I immediately felt uneasy. I liked my alone time and space, not to mention my freedom to come and go as I pleased. This felt smothering.
“I’m not sure, Frank…”
“If you’re not comfortable with this setup, you can talk to either John or Cole about it.” He seemed to make an effort to keep his face expressionless, but a small smile showed. “Now, I’ll let you look around while I go grab your bags and boxes from the car. I know you, Sloane, and I know you’ll want to jump right into work. I’ll send Black down so you can start.”
Before I could protest further, he was out the door and up the path.
This wasn’t exactly our agreement.
I was about to close the door when a familiar sound caught my attention and drew me back outside. I found myself crossing the yard and, still following the sound, up a set of stairs. I chuckled at a little sign that read “If you lived here, you’d be home now” that was posted outside an open door. I peeked inside and watched.
“If you hold down your thumb and shake the controller, you can kill him and jump to the next building,” I said.
Two sets of identical brown eyes swung to stare at me, not with concern but with intrigue.
Chapter Three
John
“Really?” Mia felt around my stitches. “You could have done more damage, John.”
“Did I?”
“That’s not the point.” Livi stepped out from behind her with a stethoscope wrapped around her cute little neck. “You were supposed to rest, and you didn’t.”
“Does Daddy rest when he gets hurt?” I challenged the littlest Logan whose dark eyes and smile made my heart melt daily.
“Daddy doesn’t get hurt.” Her pigtails bounced around.
Mia stepped back. “Stand and put your hands over your head.” I did. “Does that hurt?”
“Nope.”
“And if it did?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes and looked down at Livi. “He’s good to go.”
“You get a sticker.” She reached up and stuck a Doc McStuffins sticker over my heart.
“I feel so much better. Thanks, doc.” I rubbed her cheek.
God, I love that little girl.
“Come on, Aunt Mia,” she ordered. “I heard Auntie June sneezing earlier. We should see if she’s sick.”
“Lead the way, little lady.” Mia turned back to me. “Seriously, John, take it easy.” She paused. “Mentally too.”
“Will do,” I lied. If I stopped, I’d go crazy. It was just how I operated.
I pulled on my heavy green knit sweater and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked worn out, and my eyes probably gave away a lot, but I’d promised Frank I would do my best to answer a few questions from some mystery lawyer. How a lawyer got this type of top clearance and was here at all was beyond me. Apparently, that was a trend lately. I brushed the cliff dust off my black Army pants and ran a hand through my long crew cut. Scruff was visible, I knew, but I had zero desire to shave. I headed for the stairs.
“Hey,” I stopped Mark who snatched up Liam by his beltloops as he raced by us, “you met the lawyer? What’s she like?”
He looked over his shoulder to where Frank was in the living room and lowered his voice. “Redhead, raging B, dressed like a crazy cat lady, kind of smells like one too. Good luck, buddy.”
“Good luck, buddy,” Liam repeated.
My stomach sank. “Great,” I muttered sarcastically.
“Yeah, and whatever you do, don’t mention the giant-ass mole on her face.”
“Why would I—” I stopped myself. “Never mind. I need to just get this over with.”
“Good luck, man.” He quivered, and when Liam repeated him like a parrot, I tugged on his pants to increase his wedgie. I stuck my tongue out at him and left with a laugh. Mark’s boys were a handful, but Christ, they were fun.
“Frank?” I called.
He motioned for Daniel to follow us as he pulled me aside.
“First, your target’s tracker hasn’t moved in hours. Looks like he may have been killed or the shoes have been ditched.”
“Damn.”
“Okay, here’s a quick rundown. Logan can fill you in on the rest later. She’s vetted, she has a secure line for her cell phone and laptop. She signed the NDA. She’s incredibly smart, and it’s said she can find a pebble in a snowstorm. I’ve never seen someone who can research the way she does. She’ll be working on some things for me and some of her own stuff as well.”
“Wait.” I was confused. “She has that kind of clearance. Who the hell is this woman?”
“Let’s just say she’s a friend of the family.”
“Frank, does anyone else know you have her working on this? There’s a lot of lines being crossed here—”
“John,” his hand landed on my shoulder, “I trust her like I do my own daughter, so I need you to trust me on this.”
I glanced at Daniel, who nodded for me to go with it.
“Okay, so you want me to share a little of what happened on the last mission? How much do I tell her?”
“Just what she should know.”
“Which is?”
“For now, the timeline. If she starts asking helpful questions and you see she’s on to something, you can decide to go into more if you’d like. Just use your judgement.”
“All right, and why is she here, again? Something about a bad case?”
I knew I wasn’t getting the entire story.
“Ex-clients weren’t happy about the ruling they got and are giving her some trouble. I thought it would be best for her to be here.”
“Must have been a big client for Blackstone to take her on.” The skin around his eyes creased, and I saw deep concern. “Who is she to you?”
“She asked me to keep some things under wraps for now, and I respect her decision.”
I hated secrets.
“And Cole knows everything.”
“He does.”
Great, so the vault of the house knew the story, which meant I wouldn’t know anything until I had to. Even with his last breath, Cole wouldn’t whisper a word to anyone, not even Savannah.
“John,” Daniel spoke up, “she’s only here for a bit, and for now she’s confined to here and town. We’ll get Davie or Dell to drive her around when she needs to come and go. Frank just wants her out of Washington for a while until the dust settles on the trial.”
“Why do I have the feeling there is more to this story than I’m being told?”
Frank smirked and hit my arm playfully. “Because there’s always more, son.”
I rolled my eyes, and Daniel chuckled.
“Be nice, John.” Savannah poked her head around the corner.
“I’m always nice.”
“You can be, but you also can be a bit cold too.”
I pointed at her, and Daniel shrugged like he agreed.
I wasn’t cold, I was quiet. People misunderstood that about me.
“Would you mind meeting with her tonight?” Frank jumped in. “She’s down at Tin House getting settled.”