FOOLS POINT GAZETTE

The town of Fools Point, Maryland, has seen quite a few odd occurrences in the past year. Explosions, shoot-outs, kidnappings…and a fair share of weddings. So much has happened here, in fact, the townsfolk have taken to calling the place MYSTERY JUNCTION. This is, after all, the place where one can find danger and desire around every corner.

Folks are still wondering about our newest business owner, Jake Collins. Though gossip is flying that he has connections to the Mafia, or he was wounded in battle, Jake won’t say a word about his past. But let’s not forget that he has taken in that troubled teen, Matt Williams. Jake can’t be all bad.

Speaking of possible relationships…Now that Amy Thomas has moved back to town, does anyone see a resemblance between her young daughter and Jake Collins? It’s in the smile, I’d say. Amy has been overseas these past several years, and some insist that Jake was in the military—though no one seems to know where he was stationed. Hmm. Anyone up for a doing a little math?

Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

The recipe for a perfect Valentine’s Day: chocolate, champagne—and four original romantic suspense titles from Harlequin Intrigue!

Our TOP SECRET BABIES promotion kicks off with Rita Herron’s Saving His Son (#601). Devastated single mother Lindsey Payne suspects her child is alive and well—and being kept from her deliberately. The only man who’d be as determined as she is to find her child is Detective Gavin McCord—if he knew he’d fathered her missing baby….

In Best-Kept Secrets (#602) by Dani Sinclair, the tongues in MYSTERY JUNCTION are wagging about newcomer Jake Collins. Amy Thomas’s first and only love has returned at last and she’s ready to tell him the secret she’s long kept hidden. But would revealing it suddenly put her life in jeopardy?

Our ON THE EDGE program continues with Private Vows (#603) by Sally Steward. A beautiful amnesiac is desperate to remember her past. Investigator Cole Grayson is desperate to keep it hidden. For if she remembers the truth, she’d never be his….

Bachelor Will Sheridan thinks he’s found the perfect Mystery Bride (#604) in B.J. Daniels’s latest romantic thriller. But the sexy and provocative Samantha Murphy is a female P.I. in the middle of a puzzling case when Will suddenly becomes her shadow. Now with desire distracting her and a child’s life in the balance, Samantha and Will are about to discover the true meaning of “partnership”!

Sincerely,

Denise O’Sullivan

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin Intrigue

Best-Kept Secrets

Dani Sinclair

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An avid reader, Dani Sinclair didn’t discover romance novels until her mother lent her one when she’d come for a visit. Dani’s been hooked on the genre ever since. With the premiere of Mystery Baby for Harlequin Intrigue in 1996, Dani discovered she not only enjoyed reading this genre, she loved writing the intense stories, as well. Her third novel, Better Watch Out, was a RITA Award finalist in 1998. Dani lives outside Washington, D.C., a place she’s found to be a great source for both intrigue and humor!

Books by Dani Sinclair

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

371—MYSTERY BABY

401—MAN WITHOUT A BADGE

448—BETTER WATCH OUT

481—MARRIED IN HASTE

507—THE MAN SHE MARRIED

539—FOR HIS DAUGHTER*

551—MY BABY, MY LOVE*

565—THE SILENT WITNESS*

589—THE SPECIALIST

602—BEST-KEPT SECRETS*

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

790—THE NAKED TRUTH

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Amy Thomas—Trapped in a web of lies whose origins she can’t begin to comprehend, a web that threatens to destroy her family.

Jake Collins—Made a serious error nine years ago; now time is running out for him to make amends.

Kelsey Thomas—The eight-year-old has become a pawn in a thirty-year-old nightmare.

Matt Williams—Jake’s teenaged nephew has a history of being in trouble and now he really wants to change his image.

Susan and Cornelius Thomas—Amy’s parents share a secret that threatens to destroy their world and the family they love above all else.

General Marcus Perry—Above reproach and up for his second star, but he’s been keeping a terrible secret all these years.

Millicent Perry—The general’s proper Bostonian wife.

Gertrude Perry—The general’s sister is slipping in and out of dementia, but just maybe, her ramblings hold the key to everything.

Cindy Lou Perry Baranski—The general’s daughter who is up for reelection as the town mayor.

Eugene Perry—The general’s son spends a great deal of time and money inside the local bar, with no visible means of support.

Ben Dwyer—The Perrywinkle’s bartender, who may have a few secrets of his own.

John Hepplewhite—Fools Point’s police chief always gets his man.

DEDICATION

For Mary McGowan, an unconditional friend.

Thank you. For Natashya Wilson and the past two years

of friendship and support. And for Roger, Chip,

Dan and Barb always.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many thanks to Sgt. Rick Cage and Officer Melissa Parlon of the Montgomery County Police Department. They generously shared their time answering numerous questions. Errors in police procedure are mine alone or were purposefully done to fit the needs of the story.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Prologue

The workman’s heavy-booted foot dislodged something, causing it to roll across the ground and bounce off the side wall. The flashlight followed its course, spotlighting the dirt-encrusted skull.

“Holy sh—”

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Oh, man, oh, man, oh—”

“Come on,” Will said, reaching for the ladder, not waiting to see if Buddy followed on his heels. The burly foreman stepped back as the two men scrambled over the lip of the hole and into the brilliant September sunshine.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zeke demanded.

Will pointed, angry that his hand was shaking. “We got us some bodies down there.”

“In the sinkhole?”

“That ain’t no sinkhole,” Will told him. “There’s some kinda room down there.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Will hated that he was still shaking. “Buddy, you’d better go tell the boss.”

Zeke stared at them. “Never mind the boss, Buddy, go get the police.”

Buddy’s eyes were wide, his skin strangely pale beneath his dark bronze tan. He skirted the pile of debris from the torn-up corner of the parking lot, headed around the dump truck with its heavy load of gravel and started running across the tarmac in spite of it being ninety-eight degrees in the shade. The other two men watched him head for the restaurant before turning to peer back down into the hole.

“You sure about this?” Zeke asked again.

“I know a skull when I see one,” Will growled. “Even a tiny one like that.”

“Tiny?”

Will sized it in the air with his hands. “There’s another one. Bigger. You wanna go look?”

“Hell, no.” He tipped back his hard hat and scratched at his thinning hair. “It could be an animal,” he said hopefully.

Will didn’t dignify that with an answer.

“You just better be sure, is all,” Zeke said.

“I’m sure.”

The two men resumed staring into the deep hole.

“What’s going on here?”

They whirled, Zeke nearly falling into the opening at the sound of their current employer’s deep voice. Jake Collins, owner of the restaurant whose parking lot they’d been hired to fix, stood staring at them, his dark eyes watching intently. He was rumored to be a gambler with Mafia connections. No one seemed to know if it was true or not, and no one had the guts to ask him. But he sure looked the part.

Everyone in Fools Point was a little afraid of Jake Collins.

“Buddy says you found two bodies,” Jake said quietly.

The foreman nodded his balding head. “It’s true, Mr. Collins. Down there. Reason the parking lot collapsed is someone built it over an old root cellar or something. Bodies are at the bottom.”

“Whose bodies?”

Zeke looked at Will who swallowed before shaking his head. He hoped the only thing shaking was his head beneath that penetrating gaze.

“One of ’em’s a baby,” Will told him.

“A baby?” Jake’s voice deepened a full octave.

“Yes, sir. Real tiny, the bones are.”

“Bones?”

“Yeah. They’ve been down there an awful long time.”

Jake Collins didn’t say another word. He simply grabbed the ladder, swung his neatly pressed trouser leg over the edge of the hole, and disappeared from view.

“He’s gonna get them fancy duds all dirty down there,” the foreman muttered.

“Yeah,” Will agreed.

Minutes later Jake reappeared. His face, as always, was an impenetrable mask. “Don’t move anything. Don’t touch anything. Don’t let anyone except Chief Hepplewhite or Officer Garvey down there.” He started to walk away.

“Yes, sir. Uh, Mr. Collins, what are we going to do about the pit?”

Jake paused to pin them with a haughty stare. “Wait for the cops to finish their investigation. Then fill the thing in permanently with that load of gravel.” He continued across the parking lot, not even bothering to brush the dirt from his tan slacks.

“That guy gives me the creeps,” Buddy said suddenly.

“Yeah.” Zeke’s gaze drifted back to the hole in the ground. “Who do you suppose dumped a helpless little baby and its mother in a root cellar?”

Chapter One

A shiver stole up her spine. “Did you say Jake Collins?”

Her mother nodded, folding the last towel and placing it in the basket. “Rumor has it that he’s Mafia connected, you know.”

Amy Thomas shook her head even as her heart continued to pound. Jake Collins wasn’t Mafia. He was the father of her daughter. But her mother didn’t know that. No one knew that except her. What was he doing here, in Fools Point of all places? And running a bar and restaurant?

That wasn’t the gung-ho navy lieutenant she’d known. Maybe this was a different Jake Collins and not her Jake Collins—not that he’d ever been hers except in the physical sense, and then only as a summer fling. Amy’s gaze darted to where her daughter played on the floor with her mother’s pair of cats and a feather toy. Kelsey giggled at the animals and their antics.

Her daughter. Jake had simply been the physical fluke that had helped in the child’s biological creation.

