Page 23 of Keep

CHAPTER SIX

Dalton

I stood at the window watching a family of quail dart across the courtyard. They ran very fast toward a row of sagebrush and were soon out of sight while soft arms hugged me from behind.

“Are you sure you’re up for going back to work today?” Cami asked, her voice muffled from pressing her face into my back.

I set my coffee cup down on the kitchen table and turned so I could hold her better. “Yeah. It’ll be nice to see the kids.”

Cami tipped her face up and accepted a kiss. “Call me anytime today. I’ll keep my phone with me during meetings.”

Her long brown hair was tied back with an elastic band and she looked excellent in her crisp white blouse and flared skirt. I ran the back of my knuckle over her delicate left cheekbone.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry we didn’t get to have our honeymoon.”

She shook her head. “We’ll get our honeymoon.” She leaned up on her toes to kiss me again. Then she glanced at the wall clock and groaned. “I’ve got to leave in a few minutes if I want to make it downtown at a reasonable time.”

I tightened my arms around her waist. “Your boss never shows up before ten.”

“True. But I like some time to catch up at my desk before he arrives and starts bellowing a myriad of unreasonable demands.” A shadow swept across her face and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, a sure sign that she was troubled.

“You don’t need to worry about me,” I reassured her. “How about I pick up some Chinese takeout for dinner?”

She smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That sounds great.”

“But… what?” I prodded.

Cami hesitated. “But I’ve been debating on a good time to give you some bad news.”

“You may as well spit it out. It couldn’t be any worse than what’s already happened over the last week.”

Cami gave me a sad smile and withdrew from my arms to fill a travel mug full of coffee. “Two days ago I got a call from Anita Hernandez. She’s on the Investigations team.” Cami took her time adding sugar to her coffee.

“Big new story?” I guessed.

She stirred the sugar with a teaspoon. “No. She wanted to give me a heads up about something.”

“What’s that?”

She stopped stirring and looked me in the eye. “Hale’s name had come up in connection with some rather despicable characters.”

I tensed. “I don’t get it.”

Cami placed the teaspoon in the sink. “Did he ever talk to you about being an investor in a chain of tanning salons?”

“Tanning salons? No. I mean, I knew he wasn’t exactly a nine to fiver. But getting Hale to talk about what he did for a living was like trying to pull the teeth of a tiger. He said he helped his buddy start a steakhouse up on Camelback but I know that wasn’t his only venture.”

Cami didn’t look surprised. She nodded. “As for the tanning salons, whether he knew it or not, he was in business with some bad guys.”

“What type of bad guys?”

“The type who might be associated with a well known east coast mafia family. The type who are being investigated for sex trafficking underage girls.”

I felt sick. “Hale would never have gotten involved in that.”

Cami was sympathetic. “I’m sure you’re right. There’s no evidence that Hale was involved but in light of the situation there’s been a lot of digging into the business enterprises of these men. Anita said she didn’t see any reason to make Hale’s affiliation public, at least not for now. She was just trying to be a friend and give us a heads up.”

“All right.” I didn’t really want to think about this right now, not less than twenty four hours after my brother’s funeral service.

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