel of land in a wooded area of Shadow Creek. She moved forward slowly, listening and looking for a sign of the man.

At the stream, she stopped. Downstream she saw several boulders rose above the surface of the water. He could have crossed there. She ran to the spot and hopped rocks to the other side. Lighting her flashlight, she searched the ground until she found a fresh footprint. Following them until they reached the fence. Climbing over, she ran back to her car. Before she reached the road, she heard the revving engine of a vehicle driving away. Just as she made it to the street, she saw the car that had parked across the street racing away in the other direction, too far to get a plate number.

Why had that man been here? What would he have done if she hadn’t interfered? Hurt Jamie? Motherly instinct she could never shed after giving birth raced through her.

Putting her gun back in its holster, she went to her car and drove through the open gate and parked on the stone slabs near the front door. No question about staying with them now...

She took her luggage and laptop case to his door, ringing the bell. Jeremy answered and then smiled when he saw her luggage. He’d removed his suit jacket and tie, the top three buttons of his blue dress shirt undone to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of his chest. He looked stunning in a suit. She’d always thought so, but he wore more relaxed just as well.

“I just chased a man through the trees.” She stepped inside as his pleased look faded; she took in the curving staircase to one side of the wide and high entry and the formal living room to the other. She could see a little of the grand family room through one archway and a dining room through the other. A huge, colorful abstract painting hung on the wall across from the front door, a light shining on it, and a console table beneath with a vase full of fresh flowers and a stack of books about art.

“You what?”

“Yeah.” She walked toward the family room, nervous over seeing Jamie again. “He got away before I could find out who he was.” But she would.

“And you went after him yourself?”

His house wasn’t anything she didn’t expect from someone with his kind of money. Functional leather furniture and a few tables were well placed with dashes of color. A large, round hanging light broke up the cavernous space and floor-to-ceiling windows would allow ample light in the morning. A table lined most of the back of the couch that separated this room from the magazine-worthy open kitchen with stainless steel appliances, white cabinets and marble countertops. The kitchen island sat six. Clean. Tidy. No clutter. She liked it.

She completed her circle. “Should I have rung your bell first?”

“Very funny.”

She told him what happened, how she had seen the man and followed until he had raced away.

“Someone must have started watching me. Maybe after discovering I hired you.”

That could be true. Seeing his house for the first time had diverted her attention—that, and nervousness over seeing Jamie.

“Nice place,” she said, more as a conversational statement, unable to ward off the impending moment when she’d meet Jamie, see him for the first time in two years.

“Thanks.”

His delayed response made her aware that he noticed her discomfort.

“Daddy?”

With a sharp pang bursting in her core, Adeline looked up at the railing of the loft and saw a three-year-old boy clutching one of the spindles. He wore jeans and a superhero T-shirt.

Her chest froze. She struggled to breathe, or maybe her body had automatically made her conscious of the fact that she had to take deeper breaths and the reaction might be obvious to the astute observer. She didn’t care. She gobbled up the sight of the little boy, his full head of ruffled blond hair that reminded her of painful combings after a shower, his light blue eyes shaped like Jeremy’s but the exact color of hers. So much more, intangible and strumming a lovely tune in her.

“Who’s that?” Jamie pointed to Adeline.

She sensed his curiosity and it warmed her. Was he curious because she was a woman? He was too young when Tess died. Did he remember her at all? She doubted he remembered enough to make a significant conscious impact. He had to have dealt with some subliminal effects. Instinctually he’d feel the loss.

“Hey, buddy, this is Adeline.”

Jamie eyed Adeline and then turned to his father. “Can I have ice cream?”

“Sure, come on down.”

Adeline wondered if he said yes just to get the boy to come down and greet her. Her heart drummed anxiously until she put herself in check. She was there to help with a case, not take over the role of Jamie’s mother. She stood stiffly as he came down the stairs and emerged through the front entry. His little steps carried him toward her and he stared in shy absorption.

“I don’t bring women here much,” Jeremy said. “I haven’t dated or anything.”

After he lost his wife, Adeline could well understand. She wouldn’t think too long on why he hadn’t seen any women.

“I’m a bit younger than his grandparents,” she said.

“You’re not my grandma,” Jamie said, all in fun. He went to the freezer.

Jeremy got a bowl and went about the task of scooping a small amount of ice cream while Adeline took advantage of the time to just stare at her son.

Tess had been Jamie’s mother, but he was her son. She’d felt proud and sometimes sad because she wasn’t part of his life. She didn’t like thinking of Jamie as Tess’s son. She couldn’t quite let go of the fact that she’d had a son and he was being raised by his father and another woman. Tess hadn’t been able to have children of her own because of undiagnosed endometriosis. Adeline should be completely happy that she’d given the woman such a gift, not envious or regretful. Why did those thoughts plague her so much? She hadn’t been at a point in her life to care for a child. She had college ahead of her. She’d made the right decision, despite the occasional doubt that seized her.

The only thing she might doubt...and even more, regret...was letting her fantasies of Jeremy take flight.

Chapter 2

“Jamie, Adeline was...my and your mom’s friend.”

Jamie looked up from his spoonful of ice cream, his chewing slowing. He sat on a high stool at the kitchen island. Did the mention of his mother make him sad?

“Ice cream?” Jeremy asked her as he headed toward the refrigerator.

Why not? “I’d love some.”

“Chocolate with chocolate chunks or vanilla caramel?”

“It’s got to be the chocolate chunks.” She smiled at Jamie, who still stared at her as he shoveled ice cream into his mouth.

She went around the island and sat to one side of the boy, catching a whiff of his kid scent.

Jeremy placed a bowl in front of her and sat on the other side of Jamie.

Adeline put a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, the rich chocolate flavor bursting. Delicious. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had ice cream.

Beside her Jamie started to laugh, almost a giggle. She glanced at him and he pointed.

“You got ice cream on your face.” His young voice tripped over the words ice cream, spending more time on them.

Smiling, she licked. “Did I get it?”

“Yeah.” Jamie laughed some more, swinging his feet and piling in another heaping bite.

He rested his forearm on the edge of the counter and Adeline noticed Jeremy doing the same thing. They held their spoons the same, Jamie’s fingers a much smaller version. Jeremy glanced at her and so did Jamie and she felt a pang of affection.

“All right, buddy. Time for pajamas. By the time all that sugar wears off, I want you in bed.”

“I don’t wanna go to bed.”

“I’ll read you a story.” Jeremy cleared his and Jamie’s bowls and took them to the sink.

“Will Adda read, too?”

He called her Adda. How adorable. She took her bowl to the sink where Jeremy withdrew from rinsing his and Jamie’s. Her hand brushed his. In an instant, awareness of how close she stood to him inundated her senses. The unexpectedness of it threw her off balance. For a few seconds all that existed was him, his nearly six-foot height, fit build, dark lashes around his warm, confident eyes...and the smell of him, spicy but subtle.

Jamie tugged on Jeremy’s sleeve. “Read.”

“Go get into your jammies. We’ll be up in a second.”

Jamie hopped off.

Adeline listened to his feet patter up the stairs, thinking she could hear the sound every day and never tire of it.