“I don’t believe that for a second, either,” her mother went on, undisturbed by the cats, the child or her daughter’s silence. “He’s just a very private sort of man, but you know how this town is. No secrets here, they simply aren’t tolerated. If he won’t tell people about his past, they’ll make up their own details. Look how they discuss the wife of Chief Hepplewhite. Poor woman. She just sits in that wheelchair day after day never saying a word and no one knows how she came to such a fate. The rumor is—”

Amy stopped her mother from lifting the basket of clothing or speculating any further on the lives of the residents of Fools Point. “I’ll take it, Mom, you shouldn’t be carrying things.”

“I’m not an invalid despite what your father thinks. I have a heart condition. Millions of people do, you know.”

“I’ll still carry the basket.”

“Have it your way. Who am I to argue with free labor? Anyhow, you should see what Mr. Collins has done with the old Perry place. Who would have thought that old eyesore could have been turned into such a fabulous restaurant? Of course, your father hates to eat out so he only took me there once, and only because I insisted. Still, it’s beautiful inside. Mr. Collins did a fantastic job on the renovations. I don’t think Gertrude would appreciate the changes, but then her mind is really starting to slip. I guess that’s why the family sold the estate in the first place. Did you know Gertrude’s niece, Cindy Lou, is the mayor now?”

Jake’s name had caught Amy unprepared. While her mother had been filling her in on the latest gossip since she’d arrived in town yesterday, his name left her stunned.

“I have an idea, Mom,” Amy said, barely registering her mother’s words. “Why don’t we get cleaned up and go over there for lunch?”

Excitement sparkled in her mother’s faded blue eyes. “Oh, that would be fun, but I made egg salad for lunch.”

“We’ll have it for dinner instead. If we eat a big lunch we won’t want a heavy dinner anyhow. You can give Dad a steak or something. Come on, what do you say? We’ll be back home before Dad finishes delivering the mail. My treat.”

It was probably a different Jake Collins, Amy mused, but she wouldn’t be able to sit still until she knew one way or another. For nine years she’d dreamed of meeting Jake once again. A dozen scenarios had helped her pass many a sleepless night, especially when their daughter was a tiny infant. Being a single parent had seemed overwhelming at times.

“I’d like to go, of course,” her mother said.

That was enough for Amy. “Come on, Kelsey, let’s change. We’re going out for lunch.”

“Do I have to change?”

Oh, yes, for this lunch she definitely had to change. Amy wanted Jake to see just what he’d given up nine years ago. “How about wearing your new sundress?”

“The blue-green one that matches yours?”

“Why not? We’ll dress like twins.”

She saw her mother pale and reached out a hand toward the older woman. But Susan Thomas smiled quickly. “I have a blue sundress, as well,” her mother announced. “We shall be the best-dressed ladies at the Perrywrinkle.”

“Cool, Grandma.”

More than cool, Amy decided while trying to calm the butterflies attempting to launch their way free from her stomach. If it was the Jake Collins she’d known nine years ago, he was in for a real surprise.

Amy dressed quickly, brushing out her long brown hair until it snapped with energy. When Jake had last seen her she’d worn it pixie-short and the color had been a much deeper brown, but a few weeks at the beach with Kelsey had lightened her hair color and darkened her skin. Otherwise, she didn’t look all that different now from the woman he’d known.

As she started to put the opal studs in her ears, Amy hesitated. She turned and began hunting through the boxes she’d been storing here at the house. She found her old jewelry box after a few false starts. Almost defiantly, she picked out the crystal earrings Jake had given her so long ago and put them in her ears instead.

Staring at her image, she had second thoughts. Would Jake see the earrings as a sign that she’d been pining for him all these years? Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Jake had taught her a valuable lesson. One she’d never forget.

Falling in love was easy. Making someone else feel the same way was impossible. Jake had wanted a summer fling and she’d obliged, foolishly picturing forever. But his only commitment had been to the navy and the secretive work he did for them. The moment they told him it was time to move on, he did. Alone.

She took heart from the way the earrings sparkled in the sunlight sweeping in through her window. Hopefully, Jake would get the message she intended. He’d meant so little she’d practically forgotten him.

The Perrywrinkle was in easy walking distance. Mindful of her mother’s bad heart, however, Amy wanted to drive.

“Nonsense, darling. It’s much too beautiful a day to ride in a stuffy car when the restaurant is at the top of the hill.”

“Exactly. At the top of the hill.”

“So we’ll take our time,” Susan Thomas told her.

They did, even pausing beneath the bright September sun to watch a caterpillar make its way across the sidewalk. Though they had taken a popular shortcut up the hill behind the restaurant, her mother was huffing by the time they got to the top.

“I knew we should have taken the car,” Amy said worriedly.

“Don’t be silly, dear. I may not be young like you, but I can still walk a block without collapsing.”

Actually, it was Amy who was more likely to collapse. Her palms were sweating and her heart was beating much too fast. Surely in nine years she’d gotten over any infatuation she might have had for the man. He’d dumped her! He hadn’t even responded when she’d written and told him about their baby.

No, she wasn’t infatuated with Jake any longer. She just wanted him to see the beautiful, brilliant child he hadn’t wanted to claim all those years ago. And anyhow, it probably wasn’t the same man, she told herself for the umpteenth time.

“What’s going on, Mommy?”

Amy stared at the beautifully landscaped grounds for the first time. She realized a work crew was gathered around a deep pit only a few feet away. Even as she watched, more people left the restaurant and hurried over.

“I have no idea.”

“Can I go see?”

“Definitely not.”

“Well, I want to see what’s going on,” Susan announced, and headed in that direction.

Amy should have known. In Fools Point everyone minded everyone else’s business. She trailed behind her mother and her daughter. A police car appeared on the scene and a white-haired man stepped from the vehicle. Her mother came to a halt.

“That’s Chief Hepplewhite,” she said sotto voce. “This must be something big.”

“It’s true,” someone in the growing crowd was saying to his companion. “They found a bunch of bodies down there.”

Bodies?

“I want to see! Come on, Mommy!”

“No! Kelsey…”

They’d reached the edge of the crowd. Chief Hepplewhite and another police officer were descending a wooden ladder into the yawning pit. Amy’s mother and daughter paused several feet behind a dump truck to get an unobstructed view.

One of the construction workers stepped forward to correct the speaker. “There’s only two bodies down there and one of ’em’s a real tiny baby.”

Amy saw her mother go white. She began to sway unsteadily. “Mom?”

There was a sudden grinding noise and the dump truck suddenly began to roll backward.

“Get back!”

Amy reached for her daughter and her mother. Her mother stumbled. Before she could pull them to safety, someone roughly shoved all of them to the asphalt, out of the path of the runaway truck. A man’s large body, lying across her back, partly covered her.

“Stay still,” a masculine voice rumbled in her ear.

Voices shouted. Someone screamed. And the truck bounced past, scant inches from where the man had flung them. Amy gripped her daughter’s hand, fighting the adrenaline rush of fear.

There was a horrific sound as the truck’s rear wheel hit the lip of the hole. The truck canted to one side, off balance. The heavy load groaned and shifted. There was a tortured cry of metal as something gave way and gravel began spewing everywhere.

A haze of dust swept over them. The sudden silence that followed was almost painful. The person on top of her pulled away. Amy rolled over and came eye-to-eye with the only man she had ever loved.

“Are you okay?” he asked. An incredulous expression suddenly swept his harsh features as recognition hit him. “Amy?”

“Hello, Jake.”

“My God! What are you doing here?”

“Mommy?”

Amy sat up and tugged her daughter to her side. “I was taking my mother and my daughter to lunch.”

Feeling sucker-punched, Jake rose to his feet and stared down at the face that had haunted his dreams for nine years. Amy hadn’t changed a bit—and yet she had. She was older, of course, but more beautiful than ever. Her sea-green eyes still glowed with that vibrancy he remembered, only now there was a maturity that hadn’t been there before. Her hair was gloriously long. It was silky, and lighter in color than he remembered, but one thing hadn’t changed. Her mouth had always been made for kissing.

“Is anybody hurt?”

Jake tore his gaze from her face at the sound of the police chief’s question. Hepplewhite and Officer Garvey had apparently made it out of the pit before the truck had half filled it full of gravel.

“I’ll be damned. I think my leg’s broke,” Zeke announced, sounding stunned.

Jake turned back to Amy, assessing her for injuries. Other than smudges of dirt, she was fine. Amazingly, Zeke was the only one in the crowd who’d been struck by the truck. Several people had been hit by flying gravel, but no one was seriously hurt.

“What happened?” Hepplewhite demanded of the foreman.

“I don’t know. Look out!”

Near the edge of the pit, the ground gave way beneath the weight of the truck. More of the gravel spilled into the hole.

“Get everybody back! Lee, secure the scene until I can get Osher and Jackstone over here,” Hepplewhite ordered the other officer with him. “Now we’ve really got a mess.”

“Do you want help?” Jake offered.

The police chief sized him up. “See if you can get these people inside the restaurant and keep them there until I can ask a few questions.”

Jake nodded. He kept his gaze impersonal as he looked at the crowd, refusing to stare at the one person he wanted most to look at. “Everyone inside where it’s safe,” he said firmly in a tone that started people moving. “You and you—” he picked two of the construction workers “—carry Zeke inside and set him down in the bar until the ambulance arrives.”

Zeke managed a smile. “I could use a beer,” he announced. “For the pain.”

“We should go home. My mother isn’t well,” Amy protested.

“Grandma?”

Jake squatted beside the frail woman he recognized as the mailman’s wife. “Are you hurt?” he asked gently.

“It’s her heart,” Amy said quickly.

