Just One Kiss (Fool's Gold #10)(24)

The girl sighed. “Can you tell my grandma instead?”

She was a good negotiator. “Sure. I’ll tell Ava if I find anything, and I’ll report to you.” Because if someone was bothering Lillie he wanted to make sure it stopped.

“Great.” She held out the money again. “Is this enough?”

“You don’t have to pay me. The first one is free.”

She smiled. “Thanks.” She put the money in her backpack and withdrew a piece of paper. “Here’s his name and where he lives and stuff. So you can find him.”

He took the information. “I’ll look into the situation and get back to you.” He wasn’t sure what was going on with Zack, but he would sure find out.

“Thank you for helping me. Mom’s busy with her new store. She’s really happy and I knew this would upset her. Grandma’s excited, too. So I didn’t know where else to go. Maybe it would be different if I had a dad.” She put her elbows on her thighs and rested her chin in her hands. “I mean, I have a dad, but I never see him.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I don’t remember him at all. He left like when I was born or something. He doesn’t see me.”

She spoke without emotion—because this was all she knew. He wondered what kind of man could walk away from his child, then told himself the question was stupid. Parents walked away from kids all the time. Or did worse. Look at his own father. Justice had lived the nightmare of parental abuse. Having Bart abandon him would have been a kindness.

“If you have questions about him, I’m sure you can talk to your mom,” he said.

“I know. Or Grandma. They tell me that. But what am I supposed to ask?” She straightened and stood. “Thanks for helping me.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll get back to you in a couple of days.”

She grinned. “Can we set up a secret meeting place, like we’re spies?”

“Sure.”

“I’d like that. But it’s okay if you just come to school, too. Mom says you’re busy with your business.”

She picked up her book and her backpack and walked to the main entrance to the hotel. Justice followed her to the door and watched her walk away. Then he took the stairs back to his room. He returned to his computer, but instead of seeing Felicia’s detailed spreadsheet, he saw the past. A much-younger Patience and how she’d smiled at him.

She’d only been about four years older than Lillie. A pretty girl who had grown into a beautiful woman.

He stood and crossed to the window, then stared out at his view of the mountains.

If things had been different, he thought, even though he knew it was a waste of time. Things couldn’t have been different. Not with who he was and how he’d been raised. Bart Hanson had liked living on the wrong side of the law, liked the risk and flirting with death. His sociopathic tendencies had kept everyone around him on edge.

Justice remembered his last night in Fool’s Gold all those years ago. How the phone call had come, warning them Bart had escaped from prison and been spotted in the area. Justice had been whisked away in a matter of seconds. Less than an hour later, a team had arrived to clean out the house. By morning it was as if they’d never been there at all.

He’d raged against being taken away. Had tried to bargain to be allowed to at least phone Patience and tell her what had happened. One of the marshals had explained if she knew, she was in danger. Justice had known that was true and had stopped asking.

After Bart had been captured, Justice was finally free. The murder conviction along with his other crimes had ensured that he would die behind bars. But he hadn’t gone quietly and his final screams as he was led away had been a vow that his son would die. That Bart would hunt him down and kill him.

Even now, long after his father’s death, Justice couldn’t shake the sense that Bart was still out there. Waiting. Watching. That if Justice went too far, got too close to being like everyone else, too close to being happy, his father would pounce and destroy it all.

He glanced down to the street below and saw Lillie walking along the sidewalk. She was joined by a couple of girls her age and they talked and laughed together.

He couldn’t risk it, he thought grimly. His father haunted him. There was no way to know that he could keep anyone he cared about safe. Especially if the enemy was him.

* * *

PATIENCE STOOD LOOKING at the floor in her newly leased space. She’d swept and cleaned in preparation for her meeting with her contractor. But before she handed over the deposit for the remodeling, she wanted to be sure. So she’d shown up, armed with a plan, a tape measure and masking tape.

So far she’d taped in the back and front counters, along with several tables and chairs. She walked back to the front door to confirm the flow, then wandered over to the empty area by the far window. What exactly was she going to put there? She had a cold case she was eyeing, or she could put in some kind of shelving and keep it for small meetings. Like for a book club. Ava kept suggesting a karaoke machine, but Patience wasn’t thrilled about that idea.

She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the taped outlines on the floor, then looked at the next hand-drawn design. Maybe if she moved the tables to the right of the door, she thought.

“Patience?”

She turned toward the sound of her name and looked at the man standing in the open doorway to the store. With the sunlight behind him, she couldn’t see him clearly at first. As he moved inside, she saw the features of an older man. He had green eyes and nearly white hair.