“We have about two minutes to get up there before he starts hollering.” Jeremy rinsed her bowl and put the dishes into the dishwasher.

He didn’t have a housekeeper?

He turned and headed for the stairs. Feeling a little awkward participating in this family activity, she followed. He stopped in the entryway to pick up her luggage and carried it upstairs.

At the top he paused and let her catch up. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I can show you to your room and you can get settled in.”

“What’s so tough about reading to a kid?” She kept the mood light, not comfortable revealing how this affected her. She was about to read to her son for the first time.

She took in the huge landing area, a loft with a seating area and desk. There were two halls sprouting off the room, one to the left and one to the right.

Jeremy led her down the hall to the right and entered the first room. Spacious with a love seat and chair and queen bed, blues and greens and carved white crown molding, it invited coziness. A five-piece bath with a walk-in closet was more than she needed.

“How many rooms do you have here?”

“Eight. This one’s closest to the stairs.” He pointed toward the opposite hall. “Jamie’s room is the first one on that side. Mine’s at the end. It’s a suite. More than I need, but it was nice to share with Tess on those lazy days.”

He seemed to catch himself talking inappropriately and scratched his temple. “Not...er...for watching movies on rainy days is what I meant.”

“It’s okay if you spent days in your room with your wife, Jeremy.”

“I know but...”

She held up her hand. “I got it.” She did not need to hear about how much he enjoyed those days with Tess. And she berated herself for even feeling a tinge of envy.

In Jamie’s room, the boy had a book out and was bouncing into position, getting under the covers.

“I want Adda to read first.”

“It’s Adeline, Jamie.” Jeremy picked up the book and sat on the bed. “You’re not very shy today, are you?”

“Adda Lion.”

“Adda-leen.”

“Adda.”

Adeline laughed along with Jeremy, making Jamie laugh, too. “It’s okay, I can read to him.” She stepped forward, taking the book from Jeremy and shooing him off the bed.

Taking his place, she opened the book and began reading, aware of Jeremy sitting on the chair in the corner. The story was about a big, hairy golden retriever named Doug. Doug was a girl dog who struggled socially at doggy day care. The other dogs teased her because she had a boy dog name.

“On the way home from doggy day care, Doug ran into three other dogs,” Adeline read from the book. “They had no home so they didn’t get to go to doggy day care. ‘Look. Here comes Doug,’ one of the dog bullies said.”

Jamie touched the drawing of a black Doberman between a medium-sized brown terrier and a pit bull. “They’re mean.”

“‘She’s got a boy name,’ said the brown terrier,” Adeline went on. “‘Why’d your people name you Doug?’ Doug held her tail high and said, ‘They love me.’ Then the three dog bullies passed. The Doberman didn’t say anything. He knew Doug had a nice home and he had none.” Adeline turned the page. “Doug overcame her fear of the dog bullies. She felt sorry for them instead. They teased her but she didn’t have to let them hurt her.”

“Why are dog bullies mean?”

“They’re jealous,” Adeline said.

“What’s ‘jell-us’?”

She’d have to get used to talking to a three-year-old. “They just want what Doug has.”

Adeline read about Doug going home to her people. Then Doug and the bullies ran into each other at a birthday party. The bullies found a home and they all started to become friends. At that point, Adeline finished to “The End.”

She closed the book. “That was a good story.”

“Yeah. I feel sorry for the dog bullies.”

“Why do you feel sorry for them?”

“They didn’t have a home.”

“Well, then you got the message of the story right. And they ended up getting a home.” She smiled down at him as he looked thoughtfully up at her.

“Do you have a mommy?” Jamie asked.

The question came so out of the blue she had to take a moment to assemble her reply. “Yes.”

Jamie wore such a serious face for one so young. “Did she go away?”

Did he ask very many people this? He must have noticed other kids his age had both a mother and a father. Did he remember Tess? He’d only been a year old when she died. “No, but my dad did.”

“You don’t have a daddy?”

He couldn’t possibly know what a hard question that was. “I do but he went away when I was a baby.”

Jamie stared up at her, his crystal clear blue eyes wide with absorption. “Is he dead?”

“No. He didn’t want to stay with me and my mother.”

With that, Jamie turned and lowered his head. After a time he looked back up at her. “My mommy left me. Daddy said she had to go away.”

“She didn’t want to leave, sweetie. She died. I know she would have never left you if she had any say in the matter.” She put her hand over his tiny one on the comforter. “It’s okay. Your daddy loves you very much, just like my mommy loves me. Some of us don’t have both parents, that’s all.”

Jeremy appeared by the bed. “Time for sleep, buddy.”

Adeline stood while he tucked Jamie into the covers.

“Love you.” Jeremy kissed Jamie’s forehead.

“Love you too, Daddy.”

Jamie’s eyes closed and he began to slip into sleep. Precious. Children could fall asleep so easily.

Jeremy headed for the door and Adeline left ahead of him. Out of the room, he stopped in the loft.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to throw you into that on your first day here.”

“It’s all right. I enjoyed it.” She tried to sound nonchalant, as though reading to her son and handling a serious question were no big deal. That wouldn’t affect her when it came time to leave...not.

* * *

The next day, Jeremy stepped into his office building with concern weighing down his brow. He and Adeline had just dropped Jamie off at Camille and Oscar Biggs’s house. Camille had offered to watch Jamie temporarily until Jeremy could find a new nanny. He and Oscar were friends as well as colleagues. Camille had told them Oscar would want to talk to Jeremy when he arrived in the office. Jeremy had received a text saying the equivalent from Oscar himself. His general counsel wouldn’t relay a message like that if it wasn’t important.

He guided Adeline into the elevator, vaguely aware of how she took everything in around her, from the marble lobby to the security desk and the sign in the elevator mapping out businesses on each floor. She wore her professional PI attire again, this time in a man-torturing black pencil skirt with matching vest over a white shirt. She had her trench coat over her arm, and runnable heel-height ankle boots, showcasing her leggy strides.

The elevator opened on the top floor. He walked out with her into the open reception area flanked on three sides by cubicles, the windowed walls lined with the executive offices. Adeline’s heels tapped against the gray slate tile.

“Good morning, Mr. Kincaid,” the receptionist greeted from behind the marble-plated half wall from her desk. She wore her black hair pulled tight into a bun. A vase of white lilies and a large round bronze clock added a touch of warmth. Light streamed through windows on each side, and irregularly placed tables with white chairs provided books and magazines catering to a variety of interests.

Jeremy guided Adeline down a hall between cubicles to the west side of the floor and his corner office.

His assistant rose from her chair when she saw him. “Oscar said to get him as soon as you arrived.”

“Send him in.”

“I’ll wait out here.” Adeline stopped near the assistant.

She and Jeremy were going to go over Tess’s accident this morning and strategize on how to take his lead further. But now they had another meeting with Oscar to squeeze in.

“Oscar said to include your PI,” the assistant said.

That brought both his and Adeline’s head turning.

Was this related to Tess?

“I’ll go get him.”