Jake glanced around and spotted one of his dishwashers lingering at the scene. “Billy, get inside and call for an ambulance.”

Instantly, Amy’s mother struggled to sit up. “I don’t need an ambulance! I’m fine. I’m not an invalid.”

“One of the workmen was injured,” Jake said reassuringly. “We’ll need the ambulance for him.”

“Oh. Oh, of course.”

Before she could protest, he lifted her into his arms and stood.

“I can walk.”

“Of course you can, but surely you won’t deprive me of a chance to carry such a beautiful woman to safety.”

“Oh.” She blushed a deep rosy pink. “I’d heard you were a charmer,” Susan Thomas said. “Isn’t he a charmer, Amy?”

Jake’s eyes locked with Amy’s. He saw a flash of remembered hurt before they turned to green chips of ice that sparkled like the crystals in her ears.

“Oh, yeah, he’s a real charmer, Mom. Come on, Kelsey.” She pulled her daughter tightly to her side and turned away without another word. Her skirt whirled almost defiantly about her shapely, graceful legs. The rush of remembered heat startled him. It had been years, but he could still feel those legs wrapped tightly around his body as they came together with incredible abandon.

“My daughter worries about me,” Mrs. Thomas was saying. “I was recently diagnosed with a heart condition and my family thinks they have to pamper me.”

Jake pulled his thoughts back to the here and now. “I don’t blame them one bit. Are you certain you’re all right?” She did appear pale, now that he really looked at her. Pale and badly frightened. Shadows of fear lurked in her eyes.

Well, who could blame her? She’d come for lunch, not to be flattened by a ten-ton truck.

Jake realized he’d gone soft. Before his last mission had gone sour and left him with injuries he was still trying to overcome, his reaction to what had just happened would have been quicker, more decisive. But those days were definitely gone, and if he didn’t set this woman down soon, the whole town would realize just how far gone he was. He could feel the pull of weakened muscles and restored skin across his back. The bullet wound and the shrapnel from the exploding boat had left permanent damage that no amount of operations would ever restore. His shoulder was growing white-hot with the pain of holding even this woman’s slight weight.

Ben Dwyer, his new bartender, met him at the restaurant door. Jake gave him a stern nod. “Get everyone back to work. Free drinks, but nothing alcoholic. Chief Hepplewhite wants us to keep everyone inside and able to answer questions.”

“You got it.”

Of necessity, Jake set Mrs. Thomas down at the table nearest the door. “I apologize for the excitement. I’ll be right back.” He didn’t look at Amy who was sputtering protests as he left, but he could feel her gaze bore a hole through his back as he strode toward the rear of the restaurant and the stairs leading up to his private quarters.

Lifting the woman had been an incredibly stupid thing to do. The pain spread. He grit his teeth, hating the necessity of taking pills, but he wouldn’t be able to function if he didn’t get the spasm to pass quickly.

He focused his thoughts on Amy to get them off the pain in his back. This was turning into one heck of a day. First the bodies, then the truck accident. Naturally, Amy would have to pick today to drop into his life again. She always did have exquisite timing.

He’d thought he was prepared to see her again after all these years, but he’d been sadly mistaken. He’d known this day would eventually come when he’d made the decision to move to Fools Point, the town where she’d grown up. Deep in his heart, he’d hoped for the chance to see her again. But his secret fantasies hadn’t prepared him for reality. Amy still had the power to touch something elemental inside him—something that only responded to her. What surprised him was that Amy was still upset after all these years.

Jake sighed. He’d never known Amy to hold a grudge, yet anger had radiated from every stiff line of her carriage as she’d walked ahead of him into the restaurant. He deserved that and more. He’d walked out on her and what they’d had because of his own insecurities. He’d been able to face death without flinching, yet he hadn’t been able to face what she’d made him feel. Instead, he’d told himself he couldn’t offer her the sort of life she ought to have and he’d left like a coward. Loving Amy had made him vulnerable, and a big, tough navy SEAL couldn’t afford to be vulnerable that way.

What a self-centered jerk he’d been.

Over the years he’d wondered about Amy, if she was happy and well, if she’d found someone special to fill her life. He’d known she probably had, but for some dumb reason, he hadn’t pictured her married with kids. Maybe part of him hadn’t wanted to take the image that far.

Yet Amy had a daughter.

The knowledge ate at him. He hadn’t really believed she’d been waiting for him all these years. Not after the way he’d left her.

Jake sighed. He took two pills, chased them down with a glass of water, and told himself to stop thinking about the pain. He was alive. Three of his men weren’t.

He turned his thoughts away from the memory of a mission gone bad and tried to focus on the bodies under his parking lot. Who had put them there and why? He walked back downstairs slowly, knowing it was going to be a very long afternoon.

His guess proved correct. Jake was left with little time to think about Amy or anything else once the police descended on the Perrywrinkle and his customers.

AMY WATCHED JAKE move about the room and tried not to be too obvious. She ate her food with mechanical precision, barely listening to her mother and daughter. He still moved with an economy of motion, but the fluidity wasn’t the same. There was a stiffness about him now. It was especially noticeable when he’d bent to retrieve a napkin that had slipped from an older woman’s lap.

Had he been injured?

Had he hurt himself when he’d tackled her in an effort to protect them?

Did she care? she chastised herself mentally.

Unfortunately, that answer was yes. She shouldn’t care now that she’d done what she’d set out to do. She’d shown Jake his gorgeous daughter and he’d barely even noticed. Yet she still couldn’t take her eyes from him.

And that made her worse than a fool.

“Ladies, how was your lunch?”

Amy jumped, startled to find him beside her. He’d always done that, she remembered. He moved so silently that he was there before a person realized.

“Glorious,” her mother responded with enthusiasm. “The food here is marvelous.”

Amy nearly jumped again as her mother actually kicked her under the table.

“Yes. The meal was good,” she admitted without looking up. In truth, she couldn’t have said what she’d eaten. Her thoughts had never once been on the food.

“I liked the rolls best,” Kelsey put in. “And the coconut pie.”

Jake smiled. A genuine smile instead of the formal and distant ones she’d watched him use with others. Pain tugged at Amy’s heart. Her daughter had that same smile.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“The entertainment was pretty interesting, as well,” Susan Thomas put in, eyeing the police officers who were still talking with a couple in the corner.

“Yes, well, I’m afraid I didn’t have much control over that part of your lunch, but I’m happy that everything else met with your satisfaction.”

He looked at Amy as he spoke and her cheeks immediately warmed under his penetrating stare. She’d forgotten that about him. How he could focus so intently on a person they felt as though he were peering into their very soul. She shook her head at the thought.

“Something wrong, Amy?”

Just hearing her name on his lips took her back to hot summer nights and wildly fabulous sex. What was wrong with her hormones for crying out loud?

“I’d like to pay the check.”

“Lunch is on me. And I apologize for the incident outside. We don’t generally have runaway trucks in the parking lot.”

“Just bodies, hmm?”

He stared at her and her pulses leaped erratically.

“I’ll be happy to have your dresses dry-cleaned if they were damaged from your tumble.”

“That isn’t necessary. They’ll wash.”

“Glad to hear it. It would be a shame to ruin them.”

Answering heat swept through her at his penetrating look, but she knew she couldn’t respond to the sensual pull he still exerted.

“Whenever you’re ready to leave, let me know and I’ll drive you home.”

“We can walk,” she stated firmly.

His eyes chastised her. He glanced at her mother. Amy knew she was blushing again but she couldn’t stop. Her mother’s gaze flicked from one to the other of them as if she were watching a tennis match. Even Kelsey looked interested.

“I said I’ll drive you,” he said softly.

“That would be lovely, dear,” Susan said decisively. “So nice of you to offer. I feel so full I’m actually ready for a nap.”

Jake turned the full force of his smile on her mother. “Then I’ve done my job.”

“Quite well, I’d say. Ignore my daughter. She’s being temperamental today for some reason.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he lied smoothly.

Susan laughed as if delighted. “Are you ready, Amy?”

“The police—”

“Have assured me that they are finished questioning you for now,” Jake said smoothly. “Shall we go?”

“I knew I should have brought my car,” Amy muttered beneath her breath.

“I’m sure Mr. Collins is a capable driver. Aren’t you, dear?”

“So I’ve been told.” He stared into Amy’s eyes as if demanding that she remember.

“WHY DON’T YOU let me drive this time?” she purred, running her fingers across his lightly furred chest.

“Are you suggesting I didn’t get you where you wanted to go?” he teased as he toyed with her breast.

“Oh, you’re a capable driver, but now I want to show you what I can do.”

AMY COULD FEEL searing heat ignite her face as the memory of their erotic lovemaking that day filled her head. She refused to look at him again.

Her parents’ home was only down the street, yet it seemed to take forever to drive the short distance. She knew darn well her mother had conspired to put her in the passenger seat up front where she could all but feel Jake’s nearness.

Her mother was matchmaking! That was all she needed. Her mother wouldn’t be so quick off the mark if she knew who Jake really was. While Amy had never told her parents the identity of Kelsey’s father, could her mother have guessed?

It would be surprising, actually, if her eagle-eyed mother didn’t pick up on the likeness between Kelsey and Jake. Kelsey’s coloring, her dark eyes and square little jaw—fortunately softened in her little-girl features—were so much like her father’s that Amy had been certain Susan would see the obvious right away.

Or was Amy reading too much into things because she knew.

