She’d opened her mouth to tell Tad that she just needed a kiss before he left, but his mouth covered hers before she got the words out. She eagerly met his tongue with hers. He broke the kiss, breathing heavily, and trailed his lips across her jaw to her neck, sending tingles all through her.
Weak-kneed, she fell back against the counter, leaning there as her hands touched the bulging fly of his jeans. She rubbed it, wanting more access, but when he reached for the button on the fly, she stopped him.
“Not like this,” she said. And not with Ethan in the next room. “But...how about Tuesday? After the meeting.”
He laid his forehead against hers. “You’re killing me, you know,” he said, but he was grinning.
“So that’s a yes?”
“That’s a hell, yes! Of course.”
With that he kissed her, hard, one more time, then let her go.
* * *
Tad hit the gym first thing Saturday morning, intending to be home, showered and ready to get to the baseball diamond where Danny Williams would be playing T-ball. Not running the bases yet, but practicing fielding and batting. Marie had texted the night before to say she was scared someone had told Devon she’d signed their son up for the intramural spring league, but she didn’t want the police involved. She thought Devon was finally doing better, that they could part amicably, and she didn’t want to raise his ire.
Tad had responded immediately, telling her he’d be happy to hang out and watch the practice.
Miranda, as she’d stood at the door the previous night, watching him walk to his car, had called out an invitation to go to the beach for another cookout on Sunday. He’d been happy to accept that invitation, as well. For entirely different reasons.
Everything felt like it was coming together. He didn’t know how things would end up, but he was tentatively hopeful that his future would somehow include Dana O’Connor and her son. Pro
bably at his job in North Carolina. More and more it felt like he needed to get back to what he was trained to do. What he did best. Didn’t have to be in North Carolina, but if he had a job there...he really would like to pursue the idea of starting a High Risk Team in the area.
And figured, once she’d reconnected with her father, Miranda would want to head home, to be closer to him.
Tad didn’t kid himself—there was a chance she was going to hate him, or at the very least feel unable to trust him, when she found out he’d been duplicitous with her from day one. Who wanted to hear that your lover was on your father’s payroll to spy on you? But as bad as that sounded...when she heard the truth, when she knew why, surely she’d understand...
Just as he fully understood why she was still keeping her secrets from him. Hell, her whole life was a lie. But one that had to be told to save her life.
Because he was waiting to hear from Gail, he checked his burner phone before jumping in the shower. While he was eager to get out of his sweat-soaked T-shirt and gym shorts, they weren’t the priority.
He had a text.
Not much yet. Looked at all finances that were filed as part of his campaign for office. Seem to be perfect. Tax records, the same. I’ve got a couple of people looking into how he spends any spare time. Will be following up with his public calendar. He’s on vacation right now. Left a couple of days ago to go fishing.
That was it. Innocuous. Nothing at all, really, which was what he’d hoped he’d find. Not that any blackmailers, if they were any good at it, would likely show up in the first go-round. But if it was someone connected to her ex, chances were it wouldn’t be a professional. Still, on the surface things were as they should be. Nothing obvious.
And yet... He stood there, reading the message again.
On vacation?
He’d just talked to the chief the night before and he hadn’t given any indication that he was vacationing. Out on a fishing boat, or at a lodge.
Not that the man owed him any explanations as to his whereabouts, but it seemed...odd. Under the circumstances.
They were talking about getting him and his daughter back together. About moving forward. If he were the chief, he’d have been waiting by the phone to see if Tad called with responses from the interrogation he’d agreed to do. A call Tad had planned for later that afternoon.
The news would be disappointing to the chief. But maybe not. If, as Tad was thinking, Miranda’s lack of emotion, of any reaction at all, where her father was concerned was because she’d loved him so much, she’d had to block that love in order to leave him. To survive without him.
And he remembered the way she’d looked at Ethan at the first mention of her lack of a father, as though she regretted her son’s not knowing him.
Just because the chief was on vacation didn’t mean he wasn’t waiting to hear from Tad. They hadn’t specifically arranged a call outside their normal Friday ones, but the chief had said to keep him posted when they’d rung off the night before.
Deciding his shower was going to have to wait, Tad dialed the chief’s private cell number.
He picked up on the first ring. Because he was on vacation? Or had he been waiting to hear from Tad? Hoping to hear from him?