Jeremy met Adeline’s eyes, hers likely less astounded than his. She might expect the unexpected while working cases. In business he could handle that. This was personal, though. Oscar never insisted on talking to him so urgently. If something important came up, he usually just stopped by his office.

He remained standing with her as Oscar appeared at his assistant’s desk. A shade over six feet, Oscar dressed in a suit and tie every day and kept his body in good physical condition. He wore scholarly glasses and still had a head of dark hair, clipped short and peppered with gray.

He came into the office with a curious glance at Adeline.

Jeremy introduced them.

“The PI,” Oscar said, shaking her hand and giving her form a quick, purely observational once-over. “Not quite what I expected.”

“Did you expect a man, Mr. Biggs?”

Jeremy couldn’t tell if she sounded defensive. She didn’t strike him as a woman who’d let anyone get away with treating her with anything other than respect.

“I’m not sure what I expected, Ms. Winters, but it wasn’t a woman with such a fine presence.”

She had a way of balancing social etiquette with a serious question, her smile engaging and, yes, her presence was fine...very fine. Whatever she’d sought to find out must have satisfied her.

“Thank you... I think.”

Oscar put his hands together in a soft clap. “On to the purpose of this meeting.”

“Coffee.” Jeremy’s assistant entered with a tray and put it down on a conference table.

Jeremy sat at one end, Oscar to his right, Adeline to his left. She didn’t take a cup of coffee, just a glass of water. Oscar sipped from a steaming cup and Jeremy waited for his to cool.

Then Oscar put his cup down and, after a lengthy silence, finally turned to Jeremy. “What I have to say isn’t easy, Jeremy.”

Jeremy didn’t get uptight over that announcement. He’d already anticipated something big. That it wasn’t easy to say suggested this was personal. Nothing related to his business would be that shocking. Oscar must know something. No matter what, Jeremy preferred he tell him.

“You know how people talk around here. I heard you suspect Livia Colton may have something to do with Tess’s accident,” Oscar said.

Jeremy grew instantly more alert. Did Oscar know something about Livia that could help his case? “Yes.” Why had he brought that up? Had he found a connection? Jeremy contained his flaring hope.

“How long have you suspected her?”

“Not seriously until recently. Why?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Oscar asked.

Why would he? “I had nothing to go on, only a hunch.” He waited for Oscar to tell him what he’d come to say, which seemed more and more to be a confession of some sort—a confession related to Livia’s involvement in Tess’s accident.

Oscar lowered his head briefly, uncharacteristic of such a powerful man. He had major difficulty with his declaration. He must have kept this secret for some time and something had compelled him to come forward.

“Before I came to work for you, I was involved with Livia,” Oscar finally said, not sounding or seeming proud.

“You had an affair?” Adeline asked.

He nodded. Jeremy could see how Oscar might be ashamed of that.

“What might make you think that is related to Tess’s accident?” Adeline asked.

The way Oscar turned to her and then slowly, reluctantly, met Jeremy’s eyes, warned of what was about to come next.

“I was the man your witness saw meeting Tess the day of her accident.”

Of all the things. Jeremy leaned back against his chair, needing the support to keep steady. Beside him, Adeline leaned over and removed her padfolio and a pen from her case. Putting them on the table, she began to write, asking, “Did you tell law enforcement this, Mr. Biggs?”

“No. I didn’t see the need. Tess’s accident wasn’t determined to be a homicide.” He turned to Jeremy. “But I see a need now. The next day when I heard she died in a car accident, I felt I was to blame.”

“Her blood alcohol level was well over the legal limit,” Adeline said, jotting down more on her notepad, her handwriting neat and uniform. He read her observations on Oscar’s appearance. Well-groomed. Anxious but forthright...

Jeremy got the idea she didn’t do anything halfway. Her attire was as neat and precise as her writing. Her blond hair was down but combed to a smooth, silky shine. Even her pen had the stamp of detail, with a monogram of her initials.

“Why did you meet her?” she asked, bringing Jeremy’s attention back to the purpose of this meeting.

Oscar looked intent, as though working up to plead his case. “Tess asked me to. I refused the first few times, but she wouldn’t stop until finally I agreed to meet her for a late lunch.”

A few times? She’d had a relationship with Oscar before Jeremy met her. Had she wanted to get back together with Oscar?

Jeremy was stunned. How had he missed her unhappiness? Sure, her drinking had caused problems in their marriage. She had gone to rehab but Jeremy had always worried she might relapse. It wasn’t until she died that he’d he realized she had. She hadn’t been dissatisfied with him as a husband...had she?

“Jeremy, I didn’t get involved with her.”

“Why did she meet you?” he asked again.

In his side vision he saw Adeline carefully put down her pen, pausing in taking notes and only listening intently now.

Oscar’s breath sighed out long and full of reluctance. “She wanted to start up with me again. When I refused, she left upset. I didn’t know she was drinking until I heard about her accident. If I’d have known, I would have stopped her.”

Looking straight ahead, Jeremy searched his memory for signs that Tess had drifted away from him to the point where she’d seek out other men. None came to mind, but the idea stung. He’d always been busy at work. Sometimes he didn’t get home until after eight. They had shared many evenings together, though. She hadn’t seemed unhappy.

Then he began recalling the weeks leading up to her accident. They hadn’t talked much. They’d had family dinners and done things together on the weekends, but now that he thought back in more detail, he and Tess hadn’t said much to each other. When they’d first met, they’d talked all the time. She hadn’t had to work and used to wait for him to get home so she could eat dinner with him. Somewhere along the way she’d stopped doing that. After they brought Jamie home, the sex had almost stopped, too.

“She was drinking again, Jeremy,” Oscar said in his lengthy silence. “She wasn’t thinking straight.”

Jeremy turned to him, a trusted employee, a trusted top executive. “You’ve been a good friend to me, Oscar. If she strayed, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I’m sorry. You’ve been a good friend to me, too. I should have told you sooner.” He bent his head above his coffee cup and shook his head before looking back at Jeremy. “But with her dying... I... I just couldn’t. I could see how much you were grieving. If I’d have been the one in your shoes, I’d have wanted the same. Time.”

Two years was a long wait.

Adeline picked up her pen again. “Tess died two years ago.”

Oscar didn’t falter as she pinned him with that fact. “Yes. And that’s why I’m sorry,” he said to her. Then to Jeremy he added, “But to be honest, I don’t think you’ve stopped grieving. When I heard about your suspicion of Livia, it dawned on me why. You’ve always thought Tess was murdered.”

Jeremy nodded. “I’ve told the deputy who worked the accident but he has done nothing. That only supports my theory about Livia.”

“She did have long tentacles into the community, and they didn’t stop at law enforcement.”

“How do you know that?” Adeline asked.

Oscar seemed to catch himself, remembering who she was, a PI Jeremy hired to look into Tess’s death. And he could have possibly implicated himself. “People talk.”

“She never said anything to you? You weren’t aware of her meeting with anyone on the force?”

He shook his head. “No. She had lots of meetings she didn’t tell me about. She wasn’t an open book. She was a walking secret factory.”

Adeline nodded as though she agreed. She must have heard things herself, although she had never been close enough to feel Livia’s evil.