“’Bye, Mr. Collins. Thanks for lunch,” Kelsey called, jumping from the car. “I’m going to call Sarah and tell her about the bodies!”

The resiliency of youth. Amy stepped from the car to help her mother, but the older woman was already out and moving spryly after her granddaughter.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Collins. It was a most interesting afternoon,” Susan agreed. “Are you coming, dear?”

“In a moment, Mom. You and Kelsey go ahead.” Amy wasn’t anxious to face the third degree she knew was coming as soon as she stepped inside the familiar house. She turned to Jake as soon as her mother and daughter were out of earshot.

“What are you doing here, Jake?”

“Running a restaurant,” he offered mildly.

“That isn’t what I mean and you know it.”

His gaze darkened, running over her with sensual knowledge of exactly what was beneath her clothing. “You haven’t changed, Amy.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I have. That look, those old lines, they won’t work on me anymore, Jake.”

“Too bad. I remember some very good lines that led to some wonderful times together.”

That hurt. “Funny. All I remember is the way it ended. Stay away from me, Jake. I mean it.”

He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “Don’t worry, I don’t poach on other men’s territory.” His glance dropped to her hand where it was fisted on the roof of the car. “But then, I wouldn’t be poaching, would I? You aren’t wearing a ring.”

For a minute Amy saw red. How dare he?

“Goodbye, Jake.”

“Amy?” he called after her.

She told herself not to listen, but she stopped walking and barely refrained from turning back to him.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the way things ended.”

His voice was low, personal, intimate. Her stomach clenched right along with her fists.

“I’ve waited nine years to tell you that.”

Amy didn’t turn around. “You should have saved your breath.” And she forced herself not to run as she strode away from Jake Collins and her past.

JAKE CLIMBED painfully back into the car and started the engine. He watched her daughter come running back outside, chattering away. Amy listened and nodded, putting a hand on the little girl’s head. The two of them walked up the steps and onto the porch together.

A pain that had nothing to do with physical hurts lanced him more deeply than a cut. If he hadn’t been so stupid, so egotistically certain he knew the right thing to do, that could have been their daughter. Kelsey had his coloring, he thought humorlessly. He wondered what her father looked like. She was a beautiful child, just as her mother was beautiful. He’d been the world’s biggest fool nine years ago.

It wasn’t until he walked inside the Perrywrinkle, lost in recriminations of the past, that it hit him. How old was the child? Seven? Eight?

Was it possible?

He calculated quickly.

More than possible.

Jake thought of what he knew about Amy. She’d been a virgin at twenty-two—and she’d loved him. Maybe it was ego talking, but he couldn’t believe she would have gone from him to another man so quickly.

He’d always listened to his instincts and they were shouting now, loud and clear. If he wanted to see Kelsey’s father all he needed was a mirror.

Why hadn’t Amy told him? How dare she not have told him! Didn’t she think he had the right to know? This was his child. His only child! She had no right to keep that a secret.

“Boss,” Ben Dwyer said, walking up to him, “we’ve got a small problem. There are reporters in the bar to see you and Matt’s looking for you. He says there’s an old lady out by the construction site acting all weird and spacey—his words. He thinks she’s the mayor’s aunt.”

Jake cursed under his breath. He wanted to turn around, go back to Amy and demand answers. But first he’d have to deal with this situation.

“Where’s Matt now?”

“I don’t know. He went back outside when I told him you weren’t here. Is it true what they’re saying?”

Jake waited.

Ben didn’t flinch at his expression. Instead he went on calmly. “Some of the customers heard the cops talking. They said that someone deliberately released the brake and put that truck in reverse.”

Jake stared at his bartender while the hairs on the back of his neck lifted. “I hadn’t heard that,” he said softly.

Jake went back outside, his mind churning. That explained the questions Hepplewhite’s people were asking. He’d wondered why the police wanted to know if he’d seen anyone in or around the truck before it began to roll. He’d supposed it was an accident. If Ben was right, they were looking at an entirely different scenario.

Had someone deliberately tried to dump that load of gravel into the pit to cover the scene of a murder? Why bother? The bones had already been discovered. On the other hand, the gravel would compromise the crime scene, making it much harder for the forensic team to do its job.

Jake looked around as he neared the roped-off area. The truck still canted oddly over the hole. Gravel was everywhere and the crowd had grown. Cindy Lou Baranksi would not be happy if her aunt turned up on national television. Image was everything in an election year and the mayor’s aunt was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. Cindy Lou had the added responsibility of looking after her aunt. Gertrude Perry was generally monitored closely.

If he hadn’t been so busy thinking about Amy when he returned, Jake would have spotted the older woman hanging around outside. He also would have noticed the network news van on the far side of the building.

Jake had no one to blame but himself for the past. But he needed to deal with the future right now. By the time he got to the end of the parking lot where the workers had exposed the horrible tomb, Gertrude Perry was gone.

No doubt one of the locals had run her home. Everyone knew old Ms. Perry. As a relative newcomer to town, Jake had quickly learned that Gertrude and her brother Marcus were direct descendents of the Perry family who had founded Fools Point. Marcus Perry had been the last to marry and have offspring. Only his daughter, Cindy Lou, had ever felt the need to keep up appearances for the sake of the family name. She was a decent mayor from what he could see. And it wasn’t her fault people had started to refer to the town as Mystery Junction behind her back. Today’s gruesome discovery would only add fuel to the already smoldering talk around town. Cindy Lou wouldn’t want her family featured in that talk, but this was their old family homestead.

Police officials were still at the site. Chief Hepplewhite had called in the support of the Montgomery County Police. His six-man force couldn’t possibly deal with this situation. The county police would deal with the evidence and probably assist with the investigation. But first, someone was going to have to move a ton of gravel.

Jake frowned. He scanned the crowd again, but his nephew Matt was nowhere to be seen. The time had come to do something about the youth. To the locals, Matt was nothing but a wild teen, constantly in trouble. To the aunt and uncle he had lived with since the death of his parents, he was an unwanted burden. But to Jake, he was the reason for the Perrywrinkle and Jake’s presence in the small town of Fools Point.

Jake sighed and returned inside to face the reporters. The after-work crowd had descended by the time Jake finished, then the supper crowd began to arrive and mingle with the curious. The restaurant staff was kept hopping, especially him. He stewed, knowing there was nothing he could do about the question gnawing at his insides until things quieted down for the night and he could turn the bar over to Ben’s capable hands.

The young man was working out even better than he’d expected. Solid, dependable—honest. Jake would bet his military pension that there was a story behind Ben’s presence here in Fools Point. In time he’d learn what it was, but he wasn’t thinking about that as he swallowed a couple of aspirins and, ignoring his car, set off down the path that would lead to the street and ultimately Amy’s front door.

He strode briskly in the cool night air. Maple trees were just beginning to display their colorful fall cloaks. They still obscured most of the houses from the view of the street.

Overhead, the moon was dancing with the clouds so not much light filtered anywhere along his path.

Admittedly his senses had turned rusty in the past year and a half, but not so rusty that they’d shut down completely. Jake slowed his pace as he neared the house. Years of training kicked to life the moment he saw a dark figure dart from behind a tree to scamper surreptitiously behind the house.

Jake flattened himself against the nearest tree, doing his best to melt into the shadows. His white shirt and pale face would act like a beacon if the intruder looked in the right direction. Stealth was not easily accomplished in a business suit. Using the overgrown bushes for cover, he followed the dark figure around to the back of the house.

The feeble glow from inside the kitchen offered little illumination on the porch, but it was enough for Jake to see the figure begin working feverishly on the door.

Someone was attempting to break into the house where Amy and the little girl he was certain was his daughter lay unprotected.

Chapter Two

Amy fretted, knowing it was useless, but worried just the same. Her mother hadn’t asked, and by late evening Amy felt she should have been pushing for answers to Amy’s relationship with Jake Collins. That she hadn’t was so out of character, Amy grew worried. Her mother must already suspect the truth.

When her parents had asked her about Kelsey’s father all those years ago, she’d never mentioned Jake by name. She’d told them the simple truth—she’d foolishly fallen for a man she’d met in Annapolis. A man who hadn’t been interested in being a father any more than he’d been interested in a long-term commitment. Being the sort of parents they were, they’d never pushed her to reveal more. She’d been grateful, because it had been so hard to think about Jake back then without crying.

Actually, not crying had never gotten as easy as it should have until she’d firmly locked away her thoughts of Jake.

Amy decided to approach her mother after Kelsey had gone to bed. Though she’d told her daughter pretty much the same story she’d told her parents, she’d always known the time would come when Kelsey would want more detailed information about her father. Amy didn’t intend to lie. She just wasn’t sure how to handle the situation now that the time appeared to have arrived.

Amy found her mother puttering in the kitchen, alone. Taking a deep breath, she decided to get it over with.

“About Jake—”

“Charming man. So gracious and kind.”

“Yeah. Kind.” So kind he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge his own child. “I guess you’re wondering how I know him.”

“Well, actually, dear, I was simply hoping you could put paid to the rumor about him being in the Mafia.”

“Mother!”

“Well, it does seem ridiculous,” she said, briskly wiping her hands and folding the dish towel.

“He was in the navy, not the Mafia.”

“Good, dear. That’s such a relief.”

Her mother could be exasperating when she chose to be. And there was only one reason Amy could think of that would explain why she was choosing to be so obtuse about Jake. She suspected the truth. Amy needed to disabuse her mother of any idea she might be harboring about matchmaking.

