Page 8 of For the Birds

Chapter3

Bruce Wayne was workingon a yard in a neighborhood south of town, so the fifteen-minute drive gave me plenty of time to think.

It shamed me to think I’d let James get between Neely Kate and me. I’d kept his secrets and then some—unquestionably. What had he ever done forme?

Treated me with more respect than any other man in mylife.

When he saw me, he didn’t see the weak and naïve woman Joe had met over a year ago while working undercover. And he didn’t see the woman I’d been with my boyfriend Mason, intelligent but in need of protecting. James was the first man who’d challenged me to think myself capable of so much more. He’d helped me create my alter ego, the Lady in Black, and then encouraged me to meld the strong, take-charge woman I became while wearing the veiled disguise with the woman I was to everyone else. In turn, I’d helped him see something in himself: the good man behind the criminal. He owned a diner that was losing money, but he kept it so he could continue to employ a kind woman from his childhood . . . and because he liked the pancakes. He was intolerant of violence against women and children and came down hard on anyone who disobeyed his decree. His legitimate businesses made him more than his illegal enterprises, but while part of him wanted to try the straight and narrow, he maintained his position to ensure none of the sociopaths waiting in the wings tookover.

James Malcolm and I had become friends, and we’d both shared things with each other that we’d never shared with anyone else, so I’d believed our Tuesday night meetings—which had consisted of sitting on the back of my truck and talking about what was going on in our lives for an hour or more—had softened his heart.

All of which had made the pain of his betrayal so much worse.

The parley I’d set up had been between James and his adversaries, Buck Reynolds and Kip Wagner. Neely Kate and I had been looking for a necklace for her “friend,” only to discover he’d stolen it from Buck Reynolds. No surprise, Reynolds had wanted it back. James had hoped to prevent that, suspecting that his challenger planned to sell the necklace to finance his bid to take over the county crime world. I’d set up the meeting to return the necklace in exchange for peace in the county. Except James had never intended to cooperate—his intention had been to use the meeting to force their surrender.

It wasn’t actually his plan that had upset me—I might have even gone along with it. It was the fact that he hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me the truth.

After everything we’d been through together.

A tiny voice in my head said he’d orchestrated this. That he’d wanted me to get pissed enough to write him out of my life. I’d suspected for some time that he had feelings for me, but at first it had been a moot point. I’d been happy with Mason. Then Mason had left, and I’d spent months recovering from our breakup. Several weeks ago, I’d finally admitted to myself that I was attracted to James, drawn to him like a moth to a flame. And while the one time we’d kissed had been hotter than any kiss I’d ever experienced in my life, James had pushed me away and declared it impossible. If his enemies caught word that he had feelings for me, I would become his greatest liability.

If he’d admitted his feelings for me and made them public, would I be missing now instead of Scooter?

I turned into the neighborhood where Bruce Wayne and his crew were working, then pulled my truck in behind my business partner’s truck after I found the house. Bruce Wayne and his four-man crew were hard at work digging a trench to lay the foundation for a small wall at the edge of the front plantingbed.

Bruce Wayne looked up when he saw me walking toward him and did a double take. I used to work on the job sites with him until we started getting more business. Now I focused more on creating designs and estimates, though I still liked to get my hands in thedirt.

“Rose,” he said, shielding his eyes to watch me approach and taking in my outfit with a grin. My usual uniform was a lot less fancy: T-shirts and jeans or shorts. “I know you’re not here to work. You checking up onme?”

I forced a smile. “You’re too good to warrant checking on. I’m glad I had the foresight to make you a partner instead of an employee. Otherwise, you might have left and stolen all my business.”

He grinned.

I handed him the paper. “Neely Kate said you needed the revised plans for the backyard.”

He took the paper and scanned it before folding it up and stuffing it into his back pocket. “Shouldn’t be a trouble.” He paused and then said, “But I know you didn’t come down here just to give me this. I’m not scheduled to get to their backyard until tomorrow. Is this about Violet?”

“No.” I glanced at the guys working with him. “Can I borrow you for a moment?”

Worry filled his eyes. “Yeah. Sure.”

He told the men something in Spanish, then followed me to the shade of a maple tree ten feet away. “What’s up?” he asked.

“It’s about Scooter Malcolm.”

The blank expression on his face confirmed he hadn’t heard. “What abouthim?”

“He’s missing.”

He swallowed and glanced over at his crew. “For howlong?”

Why hadn’t I pinned Neely Kate down and gotten more information? “I don’t know. At least since late lastweek.”

“What happened tohim?”

“Honestly, Bruce Wayne, I’m not sure. Joe was the one who told me. He was surprised Ididn’tknow.”

“You’re still havin’ your spat with Skeeter?” he asked, his gaze still on hismen.

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