“How long did you see her?” Adeline asked.

“Six months. She never got over me breaking things off, and was always jealous when I was with other women.”

“Did Livia know you met Tess?” Jeremy took up the questioning from Adeline.

“Not at first. Then she sent me a letter. Threatening me. That’s another reason I wanted to meet with you, why it was so important.”

“What kind of threats?” Adeline asked.

“If I didn’t break up with Tess, I might start having some accidents. She said she’d haunt me from prison. Her words exactly.”

Jeremy met Adeline’s glance. Livia had somehow managed to get a threatening letter delivered to Oscar. Did that bring her closer to believing Livia had enough reason to go after Tess?

“When did all of this happen?” Adeline asked.

“Years after Livia and I were together. I never understood why she hung on to so much resentment for so long.”

“Because she’s that crazy,” Jeremy said.

“What happened after she threatened you?” Adeline asked. “Did she ever haunt you?”

Oscar shook his head, propping his ankle on his knee, looking much more relaxed. “Tess broke up with me a few weeks later. Nothing unusual happened. I thought Livia finally let it go, like she was glad Tess and I split up. Tess met Jeremy about a month later. Jeremy was a good man about it. He made sure I had no hard feelings. I didn’t. I knew Tess and I weren’t right for each other.” He looked directly at Jeremy. “I could see she loved you. I could see you loved her. It was obvious. If Livia held a grudge for years over me and Tess, she might have disliked Tess enough to go after her when she met you, a successful man who made her happy.”

“I appreciate you telling me.” Jeremy really was thankful for his candor. And he was relieved he hadn’t been wrong about keeping him on as his general counsel. He also felt reassured that he’d let his wife, Camille, watch Jamie when he or Adeline couldn’t be with him.

As he turned to see how Adeline was taking all this, he saw her scrutinizing Oscar, as though she felt the man was either a smooth talker or hiding something.

Chapter 3

“You dress differently when you go on stakeouts?” Jeremy asked.

After talking to Oscar, they decided to track down the deputy Jeremy had gone to for help on his suspicions regarding Tess’s accident, the one who had brushed him off. Had Livia paid the deputy to help her go after Tess? They had picked up Jamie and then the next day found the man and followed him here, to this café. He sat by himself drinking coffee and hadn’t noticed them.

Adeline glanced down at her black slacks with white-and-black patterned blouse. She’d draped her trench coat over the back of the chair. “I don’t always wear vests.” She did like the Sherlock Holmes kind of feeling she had when she did wear them, though.

“Maybe that’s what looks so different.”

She knew why when she saw him look down at her cleavage, which was modest, she knew. She never dressed sexy when she worked, but she did have some sexy clothes in her closet.

“Does it bother you?” she asked, hearing her own flirty tone.

“No. The opposite,” he said with answering flirtation.

The waitress came to their table, and she and Jeremy ordered coffee.

“Who are you, Adeline Winters?” Jeremy said. “I want to know more about you, more than they tell you about family history of a surrogate mother, anyway.”

Did he? Would she be wise in telling him? The tickle in her heart wouldn’t allow her to decide.

“I’m just a girl from Austin, Texas, who grew up wanting to fight bad guys.”

He grinned with enchantment lighting his soft, smart, daring eyes. “You must have had someone in your life who made you interested in fighting bad guys.”

Like a man who’d taught her to fight? She wished her past had been that fanciful. She had to avert her face, not see his eyes.

“No,” she finally said.

“No one?”

“My mom worked two day jobs, came home for a couple of hours after I got off school, then left for her night job. Every day. Seven days a week. My grandparents lived in Arizona and had given up on her before I was born. She didn’t know my paternal grandparents because my dad hightailed it a few months after I was born...which you already knew.” Adeline turned to the deputy sitting at the table, vaguely registering he was still alone.

“You’re bitter about your childhood?”

He was really going to pry? “No. My mother was an only child. Her mother was too messed up to raise a child properly. It was just me and my mother. We only needed each other.” Adeline often wished she could be part of a family of her own. She’d never experienced that.

“Is that why your mom gave up on her? Or did she abandon her?”

“She kicked her out for following in her footsteps. Mom got herself into trouble a lot and got herself pregnant. But she cleaned herself up when I was conceived. Not being like her mother was important to her.”

The waitress arrived with their coffees. Adeline smelled the flavorful aroma and reached for some creamer.

“I bet your mother would have liked your dad to stick around to help.” Jeremy picked up their conversation.

Adeline stirred the creamer. “She was glad my dad left. My mother is not a weak person. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She wasn’t afraid to work. She wasn’t lazy. She liked hard work because it provided for me. And her. She taught me not to depend on anyone, least of all a man. Why depend on someone who won’t be there when it counts?” Adeline couldn’t stop the angry emotion. She hated how hard her mother had lived to provide for her daughter. It wasn’t fair. Adeline took care of her mother now, but the years of hardship had taken their toll. Her mother had aged before her time. She had circles under her eyes that hadn’t gone away with her lightened load, as though the man who’d gotten her pregnant had tattooed her.

As Jeremy dumped creamer into his coffee, he asked, “She talked bad about your dad?”

Adeline sipped her coffee before responding. “No, but he abandoned us. There’s a difference between a father who doesn’t want his kids and one who does but struggles to pay child support or find time outside work hours to see them or whatever. My dad didn’t want me. He didn’t love me and had no interest in loving me. I get it. I’m good with that. It taught me to choose the people I want in my life and not tolerate those who aren’t good for me.” She set down her cup, growing uncomfortable. “My father wasn’t good for me or my mother.”

“Do you know where he is?” He sipped his coffee.

“Yes.” But she didn’t care. That had been the point in finding out. She knew where her biological father was. Now she didn’t have to care.

“Where? What’s he doing?”

She just shook her head. Not going there. It wasn’t completely true she didn’t care. She hated what her father had done. She hated what he represented, the kind of man who had no heart. Maybe he was a serial killer.

“It sounds like your mother did well,” he said. “Worked hard but did the right thing.”

“Yes, she did.” But she was lonely and unhappy, and... “I barely ever saw her, especially when I was old enough to take care of myself, which started about when I was nine. She helped me go to college. Not financially, but she helped me find and apply for scholarships.” She smiled softly with the memory. “That was important to her, too.” Her mother loved her daughter. Adeline had never felt the lack of that. The few quality times they’d had together were all special.

“Why didn’t she find someone else? If she looks anything like you, she should have had no trouble.”

That often bothered Adeline. She worried her mother had never gotten over him.

“She didn’t want to. Being a mother was enough for her.”

After several seconds where Adeline felt Jeremy’s doubt, he finally said, “What did your mother think of you giving Tess and I a baby?”

“She had a very open mind about it. She supported me.”

He got a thoughtful look. He must come from a different kind of family. Wealthy. Elite college education. A mom and a dad. He had no trouble talking about his family because he came from a solid unit. While she’d come from a solid unit as well, hers was just two people: her mother and herself. She and her mother were close friends, made closer by the parental bond. She encountered few people who truly understood what it meant to be raised by a struggling single parent—at least, not that resembled her experience. And most she did encounter didn’t struggle to make a living. Adeline could now count herself among that demographic. She’d risen above what her mother had endured.