“I met him that summer after I graduated college.”

“When you were staying in Annapolis with your friend?”

The college friend she’d forgotten all about the night she was introduced to Jake. “Yes.” She waited for the inevitable questions. Her mother couldn’t fail to make that connection.

“I’m glad, dear.”

“You are?”

“Yes, of course.” Her mother pushed absently at a wisp of silvery hair. “I never did like the idea of the Mafia in Fools Point. You know, dear, I’m feeling awfully tired this evening. Would you mind if I turn in a little early?”

Amy gaped at her. While true that her parents had always respected her right to privacy, her mother wasn’t even going to ask?

Then concern set in. “Are you okay? You’re not having any pain or anything, are you?”

“Who’s having pain?” her father demanded, coming into the kitchen on the end of her question.

“Now, Corny, don’t go getting all upset. I just said I was tired. I’d like to go up to bed and read for a while but I didn’t want our daughter to think I was ignoring her.”

“I wouldn’t think that.” But she was puzzled and very concerned. Her mother hadn’t looked well since the incident outside the restaurant. If Amy hadn’t been so caught up in her own dilemma she’d have realized that much sooner. The walk in that heat and then being thrown to the ground like that…

Cornelius Thomas laid a wrinkled hand on his wife’s arm. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” he agreed tenderly. “I just bought that new science fiction book R.J. and some of the others were talking about down at the general store. I’ll come up with you and read, too. You don’t mind, do you, Amy?”

“No. Of course not. You two go ahead. If you need anything, just call out.”

For the first time Amy accepted that her parents had aged a great deal in the years she’d been gone. They’d always been older than most of her friends’ parents. Amy had been a surprise baby coming to them late in life. That fact had never bothered her until now.

“Good night, dear. Don’t forget to check the locks before you come up, will you?”

“I won’t forget.”

She kissed them good-night, then wandered aimlessly around the house she had always called home. Despite the newly installed satellite dish and its variety of stations, there was nothing on television to hold her interest. She flipped through the channels, trying not to wonder what Jake had been doing with himself all these years. Had he stayed in the military or had he gone on to do something else? It was hard to imagine him running a restaurant. She couldn’t remember him cooking anything more than steaks on the grill when they’d been together.

Jake had changed in others ways, as well. He seemed stern now—more aloof and forbidding. No wonder the town thought he was a gangster. His facade placed a wall between him and the world at large. His eyes were watchful, but in their depths a person glimpsed a soul that had seen too much of the hard side of life.

Amy tried to shake off thoughts of Jake. But the feel of his body over hers this afternoon had brought about a resurgence of so many emotions.

Amy finally turned off the television and settled back on the couch with a book. Unfortunately, the novel couldn’t hold her attention, either. Jake’s face kept intruding.

He’d always been a private man until one really got to know him. And he’d always carried an air of arrogant competence. But where was the man she’d laughed with? Made love with?

It was hard not to remember his hands engulfing her small breasts, stroking and readying them for the pleasure his mouth could bring.

Amy closed the book with a snap. She was not going to think about that.

“Idiot!” She set the book on the coffee table. A romance novel couldn’t compete with the reality of their past. It had been nine years since they’d parted, but his every touch lined her memory.

Amy stood and walked to the living-room window, gazing out over the porch without really seeing. She had to purge her recollections somehow. She had to—

A flicker of motion caught her attention. Had she just seen someone move from behind the maple tree on the curb to the cluster of pines in the front yard?

She strained to see, watching the dark yard intently. Should she turn on the porch light for a better view? Maybe she’d just imagined…No. Definitely not her imagination. Something or someone had just slipped from behind the tree to blend into the overgrown bushes that surrounded the porch.

Her pulse quickened. Eleven o’clock was definitely too late for neighborhood children to be playing hide-and-seek in her parents’ front yard. Besides, the figure had been too tall for a young child.

Someone was up to no good. She curbed the instinct to step onto the porch and call out. Ten years ago she wouldn’t have hesitated, but Fools Point was no longer the safe, quiet town she’d grown up in. Heck, the downtown area practically looked like a war zone. They were still repairing the damage to the buildings that psycho had blown up last month. And the renovations were barely under way from the fire that had destroyed most of the motel. No wonder she’d heard one of the locals refer to Fools Point as Mystery Junction in the restaurant today.

She’d better call the police. Chief Hepplewhite only lived a few doors down. That fact alone would practically guarantee her an instant response.

She headed for the kitchen.

Her mother kept a small night-light plugged into the wall near the stove. The light offered enough illumination to show a shadow at the back door.

Her breath caught in her chest. Someone was on the back porch.

But they hadn’t knocked.

Fear gripped her as she realized the person was using a knife to cut open the screen door. Someone was trying to break in.

Fear and anger swept her in equal measure. Her family didn’t need this! She hit the switch, flooding the kitchen with light. The shadow fled, footsteps racing across the old wooden porch. As the person disappeared from view, Amy reached for the telephone hanging on the wall.

Before her shaking hand could punch in the first number, she heard heavy footsteps on the porch. He’d returned!

She choked off her scream as a fist pounded loudly on the back door.

“Amy! Let me in.”

She nearly dropped the telephone. “Jake?”

Her knees were weak with reaction and her hand shook so bad she could barely unbolt the door. “What do you mean by scaring me half to death that way? Who do—”

Without warning, he enfolded her in his arms. Strong arms that had always offered safety and comfort—and unbelievable pleasure.

“Shh. It’s okay. He took off. You’re all right now. We need to call the police.”

Amy pulled back. She’d allowed herself to snuggle into the familiar scent and feel that only Jake had ever evoked for her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you realize? Someone just tried to break into the house.”

“That wasn’t you out there?”

In the blink of an eye she glimpsed his hurt before his rigid mask returned.

“I was coming to talk to you when I saw someone sneak around the corner of your house. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I followed. The person saw me when you turned on the light and took off. I was going to give chase until I saw you standing in the kitchen.”

He hesitated. Once more she glimpsed pain behind his expression.

“I decided to make sure you were okay,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize there were two people out there. I only saw one.”

“So did I.” Jake regarded her without expression. “Do you want to call the police or shall I?”

“Is there any point? Whoever it was is long gone by now.”

“You should still report the incident.” His mask was back in place, his manner coolly aloof once more. “He might try breaking into someone else’s house next.”

“Yes. You’re right. Okay. I just don’t want my mother disturbed. She and Dad are pretty heavy sleepers but she isn’t feeling well.”

“She wasn’t hurt this afternoon, was she?”

“No. Nothing like that. She’s just tired.”

Her gaze riveted on Jake’s once dear face. This close, she saw that the years hadn’t been kind. Deep lines bracketed his eyes and mouth. The sadness behind his dark, watchful eyes called to something in her soul.

“What are you doing here, Jake?”

“I came to ask you a question.”

“I meant here in Fools Point.”

His expression didn’t change. “I decided to make my home here now.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

No emotions showed at all. She wanted to tell him that it did matter, but then he’d want to know why. Amy wasn’t sure she had an answer for that particular question.

“What did you want to ask me?” she asked instead.

He moved close enough that she could reach out and touch him. Her heart sped up and her stomach muscles contracted in expectation.

“Is Kelsey my daughter?”

The world dissolved in icy shock to reform in blazing anger. “How dare you ask me that?”

“Is she?”

Hands gripped her shoulders, pinning her beneath his steady stare.

“You bastard. You never even read my letters, did you?”

Jake blinked. “What letters?”

She tugged free, moving away from him, wrapping her arms around her suddenly chilled body. How could he stand there and ask her that?

“I never got any letters from you, Amy.”

“Right.”

“I never lie, Amy.”

She rounded on him angrily. “Well, if you didn’t get them, then your brother-in-law is a bigger bastard than you are.”

Jake flinched, but his gaze didn’t waver.

“Ask him,” she insisted. “I wrote you twice. Once when I found out I was pregnant, and once after Kelsey was born. I almost didn’t send you the second letter since you never responded to the first one, but I figured you’d at least want to know if you had a daughter or a son.”

Jake tried to quell the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He could only stare at her while her words flayed him with a pain much deeper than any physical wound.

“My brother-in-law is dead,” he said softly. “He and my sister were killed in a plane crash almost eight years ago.”

He watched her face crumple in consternation.

“I didn’t know.” Her hand lifted as if to offer him comfort, then abruptly fell to her side.

He rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of what she’d told him. “You gave Ronnie the letters to send to me? Why didn’t you give them to Carrie?”

“Your sister wouldn’t take my calls after you left. I wanted your address, but Ronnie wouldn’t give it to me.”

She tried to conceal her remembered hurt, but he knew. One more snippet of guilt to live with.

“Ronnie wasn’t friendly, either,” she went on more stoically. “I figured he and Carrie knew we’d broken up and they didn’t want to get involved. While Ronnie wouldn’t give me an address to write to you, he agreed I could send you a letter through him.”

Jake’s pain bit a little deeper. Jake had told Ronnie and Carrie he didn’t want to talk to Amy. He’d never thought about the position he’d put them in. He hadn’t told Amy how to reach him because he’d wanted to keep the breakup simple and as painless as possible. Amy wouldn’t understand that he’d done it to spare her. He didn’t understand it himself anymore. He could see Ronnie tossing out her letters thinking she was trying to cling to a dead relationship.

“You didn’t tell Ronnie about the baby.”