“I’m sorry,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t mean to make you talk about anything that upsets you.”

“No. I’m not upset. Don’t be sorry.” She warmed to his sensitivity. Had she ever met such a nice man before? “Your turn.”

He chuckled softly. “All right. Well...as you know, I had a dad. He was demanding. Started teaching us at a young age. I could read junior high level by the time I was six. Forget the baseball bat and glove. It was all brains for my dad.” He glanced away, the memory not seeming to sit great with him.

“No wonder you’re so successful in tech start-ups,” she said.

He looked at her again. “He wanted me to be a lawyer. He was so disappointed in me I joked with him that I should star in a family drama movie where the mother or father tries to force their child to be a mini version of them.”

“Are you bitter?”

His discomfort eased in his eyes. “No. I’m grateful my father pushed me. I didn’t like it as a kid, but I wouldn’t have been as successful if I hadn’t been shown the way of the world from early on.”

Her mother had done similarly with her. “I can’t imagine it’s unusual for fathers to want their kids to be raging successes.”

“No. Mothers, too. My mother stayed home to raise us. She was the supporter and my dad was the enforcer. But I wish he would have let the kid in me discover things on his own. Teach. Don’t cram education down kid’s throats.”

She nodded. She’d had a little of both worlds. “I didn’t start reading junior high level until junior high, but I was cleaning house and cooking dinner by the time I was eleven.” She sipped her coffee, taking her time, then putting the cup down. “Are you from Shadow Creek?”

“No, Austin, but I’ve always liked Shadow Creek and moved here after college.”

He must like smaller towns. So did she, as long as authorities cleaned out the people like Livia Colton. “What about brothers and sisters?”

“I have a younger sister. She’s a lawyer,” he said.

“Is she nice?” she asked in a teasing way.

“Yes, as long as you agree with her.”

Now Adeline laughed briefly. Most lawyers she knew or heard of bulldozed their way through life—Oscar aside. He seemed nice. They might have nice qualities to their personalities but hospitality workers, they were not.

“She’s single. Incurable workaholic. But she makes Dad proud.”

“You adore her, don’t you?” She could see his eyes and heard his tone.

“Yes. She’s a lot of fun when she isn’t wearing her lawyer hat.”

He had the same outlook as her and Adeline wondered how many other ideas they shared in common. “Isn’t your dad proud of you?”

“I think he’s jealous. I followed my own path and I’m more successful than him.” He didn’t brag, only stated the truth. Adeline liked that. Straight shooters always appealed to her most. She’d mark that as another characteristic they had in common.

“Maybe you should remind him he taught you to read junior high level by the time you were six,” she said.

“I have. Except I wouldn’t say ‘I remind him.’ It’s more like ‘I accuse him.’”

She smiled at his light tone. “But you love him, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I love my whole family. We just have hot buttons like every other family.”

Adeline wouldn’t comment on that. She didn’t know what it was like to have a dad and feel love for the man. She felt nothing but disrespect for her dad.

She checked on the deputy, amazed that she’d almost forgotten him. He’d finished eating his Danish and coffee. Was it a break and a snack or was this breakfast?

“Our friend is going to be leaving soon,” she said.

“Did you ever hook up with a guy?” Jeremy asked, apparently not finished quenching his curiosity. “You’re what...twenty-seven now?”

He was thirty-four. Adeline remembered when Tess had told her about when she’d first met him, all bubbly with infatuation. Adeline had been a little green with envy over it, wanting that for herself but never having found it.

“I’ve had boyfriends.” This was another thing she didn’t talk about.

“Didn’t rise to the bar?” he teased.

“I’m picky.”

As he met her gaze, she felt him about to probe into why when their subject paid and stood.

“He’s on the move,” she said.

Jeremy had already put down cash to cover their ticket. She was relieved to be finished with their conversation, and wondered why it had begun anyway.

* * *

After three more hours watching the Nicholson’s house, it had become clear the man wasn’t going anywhere else. His two young kids had bounced out of the house when he’d pulled into the driveway and his wife waited with a smile in the open doorway, watching as the deputy knelt with open arms and his little girls crashed into him. Jeremy was a pretty good read on people and this guy didn’t strike him as a criminal or anyone who’d associate themselves with Livia, but appearances could be misleading.

He’d driven Adeline back to his place.

Parked in front on the stone slab drive area, he wasn’t ready to go inside. Once they did, she’d go off on her own. He’d keep her nearby for a while longer.

“Let’s take a walk,” he said. “The sun is setting. There’s a lake not far from here. I want to show you.”

After staring at him briefly, probably wondering why, she got out and said, “I need to change.”

“We won’t go far. What you have on is fine.” The air had begun to chill but she had her coat. He started walking.

“Tomorrow we should hang out by the station to see if there’s any connection between them and Livia,” Adeline said as they walked. “I need to find evidence to support a reason that deputy might hide any involvement in causing Tess’s accident.”

“Okay.” He was more interested in the sky changing colors than another boring day watching a clean deputy. He was also much more interested in her. The spark that had been there when he’d first met her and returned when she’d come to his office had grown into something more. Something about her drew him in. When this day ended he might address that. Right now he just wanted to take in a sunset with her.

“Nicholson may be working with someone who doesn’t live as nice as he does,” she said. “If he is as clean as he seems, maybe there is another who is not. That won’t explain why the deputy you dealt with brushed you off, though.”

She seemed to ramble on. He didn’t think she was convinced any deputies were connected in any way to Tess’s accident. While that rubbed him wrong, he let it go. He heard the awkwardness in her voice, as though she talked just for something to say. She was affected by their day as much as him. That pushed away any opinion she had about the accident and gave him an alluring thrill instead.

Spending time with her, talking, sharing, had kept a fire burning. Her passion talking about her family—her mother—made him curious. What about that upset her? Her mother had worked a lot of hours. Maybe she regretted not having more time together.

Her upbringing was so different from his. Different from Tess’s, too. They’d both had two parents and siblings. Money.

“No more talk about surveillance.” He stopped where the neighborhood ended, at a park with a lake. “Look.” He pointed to the setting sun’s reflection on the water, a painting of trees and a blue-and-orange sky.

“Nice.” She watched with him as the colors deepened. “Why is this more important than trying to find out if Livia still has connections to dirty deputies?”

“It isn’t. It’s called taking a break. Unwinding.”

She watched the sky a few moments longer. “Do you do this often?”

“I haven’t been here since before...” He couldn’t finish, or say his dead wife’s name.

“You watched sunsets with Tess?”

“All the time.”

“How romantic.” Adeline turned her head.

“She wasn’t as appreciative as I was about them.”

“Sunsets?” She gave his a quizzical look, and then her expression smoothed. “Tess wasn’t much for idle moments.”

She faced the setting sun again. “My favorite time of day is when the sun rises, those first moments when light chases the quiet darkness away.”

With a soft curve to her mouth, she turned to him again.

Their eyes met and he forgot everything but her. Wasn’t this exactly why he’d brought her here? If he faced the honest truth, yes. He craved a quiet, intimate moment with her. He missed them with Tess, and now he realized he missed them in general, that close connection, the stirrings of loving feelings, companionship.

Taking her hand, he pulled her toward him, on autopilot, letting instinct guide him. She seemed to do the same, her hands going to his chest, blue eyes communicating her own rising desire. So beautiful.

He slid his other hand behind her head. “I don’t know why I’m doing this. I just know I have to.” With that, he kissed her, a light, warm touch that ignited more feeling than he anticipated. She responded instantly, pressing against him for more. If he gave her more, they could create something he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle.

Withdrawing, he said, “We better get back.”

The sky had darkened and the chill in the air had increased in the few moments that followed the setting sun.

“Yeah.” She sounded relieved as she began walking ahead of him toward his house.

* * *

Flustered all the way back to Jeremy’s house, Adeline still felt her lips tingle when she stepped inside through the garage. Leaving the entryway, she went into the spacious living room, the floor-to-ceiling windows dark now that the sun had set. She went to the open kitchen, removed her jacket and draped it over one of the kitchen island chairs.

“Are you hungry?” Jeremy asked, placing his jacket next to hers.

“Not terribly.”

“I can order something delivered. Pizza?”

“Sure.” The distraction would help get her mind off Jeremy kissing her.

As he removed his cell, a sound from upstairs made her turn and Jeremy pause.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

“Yes. It sounded like something dropped.”

“When is your mother dropping Jamie off?” he asked.

“In about an hour,” she said.

“Stay here.”

“Hey. I’m the one who’s armed.” She removed her pistol and put her other hand on his chest.

“Adeline, no. I’ll go first.” He took the pistol from her, making her suck in a startled breath.

Following him, she asked, “When did you learn how to shoot?”

“Shh. When I was a teenager.”

She climbed the stairs after him. In the open loft, she stopped with him to listen. The sound came from here and she saw Jeremy’s desk was messy and a stapler had fallen to the floor. No one had come downstairs. Did that mean someone was still up here?

Another sound coming from a bedroom down the hall made Jeremy rush in that direction. He first checked Jamie’s room, and then ran to the next. Filmy curtains blew in from an open window; the screen was cut and also moving in the breeze.

Adeline rushed to look through the window and saw a man running across Jeremy’s property. He had the same stature as the one she’d seen the first time she’d arrived there.

“Is that the man you chased off my property?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes, I think so. He has the same build, but it’s hard to say. It’s pretty dark.” She left the window as Jeremy closed and locked the latch, going back into the office where things had been disturbed.

“What was he looking for?”

Jeremy sifted through the papers that had been disturbed and shook his mouse. A locked screen came up on his desktop computer.

“He couldn’t have cracked my password,” Jeremy said.

“Do you have anything on Tess’s accident?” she asked.

He opened a file drawer and withdrew a folder. Together they looked into its contents. All he had were documents for insurance covering her accident and death, just auto and life.

“Nothing is missing,” Jeremy said. “But he might have taken pictures.”

“Why? None of this proves anything other than Tess died in an accident.” What else could this relate to, though, if not Jeremy’s action in taking a look at Tess’s accident as a possible murder?

Jeremy put the file away and stood still, looking across the loft. “He must have bypassed my security.”

When they’d entered she had seen him disarm the alarm and reset it. Someone had disarmed it. Had they known the code? Or somehow discovered it?

Chapter 4

Later that night, Jeremy tucked Jamie into bed and went back downstairs, where Knox Colton questioned Adeline about the break-in and the man she’d chased off Jeremy’s property. Broad-shouldered and just over six feet, he now wore a sheriff’s uniform and a hat over his light brown hair and blue eyes. He’d recently been elected sheriff of Shadow Creek. He had a couple of his trusted deputies searching the house for any evidence.

Sheriff Colton saw Jeremy and smiled.

Knox was one of several Coltons Jeremy had befriended over time. He knew all about their local trials and tribulations, particularly when it came to Knox’s mother, Livia Colton. Without her in town, the other Coltons had a good name.

Jeremy shook his hand. “Good to see you again.”

“Wish it was under other circumstances. Adeline just told me you hired her to look into Tess’s accident?”

He nodded. “I can’t believe she’d drive into a pole without even trying to stop or swerve, drinking or not. It’s also known Livia didn’t like her, and had held a long grudge against her...”

Knox ran his hand down his stubbly face. “Yeah, I have to admit that’s bothered me, too—her body not being found. And it wasn’t hard to incite her wrath.”

Jeremy didn’t miss how he used the past tense, as though he considered Livia dead. She hadn’t been much of a mother to Knox. He’d basically written her off long before she’d been sent to prison. He, as much as anyone, and maybe more, had reason to despise the woman and never trust her. She had escaped once from a maximum security prison. What would stop her from using an accident in her favor?

“What about it bothers you?” Adeline asked.

He turned patient blue eyes to her. “Growing up with Livia as a mother taught me many things about deceitful people, but she was a special case. She had an assortment of husbands she used to her advantage, worked with a criminal organization, and trafficked drugs and people.”

“People?”

“Don’t forget murder,” Jeremy added. She may have added Tess to her list of victims.

“Yes, that, as well. I often wonder how she ended up so evil,” Knox said. “Her half brother was a serial killer. Maybe that’s what turned her into a sociopath. Maybe it’s in her blood.”

“If she’s still alive, she’s definitely capable of evil,” Adeline said.

What hadn’t that woman done? Hearing Adeline’s skepticism, Jeremy subdued his rising irritation. Didn’t she see why he and Knox were so concerned that Livia still walked the earth?

“That’s putting it mildly. Her family history is only part of her character,” Knox said. “On top of murder and trafficking, you can add kidnapping. She kidnapped my sister Claudia’s mother and took Claudia from her real Russian family. As an adult Claudia hired a PI and is now reunited with them.”

“She fell in love with the PI,” Jeremy added.

“Yes, she did. Hawk Huntley. He’s a good man. I’m glad she found happiness after all she’s been through.”

“You’ve all been through a lot because of Livia,” Jeremy said.

Adeline looked thoughtfully at Jeremy. Would she finally buy into his reason for thinking Livia could have killed Tess? He wondered if asking her to investigate had been a mistake. But then he remembered her pregnancy and the secret feelings he’d had back then, and the feelings that had renewed when he first saw her come into his office. Desire. The mother of his child...

No matter how many times he told himself the real reason he’d asked her here was for her expertise, he couldn’t get past the secret feelings. Guilt stabbed as always whenever he thought of Adeline that way. He’d loved Tess.

“Your security company said someone entered the code around the time the burglar broke in,” Knox said.

That’s what Jeremy had figured. “Then we should talk to my ex-nanny, and maybe my general counsel, Oscar Biggs. He came to me and confessed he had an affair with Livia long before he also had an affair with Tess, and that he met with Tess the day of her accident. He said she wanted to get back together and he declined. She supposedly left upset because of that.”

“When did they meet?” Knox asked.

“Oscar said for a late lunch the day of her accident,” Adeline answered.

“Her accident happened later than that,” Jeremy said.