Her eyes snapped green fire. “It wasn’t any of his business. Are you telling me he never sent you my letters?”

“I’m telling you I never got any letters from you, Amy,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if Ronnie didn’t send them, or if they never caught up with me. I moved around a lot on my assignments overseas. Some-times…well, mail didn’t always catch up with me. I didn’t learn about the plane crash until months after it happened. I swear to you, I never knew about Kelsey.”

He could see she wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. He didn’t blame her. He’d had months lying in that hospital bed not so long ago regretting the choices he’d made. Especially the fact that he’d let her go—and the unforgivable way he’d gone about it.

“I’m sorry, Amy.”

“So am I.” A sheen of tears hovered in her eyes. “Now get out of here, Jake.”

The words fell like a blow. She followed them up with a knockout punch of calm deliberation. “My duty was to let you know. I did my part. Goodbye, Jake.”

He deserved her anger and more. He shook his head, knowing he was going to have to hurt her even further.

“That isn’t how it’s going to work,” he said mildly.

“Oh, yes. Yes, it is, Jake Collins. Kelsey is my daughter. I’ve raised her, cared for her and loved her since she was born. I don’t need you and neither does she. Now get out of here.”

She immediately pressed 9-1-1 on the phone she held in her hand. Her eyes held his accusingly.

“This is Amy Thomas. I’d like to report an attempted break-in at my parents’ house. Someone—” she held his gaze steadily “—cut the screen trying to get inside the back door.”

Her pain ate at him. He deserved her anger, but she had it wrong. He wasn’t about to walk away now that he knew he had a daughter.

He was a father!

The unbelievable miracle would take some getting used to.

“The police are sending a car,” Amy told him. “You can leave now.”

“They’ll want to talk to me.”

“Maybe they will, but I don’t,” she said with quiet dignity.

The quiver of her lower lip was the giveaway. She was holding back tears.

“I’m not going to justify walking away nine years ago.”

“Good. Don’t.”

“I couldn’t if I tried,” Jake said softly. “But I want you to believe one thing. If I had known about Kelsey I would have done everything in my power to take care of both of you.”

Amy gave a ladylike snort. “I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, Jake. I managed just fine on my own.”

“Of course you did. You were always stronger than you thought you were.” He glimpsed the reflection of flashing lights in the living-room windows. “The police are here. I’ll speak to them, but this conversation isn’t over.”

“Yes, it is.”

He walked past her through the house, heading for the front door. Officer Derek Jackstone was just mounting the porch steps.

“Officer,” he greeted Jackstone.

“Hello, Mr. Collins. I didn’t expect to see you here. We had a report of a prowler?”

Jake explained the little he’d seen, then nodded toward Amy who watched the exchange in silence. “I’ll be at the Perrywrinkle if you need me for any reason.”

“Thank you.” Officer Jackstone stepped past him and Jake headed down the steps without looking back. “Ms. Thomas,” he heard Jackstone greet Amy.

“Derek, you may wear a uniform now, but I’m still the same Amy who sat next to you in biology,” she told him.

Yes, she probably was, Jake thought. She was still the same Amy he’d fallen in love with nine years ago. And she was more out of reach now than she had been then. He sighed and wondered if it was too soon to take another pill for his back.

ONCE DEREK LEFT, Amy paced the house nervously, trying not to think about Jake or the past or anything else. The attempted break-in didn’t disturb her as much as their conversation.

She didn’t want to feel sorry for Jake. She didn’t even want to believe him.

But she did.

Amy turned off the lights, double checked the doors and windows, and headed upstairs. Her parents must have fallen asleep early because even the flashing lights of the police car hadn’t brought them downstairs to investigate.

Ronnie had never sent her letters to Jake. All this time she had thought he didn’t care and Jake hadn’t known the truth. Not that it changed anything. Jake was Kelsey’s biological father, but he had no place in their lives. Amy had only wanted to show him what he’d given up.

Yet he hadn’t given her up if he never knew of her existence.

Amy shook aside that thought. Walking away without any explanation was proof enough that he wasn’t the sort of stable influence she wanted in Kelsey’s life. One day they were lovers in every sense of the word, then next he’d left on a mission for the navy. When he’d returned, he’d announced he was being sent overseas—indefinitely. And he’d thanked her—thanked her!—for the past few months and left.

The hollow feeling returned along with the memory. She’d been so desperately in love with him she would have followed him anywhere.

And in a way she had. She eyed her reflection as she finished brushing her teeth. After all this time she could finally admit to herself that the only reason she’d taken the translator’s job was that she’d known they’d send her overseas on military contracts. Overseas, where Jake was.

But it hadn’t mattered. She’d never seen Jake again.

“Spilled milk,” she told her reflection. She and Kelsey didn’t need Jake. They didn’t need anyone.

She turned off the lights and slipped between the sheets of the big double bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to every creak the old house made. Had the house always made this much noise? It wasn’t as if there was a lot of wind or anything tonight.

Finally she had to admit that she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. While Derek Jackstone had assured her that the prowler had probably been some kid looking for easy money, Amy realized the incident had unnerved her more than she’d thought.

Even with Derek’s promise that he would drive past the house frequently tonight, she was uneasy, jumping at every sound.

Though Jake’s presence had distracted her right after the attempted break-in, she now began to wonder. Derek’s explanation of some kid made no sense. Any local teens would know she was staying here with her parents. Why would they risk breaking into an occupied house when the living-room light had clearly been on? That made no sense.

What would have happened if Jake hadn’t come by in time to scare the intruder away? Amy shuddered.

Resigned to a sleepless night, she got up and walked over to the window. No moonlight or streetlight broke the darkness. Not even the flicker of fireflies relieved the stillness. She watched intently while her thoughts roamed wildly.

And something moved in the shadows across the street.

She tried to calm the flutter of fear that captured her breath. She stared until her eyes ached with the effort. But she still couldn’t decide if someone lurked in the shadows of the gnarled old maple tree or not.

FINGERS FISTED, the watcher stared at the old house. Anger flared at the unfairness of the whole thing. So much was at stake. Too many people knew the truth. People who could no longer be trusted to keep the secrets of the past. The parking lot had picked the worst possible time to collapse.

She was still the biggest danger of all, of course. If it hadn’t been for the restaurateur’s interference…but he had interfered and now the situation would require some thought. She’d been alerted to her danger.

At least the gravel spill would delay things for a while, but not indefinitely. Still, putting the truck in gear had been a stroke of genius, even if the laboratory tests would eventually reveal the truth. Chief Hepplewhite wasn’t like his fatuous predecessor. He’d move on the crime scene with care…and unfortunate speed.

There was no choice. Fools Point would have to bear witness to a fatal accident. Possibly, an entire series of accidents. She wasn’t the only danger—just the most immediate one.

Too bad the dump truck hadn’t knocked her into the hole and buried her beside the others. All the problems would have been solved neatly then.

The next accidents would require careful planning and strategy. No more leaving things to chance. But in the end, all of them would be as dead as the bones in that old root cellar.

Chapter Three

“Chief Hepplewhite?” Amy said as she opened her front door. “I wasn’t expecting you. Did you catch our intruder from last night?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Amy? Who is it, dear?” her mother called. “Oh, hello, John. Come on in. Amy, don’t just stand there. Let John come inside and sit down. In fact, come on back to the kitchen. We were just sorting through some old photographs. How about a glass of iced tea? Did you catch our brazen housebreaker from last night? We went to bed early and never heard a thing. I couldn’t believe it when Amy told us this morning. He totally destroyed the door screen.”

Amy stepped back and allowed the officer entrance to the house. As her mother turned and led the way back to the kitchen, Hepplewhite motioned for Amy to precede him. “I’m afraid we didn’t catch the person, Mrs. Thomas. Officer Jackstone said Mr. Collins chased him off.”

Amy tried to hide a grimace. She didn’t want her mother asking a lot of questions about Jake’s part in the events of last night. The police chief took a seat at the table while her mother bustled around the kitchen setting out another glass of iced tea and a plate of cookies.

Self-consciously, Amy returned to her seat, setting aside the box of snapshots she’d been sorting with her mother. She pushed the photo albums to the center of the table, now glad that Kelsey had gone to school with one of the neighboring children today. The school year had begun before Amy could return to the States so she was home schooling Kelsey until she located a new job and more permanent housing arrangements for the two of them.

“I understand you never got a clear look at the intruder?” Chief Hepplewhite asked Amy.

Amy shook her head. “He was just a shape through the window.”

“Good thing Mr. Collins stopped by then.”

The words begged the question, and Amy was prepared. “Jake wanted to check on my mother to be sure she was okay after that incident at the restaurant yesterday.”

“And I am so thankful that he did,” Susan added, handing the police chief a tall glass of iced tea. “What with all the strange things going on in town anymore.”

Hepplewhite thanked her, took a long swallow and sat back in his chair. “Please, sit down, Mrs. Thomas. Actually, that brings up another subject I’d like to discuss with you. We’re trying to identify the bodies in that old root cellar.”

Susan Thomas gripped the back of a chair.

“Mom?”

“How on earth would I know them?” she asked faintly.

“Sorry. I stated that badly. I didn’t mean to imply that you knew them personally. We’re canvassing everyone who’s lived in Fools Point for a long time, trying to get some idea of who the woman and child could be.”

Amy had risen to go to her mother, but Susan waved her back and sank heavily onto the chair.