“Much later,” Knox added.

“Excuse me, Sheriff.”

Jeremy turned to see one of the deputies holding a small device in his palm. “We found three of these planted throughout the house. We’re searching for others.”

Knox took the object and held it up. “It’s a listening device.” He looked at Jeremy. “Whoever planted them wants to know what you’re doing.”

“With Tess’s accident?” Adeline asked, her voice full of disbelief.

“What other reason could there be?” Knox asked. “This has the earmark of Livia if I’ve ever seen one.”

Jeremy nodded, glad he at least had the sheriff on his side. “Have you or your siblings heard from her?”

Knox scoffed. “If I had, do you think any of us wouldn’t let the Feds know?”

Jeremy didn’t doubt they would, but he might ask anyway.

* * *

Late the next afternoon, Adeline walked with Jeremy down the sidewalk downtown. They were going to stop in Claudia’s boutique to ask her about Livia when they saw her leave and duck into an Italian restaurant. They followed.

Jeremy held the door for her and Adeline couldn’t help a tiny warm smile at his considerate gesture. Claudia went to the bar area and sat with a menu. Adeline admired her black lace, fit-and-flare dress with horizontal stripe detail breaking up the floral pattern.

Adeline stopped just behind Claudia, Jeremy to her other side. Claudia didn’t seem to notice them, too involved in the menu.

“The usual to go?” the bartender asked her.

“I think I’ll try something new this time.” She closed the menu and looked up at the bartender. “What do you recommend?”

“The chicken piccata and the herb-grilled salmon are my favorites. The salmon comes with broccoli and is a lighter option, which you seem to prefer.”

“Great. I’ll try the salmon, but I’d better get Hawk something else. How about the chicken for him?”

“You got it.” The bartender took the menu and poured her a glass of water. “Can I help you folks?” he asked Adeline and Jeremy.

“No, thanks, we’re here to see her.” Jeremy pointed to Claudia, who paused as she lifted the glass to look at him.

“Jeremy Kincaid?” Swiveling the bar stool, she smiled up at him and then caught sight of Adeline. “And a friend.”

He smiled. “Hello, Claudia.”

She put her hands on her thighs. “Knox told me you had an eventful night.”

“Someone broke in and tried to plant some bugs,” Jeremy said.

“That’s what Knox said. He also told me you might come talk to the rest of the Colton clan. I haven’t heard from Livia and I’m sorry to say that I’m very glad about that.”

“When is the last time you did hear from her?” Adeline asked.

“I’m sorry again, I didn’t get your name.” She tucked a few strands of her long, blond hair behind her ear.

“I’m being rude,” Jeremy said apologetically. “This is Adeline Winters. She’s a private investigator.”

“Ah.” Claudia frowned. “Did you hire her or do the two of you have a thing going?”

“I hired her.”

Why had she asked if they had a thing? Was their attraction that obvious? Or maybe they looked good together.

Claudia eyed Adeline and then Jeremy. “But possibly something going on?” She winked. “It’s been a while since Tess’s accident. We all would love to see you moving on. Such a tragedy. How are you and Jamie doing?”

“We’re doing quite well. Even better now that Adeline is here.”

Claudia sipped her water through a straw and then put down the glass. “Having her around is probably good for Jamie. And you. But why the need for a private investigator?”

“He thinks Tess was murdered and Livia might have been behind it,” Adeline said, hoping she didn’t sound too cynical. She caught Jeremy’s look and felt his offense. She didn’t mean to be offensive; she just thought Livia killing Tess was a little far-fetched. She needed proof. That’s why she’d become a PI. Her brain was hardwired that way. He was just going to have to adjust.

“Oh.” Claudia glanced at Adeline and then stared at Jeremy. “Why do you think Livia killed her?”

“She had relations with a man Tess saw before she met me and frequently made comments about how much she disliked Tess.”

“So you think she was jealous?” When Jeremy let his original statement answer for him, she went on. “That woman has haunted us all and we’ve thought her responsible for many bad deeds, not all of them attributable to her.”

“Which is why I need to check her out.”

“Why do you think I would know anything about her? I’m hoping she’s dead like the sheriff’s department has assumed.”

“She hasn’t contacted you? She still thinks of you as one of her own, most likely,” Jeremy said.

“She hasn’t contacted me. If she survived that accident, she’d be careful not to get caught,” Claudia said.

Adeline couldn’t agree more.

“Unless I see her body, I’m not making any assumptions,” Jeremy said.

“You’re right. Unless there is a body, we can’t be sure.” Claudia’s shoulders trembled. “The idea of that makes me shiver.”

Claudia had likely come a long way since reuniting with her biological family. Adeline saw the pretty ring on her left finger and surmised her life had blossomed in other ways, as well. Life without Livia had grown rather rosy for her. Adeline wished she could find a real family and have her very own happy ending.

“What if she did survive?” Claudia asked, looking back at Jeremy.

“Then I’d like to find her,” Jeremy said.

“And if she didn’t kill Tess?” Adeline had to ask.

“Then I’d still feel good about helping to bring her back to prison.”

Adeline wondered. He seemed hell-bent on proving Livia killed his wife, as though that would somehow heal the injustice of her death. Losing a loved one so abruptly couldn’t be easy, but she thought perhaps he dealt with other issues. Maybe he’d gone through the grieving process but still hadn’t gotten past Tess’s alcoholism.

“No one else has heard from her, either,” Claudia said. “Knox already asked everyone in the family. He said he was going to call and let you know. We’ll see if there’s any indication Livia still has deputies on her payroll, too.”

“Thanks.”

“And we’ll let you know if we do hear from her or find out she’s lurking somewhere.”

Hiding out. Jeremy had a powerful sense that’s exactly what she was doing. Laying low somewhere.

The bartender appeared from the kitchen carrying a bag. As he put it on the counter, Adeline smelled the food and her stomach growled.

Claudia paid for her order and then stood with the bag. “I’d stay and chat, but Hawk is waiting for me.”

“Good seeing you again.” Jeremy stepped back and out of her way.

“Nice meeting you,” Claudia said to Adeline. “We should get together sometime.” She held up the bag of food. “Maybe dinner?”

“We’d love that,” Adeline said, feeling Jeremy’s head jerk her way as though her ready and eager response had surprised him.

Maybe she’d even surprised herself. Meeting up with Claudia and Hawk seemed like a good idea, maybe because Claudia seemed so nice. Adeline liked real people like her. She sensed no pretense from the woman, only genuine friendliness.

When Claudia disappeared from view, she glanced at Jeremy. Why did they remain standing there? Claudia’s air had left them in the wake of her loveliness.

“Why don’t we stay for dinner?” Jeremy asked. They’d found a sitter for Jamie, who wouldn’t expect them until later.

“I haven’t had Italian in a long time. Sure.” She was starving anyway.

They approached the hostess, who led them to a cozy, white-linen-covered table nestled in a corner booth. This began to have a romantic feel. Adeline sat across from Jeremy and put her attention to the menu. The grilled salmon had smelled wonderful but she had a hunger for more traditional Italian fare tonight.

The waiter brought warm bread and Jeremy ordered a bottle of white wine that would go well with her chicken marsala.

“I think Jamie is improving with you in the house,” Jeremy said.

He’d ascertained that so soon? “Really? How so?”

“He’s having pancakes for the first time since Tess died. I tell him things about his mother so he grows up with a sense of who she was. She used to love pancakes.”

Adeline had made pancakes for breakfast this morning. She also loved them and felt odd that Tess also had. Even more, she felt odd that Jeremy had called Tess Jamie’s mother.

“He perked right up when he smelled them. Didn’t you notice how happy he was?”

Yes, she had. Sometimes she just stared at his adorable face. She wanted to permanently imprint the images in her brain.

“I thought he must be like that all the time.” She buried the spark of good feeling and the desire to remember Jamie’s cuteness. Memories like that would become painful if she couldn’t be with him as his real mother.

“No. He’s been quiet and unsocial. I’ve been thinking about taking him to therapy, but now I don’t think I need to anymore.”

He thought she was therapeutic? And did she really have that much of an effect on Jamie? More of those good feelings surged up. If Jamie responded so positively, he must sense—even subconsciously—that she was someone close. Or maybe the way she treated him gave him that message. He was her son and she loved him. He must feel that love.

Should she be alarmed? She neither wanted to lead him to believe she’d be around nor allow herself to become too accustomed to being with him. In the end, if she had to give him up again, she’d go through agony, more than she had when she’d given birth to him.

She caught him watching her and saw his awkward glance away. He’d made the comment but now must wish he hadn’t. Her having such a positive influence on his son suggested she might be a good addition to his recently reduced family. That presented a contemplation too serious for the near future.

The waiter delivered the wine and poured them each a glass. Adeline relaxed back against her chair and enjoyed a slow sip along with a break in conversation.

“Why haven’t you had any kids of your own?” he asked.

So much for avoiding this kind of talk. Had he recovered so quickly from his last observation? Why did he ask that? Putting her glass down, she said, “I...don’t really want kids.” That wasn’t entirely true.

“Really? Why not?”

She couldn’t say that giving up Jamie had been too painful to consider having another. She’d feel as though she were trying to replace him. Did they have to talk about such a sensitive topic?

“I want to focus on my career.”

“But you seem like such a natural with Jamie.”

“Well... I did give birth to him.”

That drew a smile from him and he didn’t comment further.

“Why haven’t you seen any other women?” she asked. She’d been curious of that for a while now. “It’s been a long time since Tess died.”

His smile vanished and he put his glass of wine down. He rested his hands on the table and looked at her as though thinking how best to respond. She doubted he did anything without doing that, without thinking things through. That’s probably how he’d become so successful.

“I guess I didn’t want to see any other women,” he said at last. “I loved Tess, and to have that taken away so abruptly, so unexpectedly, changes a person.”

She could certainly see that. She also felt a little disconcerted, being attracted to him and hearing him profess his love for his wife. Competing with the memory of another woman didn’t seem wise.

“Are you afraid to give love a second chance?” she asked.

“I’m not sure I’d call it fear. I don’t have any desire to feel like that again.”

“Love?”

“No, the pain of losing the love.”

She lowered her eyes, no longer able to meet his, and fingered her silverware. Could she say she’d been in love? She’d thought she had been, once. Then he had shown his true self and she couldn’t possibly have loved that person. She’d loved the man he’d presented to her, though, a kind, mild-tempered man.

In Jeremy’s case, she had some reservations that perhaps what he experienced might be magnified by the way he’d lost Tess, so suddenly and with a young child. Did he really love Tess that much? If so, she wanted no part in competing with that.

“I have to admit,” Jeremy went on, surprising Adeline, “I held back with Tess because I knew she was a recovering alcoholic and I worried if she’d truly conquered that. She attended AA meetings but that started to taper off. I worried mostly for Jamie’s sake. Now that she’s gone and I discovered she had lost that battle, I feel partly to blame but also angry with her for keeping that a secret and for not getting help. It makes me wonder if she ever really loved Jamie as much as I did.”

“I’m sure she did. Alcoholism is a disease. Maybe she wouldn’t have drunk if she could have helped it, especially with Jamie in her life. I don’t think she was irresponsible. She had a problem and, yes, she should have gotten help. Maybe she would have if the accident hadn’t robbed her of the chance.” She looked around the restaurant as the few memories of Tess came to her, smiling, sunny Tess. She faced Jeremy again. “She seemed so much stronger, like she could beat it.”

He nodded. “She was strong, up until she started drinking again. I should have seen the signs.”

“You can’t hold on to regret.” Was that what he was doing? He professed his love for Tess, but in the next breath had confessed he hadn’t trusted her. He’d even said he’d held back.

Adeline grew uncomfortable with the way she internally rationalized his thoughts in a way that might open a door for her to pursue him romantically. That could come with some ramifications. He seemed reluctant to love, period.

“Why haven’t you ever married?” he asked, startling her some. Why had he asked such a question?

“I’m only twenty-seven.”

“That’s marriage age. You’ve gone to college, you’re established in your career. Aren’t you ready yet?”

Was he asking for himself or in general? She found she hoped for the former. “I was in a serious relationship for a while. I met him in college. He told me he was going on to law school. After we graduated, we lived together. I got to work and he never went to law school. He also didn’t get a job—not any job.”

“You supported him?”

“Yes. He was looking for an easy way out. I don’t think he ever really wanted to work. I think he looked for a free ride, and I was it. I heard him talking to one of his friends who must have asked why he wasn’t working and he said he didn’t have to because his girlfriend made enough money. I asked him to leave the next day. He refused, so the next time he left to go out, I threw all his things outside, changed the locks and got a restraining order. He tried to beat the door in. He did break a window. Luckily the police arrived right after that, or he might have climbed in and attacked me. Scariest night of my life.”

Jeremy’s jaw had opened farther as he listened. “Did he abuse you?”

“No, never. He never lost his temper before that, either. And I never saw him again after that night. I heard a few months later that he was working as a waiter somewhere and living with his parents.”

“Everybody’s got to start somewhere.”

She laughed shortly at his sarcasm. “I sometimes shudder to think I almost married him.”

“He asked you?”

“All the time. But I didn’t trust his unemployment. I didn’t really mind making all the money. I actually felt proud, accomplished, empowered as a woman. I just didn’t like feeling used.”

Jeremy’s mouth had closed by now and he looked fondly at her, turning his wineglass in a circle. “Did you love him?”

“I think I did when we moved in together.”

“But then he showed his true colors?”

She liked that he was so intuitive. “Yes, I suppose so.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Gosh. Four years now.”

“And you tell me it’s been a long time since I lost Tess.” He chuckled softly, and then sipped his wine.

Their food arrived. Adeline started eating, all the while wondering how much her experience with her ex-boyfriend had tainted her appetite for love...or men. She looked across the table at Jeremy. She certainly had nothing to fear from him in the way of finances. With him, her apprehension in getting involved centered on Jamie and Tess. Even now a chill seized her when she thought of the day she’d have to leave. She’d lose her son all over again. She didn’t think she could survive that.

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