“Maybe you’d better come back later, Chief,” Amy said quickly. “Mom hasn’t been feeling well and—”

Her mother shook her head. “I’m fine, dear. It’s just such a shocking thing. Very upsetting.”

“Yes,” Hepplewhite agreed.

Amy perched on the edge of her chair, watching her mother closely.

Susan managed a wavery smile. “How can I help you, John?”

“I figure you and Cornelius probably know everybody in town.”

Her mother rallied. “I would hope so. Corny’s been delivering mail for over fifty years now.”

Hepplewhite smiled, catching Amy off guard once again. She hadn’t realized the chief was so much younger than he looked. With that shock of white hair and the lines bracketing his eyes, she’d originally thought him close to fifty. Now she revised her estimate down a good ten to fifteen years—maybe more. He was a nice-looking man with a lived-in face.

“Since I’ve only been in town three years, I have to rely on natives like you for information. We’d like to identify the woman and her child as quickly as possible.”

Amy knew the chief didn’t miss the way her mother’s fingers tightened on the edge of the tabletop. But Susan Thomas managed a sad smile. “Of course. Their poor family. How can I help?”

“We’re looking for anyone who might have been pregnant and suddenly went missing. Or someone who had an infant and disappeared.”

Susan shook her head. “I’m afraid Fools Point has seen the birth of a lot of babies over the years, but I can’t think of anyone who disappeared.”

Amy straightened in her chair. The chief glanced at her and she worked to keep her expression as blank as possible while apprehension crawled up her spine.

Her mother was lying.

“Do you know of anyone, Amy?” he asked calmly, obviously not aware of her mother’s perfidy.

“No.” She thought quickly, wanting to divert his attention from her mother. “Not precisely. But back when I was in high school several women disappeared, including a girl who graduated the year before I did. Remember, Mom? The police were looking for a serial rapist, I think. Most of the victims were from Frederick County, but one of the girls that lived out at Hearts Keep—Gabriella, I think it was, also disappeared about that same time.”

Hepplewhite shook his head. “I reviewed those cases and that one in particular when I took over as police chief. None of the missing women was known to be pregnant.”

“Well, as to that I wouldn’t be so sure. As I remember it, Gabriella was running with a pretty wild group at the time,” Susan rallied to argue.

“Something to keep in mind, but I’m thinking we need to go back further than that,” Hepplewhite said. “Based on the decomposition and the things I observed at the site, my guess is that those bodies were in that root cellar a lot longer than ten years.”

Because she was so attuned to her mother, Amy caught the shudder that seemed to run through her body.

“Long enough to have been a runaway slave or something? I think the Perry house might have been part of the underground railway way back around the time of the Civil War.”

“They aren’t that old.”

“How can you tell?” Amy asked.

“The clothing wasn’t that old, for one thing. The medical examiner will make the actual determination. There are forensic tests that will give us a good idea when the mother and child died, and hopefully what they died of. With any luck, we can also get DNA samples, but we’ll need something to compare them with.”

Amy saw her mother close her eyes as if she were in pain. “Mom?”

“Sorry, dear.” Susan’s eyes fluttered open. “I just keep thinking of the poor relatives.”

She was lying again. Amy was sure of it. Her mother’s hand trembled where it rested against the table. Amy became all bristling concern.

“Mom, I think you should go upstairs and lie down.”

“Yes, perhaps I should at that.”

That response scared Amy more than anything else. What was going on?

Hepplewhite’s expression became concerned. “Can I do anything to help?”

“No, no. I’ll be fine. I just find it distressing to think of that poor woman and her child down there all this time. Was she…Do you think she was—” her mother swallowed hard “—murdered?”

Hepplewhite looked chagrined. “It’s too early to say, Mrs. Thomas. I can tell you that I didn’t see any obvious signs of trauma. I had a preliminary glance around before the truck slipped gears and Lee and I had to scramble for our lives, but forensics isn’t really my field.”

“Is that what happened with the truck?” Amy demanded, still trying to divert his attention from her mother. “It slipped out of gear?”

“It’s one theory,” he confirmed. “Did you see anyone around the truck before it began moving?”

“Your officer asked us that yesterday. The answer is still no. We’d just gotten there. The truck was behind us.”

“Yes. You were almost directly in its path,” he said neutrally.

“That’s right. Jake threw us to the ground just in time.” She saw her mother shudder. Apparently so did Chief Hepplewhite.

“I’m sorry again.”

Susan put a hand to her chest. “You have a job to do. I understand, John. But I think…I wonder if you’d excuse me? I’m not feeling well right now.”

“Mom?” Amy was on her feet instantly, but her mother waved her off.

“I just need to go up and rest for a few moments. If you’ll both excuse me.”

“I am sorry,” Hepplewhite apologized sincerely. “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s not your fault.” Susan patted his arm. “I seem to have a weak stomach for this sort of thing. I promise, if I think of anything that would help, I’ll let you know. Please stay and finish your iced tea.”

Amy stared uncertainly after her mother, torn between a desire to go after her and the need to stay with their uninvited guest and get some answers of her own.

Fear churned her stomach. Why was her mother lying to the police? What could she possibly know or suspect about the bodies in an abandoned root cellar?

“I didn’t mean to distress your mother,” the police chief said kindly.

“Mom hasn’t been feeling well lately. She has a heart condition, you know. I think maybe you’d do better to talk with my father or someone like Miss Tooley at the post office. Or what about Mrs. Kitteridge at the general store? She usually knows all the local gossip.”

Chief Hepplewhite nodded. “They’re on my list. I came here first because of what happened last night. The bodies are a high priority, but I also wanted to reassure you and your mother that we’d be keeping a closer eye on the neighborhood for the next few days. I doubt the person will come back, but I want you both to be alert.”

The serious expression in his eyes caused a hitch in her breathing. “Officer Jackstone said it was probably some kid.”

Hepplewhite’s lack of expression instantly aroused her earlier suspicions.

“I thought it odd that a kid would break into a house where the lights are on and someone obviously is not only home but still up.”

Hepplewhite regarded her shrewdly. After a moment he seemed to come to a decision. “Do you plan to stay in Fools Point for a while?”

The sudden shift took her by surprise. “I’m not sure yet. Why?”

“Frankly, Ms. Thomas, I doubt if this was an attempted burglary.”

Her stomach iced in alarm. “A rapist?”

His shoulders lifted a fraction. “We may never know for sure. I don’t want to panic you, but I think it would be a good idea for you to be vigilant. It’s possible someone saw you through the window, decided you were here alone and marked you as a victim.”

Amy shuddered. His logic made horrible sense. Much more sense than a neighborhood kid.

“It was probably a very good thing that Mr. Collins came by when he did.”

“Yes,” she agreed faintly.

“Now, I don’t want you to panic.”

“No panic, but my fear quotient just jumped several notches.”

He didn’t smile at her weak attempt at humor. “Have you known Mr. Collins a long time?”

Amy nodded without thinking. “We met the summer I graduated from college. One of my roommates was friends with his sister.”

Hepplewhite seemed to be filing that information away.

“You don’t think Jake—”

“Not at all. But he does tend to keep to himself so I was a bit surprised to hear he was here last night.”

Amy sought for a diversion. She really didn’t want to discuss her relationship with Jake with the police chief. “Without sounding paranoid, I think you should know I thought someone was watching the house last night.”

“Before or after the attempted break-in?”

“After.” Briefly she described what she thought she’d seen. “I have to admit, I didn’t get much sleep after that.”

“You should have called us immediately.”

“I might have been mistaken.”

“Amy, our job is to check out suspicious activity. That’s what we get paid for. Don’t ever hesitate to call us.”

“All right.”

Hepplewhite’s expression was grave. “Even petty thieves have been known to kill. If you see anything—and I mean anything at all unusual, day or night—call and let us do the confronting.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve convinced me.”

“Your mother needs to be vigilant, as well. I’m sorry she’s feeling poorly, but rapists don’t care who the victim is. Rape isn’t an act of sex. It’s an act of violence. I’m going to have men drive by regularly. I don’t like the idea that someone may be stalking you.”

“I’m not real excited about the idea, either!”

“Pay attention at all times to your surroundings. It would be best if you stayed with others and didn’t let yourself become isolated.”

Truly frightened now, Amy’s first thought was her daughter. “Do you think Kelsey is in danger?”

“Look, maybe this was just a fluke, but I’m even more concerned now that you told me someone may have been loitering out front after Officer Jackstone left.”

“Maybe…maybe it was Jake.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I didn’t call you because I’d half convinced myself that Jake had come back to sort of keep an eye on us.”

Hepplewhite said nothing and she found herself explaining more than she’d wanted to. “Jake and I were, uh, good friends a long time ago. Despite rumors to the contrary, Jake isn’t involved in organized crime.”

The lines beside his eyes crinkled in amusement. “I know.”

“You checked him out?”

“It wasn’t difficult. One of the locals, Noah Inglewood, recognized Mr. Collins as a Special Forces leader he had shared a mission with once. Mr. Collins has a rather impressive military record.”

“Oh.”

The chief stood and thanked her for her time and the iced tea. Silently, she walked him to the front door.

“Please apologize to your mother again, but try to warn her to be careful. That serial rapist you referred to earlier was never caught. I don’t want to find out the hard way that he’s returned to his old stomping grounds.”

Amy shuddered. “You think this could be the same person who was in the area a few years ago?”

“No,” he said firmly. “If, and I stress the if, the person last night was a would-be rapist, I suspect it was a matter of seizing what he saw as an opportunity.”

“I understand.”

“Stay alert. And if you can think of anything that would help us identify the woman and baby in the root cellar, let me know.”

“There is one thing. Have you talked with the Perry family? The restaurant is the old Perry mansion, you know. The mayor’s mother lived in the house until a few years ago.”

He paused on the front porch and nodded. “I’m afraid Ms. Perry’s mental faculties aren’t sufficient to be reliable anymore. I plan to have a talk with her niece, the mayor, but—”

“What about her brother?”

Hepplewhite hesitated, his brow pleating. “Eugene?”

“Not the mayor’s brother, I meant Ms. Perry’s brother, the mayor’s father. General Marcus Perry actually inherited the estate but he didn’t live there once he joined the military. He and his wife, Millicent, had Cindy Lou and Eugene. I’m not sure where Eugene lives, but I know old Ms. Perry lived in the house until she started having problems. Of course, she was always a little—”

“Strange?”

Amy nearly smiled. “I was going to say reclusive. Her brother Marcus is…” She paused on the verge of calling the general strange. “I’ve met General Perry in the course of my duties for the military,” she added quickly instead. And in every case Marcus Perry had stared at her with a disquieting expression. Amy had taken to avoiding any place where she might run into the man. “He would probably know when the root cellar was closed up.”

“An excellent suggestion. Thank you. I’ll ask Cindy Lou how to get in touch with her father.”

“Good luck.”

She closed the screen door behind him. After a moment, for the first time in memory, she locked it as she watched the officer stride to his waiting vehicle.

“IF I UNDERSTAND YOU correctly, Officer Garvey, someone tampered with that dump truck on purpose.”

“I didn’t say that, Mr. Collins.”

The policeman’s gaze swept the empty dining room. Shortly, the Perrywrinkle would open and the carefully laid tables would fill with the usual lunch crowd.

Jake tipped his head and raised his eyebrows. “Is there some indication that the truck had faulty gears?”

Lee Garvey smiled ruefully. “The state police are looking into that for us. I know you already answered this once, but I thought maybe after sleeping on the incident you might have remembered seeing someone near the truck before it began to roll backward.”

“My attention was elsewhere at the time.” On a woman with golden-brown hair and lips made for kissing. A woman who had haunted his memories for years and given life to his child.

A woman who hated him.

“You think someone deliberately put the truck in gear?” Jake asked.

“Not necessarily. It could have been a kid fooling around.”

Instantly Jake came alert. His body tightened imperceptibly. “Matt was on the other side of the hole. I saw him myself right before I realized the truck was moving.”

“I wasn’t accusing anyone.”

Perhaps not, but fifteen-year-old Matt Williams’s reputation made that almost inevitable. Matt had been caught boosting vehicles for a car theft ring the FBI had broken up several weeks ago. An orphan, Matt had lived with his maternal aunt and her husband until he’d witnessed a murder and become a liability to the car thieves. To keep him silent, his aunt and uncle’s house had been blown up—with Matt inside. The boy had been lucky enough to survive.

“I understand he’s staying with you,” Garvey said.

Jake tensed. In truth, he had no legal standing where Matt was concerned. Matt’s paternal aunt and uncle were still his official guardians, but Dwight Kornbaum had confessed that he and Matt couldn’t be in the same room without arguing. The boy was ruining his marriage and his life. Dwight was more than ready to turn Matt over to another relative.

“Matt is staying here so his schooling won’t be interrupted while his aunt and uncle’s house is being rebuilt,” Jake said simply. “Catherine and Dwight are staying in D.C. with some friends who live close to where they work.”

He didn’t add that Matt acted as if the new arrangement didn’t matter to him one way or another, but Jake recognized the signs of a boy who knew when he wasn’t wanted.

During the time the Perrywrinkle was being gutted and refurbished, Jake had done his best to get to know the skittish boy and earn his trust. If Matt wondered why his relatives had come to this arrangement with Jake, he’d never asked, though Jake had presented several opportunities for him to do so. Matt trusted no one. Forging a bond with him took time and patience. Jake had plenty of both.

Since he’d come to stay with Jake, Matt had slowly begun to lose some of his initial wariness. Jake wasn’t about to have that destroyed by a false accusation.

“He had nothing to do with the truck,” Jake stated firmly.

“Hey, I believe you.”

After a moment Jake inclined his head. “I thought the fact that Matt once stole your car might still…rankle.” Especially since the policeman had left a gun in the car that was later used in a murder.

“You can stand down, Papa Bear,” Lee said with an infectious grin. “I don’t hold grudges. I’m looking for answers, not pointing fingers.”

Jake decided it was hard not to like the affable policeman.

“The chief may have already asked you this, but did you know about the root cellar when you bought the estate?”

“No. There was a decaying gazebo close to that spot. I took some pictures of the grounds when I first purchased the land.”

Lee’s expression lit up. “May I see them?”

As they passed the bar, Ben waved at them from behind the large mahogany counter where he was inventorying stock. Jake inclined his head and led Lee up to his makeshift office. The upstairs was sparingly furnished in used pieces, many of which had come from the original estate. The attic was still filled with items the family hadn’t wanted. Jake hadn’t had time to go through it all.

Lee Garvey peered around curiously, but Jake offered neither an apology nor an explanation. The furniture might not be much, and he’d made no attempt at any homey features, but the place was clean and his files were neatly organized. Without hesitation, Jake pulled out the pictures he had taken shortly after buying the Perry estate.

“If you look closely, in this shot you can see the remains of the foundation for what I believe was the old servants’ quarters. Right about here is where the parking lot caved in.”

The picture clearly showed the gazebo inside the area that must have been an outbuilding. The gazebo was nearly rubble from the same lack of care the rest of the grounds had received.

“As you can see, the outbuildings had all been torn down before I bought the estate.”

“At least this explains why the root cellar was so far from the main house. It went with the servants’ quarters and not the main house.”

Jake said nothing.

“May I borrow these for a few days?” the officer asked.

“I have the negatives.”

“Even better, thanks. I’ll return them.”

As the two headed for the stairs, Matt came running up to the second floor. “Hey, Jake!”

The teenager stopped dead when he saw the police officer. All trace of youthful exuberance faded from his expression. His features became wary and instantly defensive.

“Officer Garvey needed some pictures of the original grounds,” Jake explained softly.

“Oh.”

Surprisingly, the policeman showed his sensitivity by waving the negatives and smiling at Matt as he moved past him down the stairs. “Hi, Matt. Thanks again, Mr. Collins.”

Matt followed the man’s progress with an adult watchfulness that saddened Jake.

“What was your good news?” he asked the boy.

Matt watched the officer move out of sight before he turned back to Jake. Some of his earlier excitement returned. “I made a starting position with the soccer team.”

Jake relaxed.

“The coach said I’m really fast on my feet.”

Not surprising considering the life of crime he’d been heading toward, Jake mused silently.

“I have to keep my grades up to stay on the team, but the coach organized a mentoring program. If I have trouble in a particular area, he pairs me off with another student…”

Jake listened intently. Thankfully, a boy still lurked inside the street-smart young man. Matt was a bright kid. He needed a break and someone who cared. Jake planned to see to it he got both.

“Do you have time to eat lunch with me?” Matt asked. “It’s okay if you don’t.”

“I’d like that,” Jake said sincerely.

Matt beamed. “Since we only had a half day of school, I’m going to meet a couple of older guys at the school to get in some extra practice. Is that okay?” he added as an afterthought.

“‘Older guys’?” Jake asked mildly.

“Two of ‘em are seniors.”

“Ah. Their advice should be invaluable.”

“Yeah. The coach was gonna try and sneak away from the teacher meetings to come and give us a few pointers.”

“Then we’d better see if we can get the cook to feed us quickly.”

But when they reached the dining room, they found Officer Garvey still inside, talking with a large table of customers. Matt stiffened. Jake laid a supportive hand on the boy’s shoulder.

General Marcus Perry, out of uniform but looking every inch his rank, sat at one of the large tables with his entire family. As far as Jake knew, it was the first time any of the Perrys had set foot inside their old family home since it had been converted.

Except Eugene. The general’s son had started hanging out in the bar with Thad Osher and a few of the other regulars in the evening.

The mayor was speaking animatedly while her aunt stared in pale-eyed confusion at the once-familiar room.

“Why’s he still here?” Matt muttered.

Jake knew the boy was referring to Lee Garvey. “He needs to ask questions so they can identify the bodies.”

“They’re just skeletons.”

Jake nodded. “I know.” As they watched, the policeman took his leave. “I have to greet that table. Why don’t you order us both a couple of burgers? Tina can serve us at table six.”

“Okay. Can I order a milkshake?”

Jake’s lips twitched. “Order two.”

Matt grinned and raced off toward the kitchen. Jake donned his formal host persona and approached the table. While he’d never met the general in his military capacity, Marcus Perry had sat in on the hearing where Jake had been called in to testify against his son, Eugene. A prank had gone awry and the men involved had found themselves facing a disciplinary hearing. While there had been nothing personal in the testimony—Jake hadn’t known Eugene—the man hadn’t forgotten and Jake doubted the general had, either.

“Good afternoon. I trust everyone is enjoying their meal.”

Cindy Lou Baranski smiled affably, but then, she was coming up for reelection soon, Jake remembered. Eugene glared at him with a sulky scowl. The general studied Jake with steely green eyes that held no trace of warmth, while his fashionably attractive wife smiled politely.

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