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I didn’t feel guilty about using social media to learn more about Meg. It was a common practice, but I wanted to dig deeper. And digging into someone’s past, especially someone you wanted to date, raised some serious ethical questions.

I rapped my knuckles on the doorjamb. “Hey dad, got a minute?”

“Yeah, son, what’s up?”

“I, uh-” I realized I might sound like a stalker myself when I told him what I’d been doing, and wanted to do.

“I wanted to ask your professional opinion about something?”

“Do you need the room?” Jamie offered to leave the office he shared with our dad.

“No, I could use your input too, if you’ve got a minute.”

Dad nodded towards a chair.

“Give me a second to save this.” Jamie hit a key, got up and sat next to me. They waited patiently for me to begin as I thought about how best to approach the subject.

“You know I’ve been taking Meg to the range and teaching her how to shoot.” They nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Things aren’t adding up. We all noticed her nervousness, and intensity, in the self-defense class. She showed signs of distress during the duct tape exercise, but we’ve seen that before with students, so I didn’t think too much about it. She dyes her hair, and yesterday when we went out for coffee, she rubbed her eyes and her contact shifted. They’re colored.”

I could tell from their faces I needed to do a better job at explaining myself. “It’s not weird that she wears colored contacts, but she’s covering gorgeous emerald green eyes with plain brown contacts.”

Jamie raised an eyebrow. “Go on.” My father waited patiently for me to make my point.Thank god he trusts my instincts.

“I’ve noticed a few other things, too.” I counted on my fingers. “She doesn’t talk about herself, or her family, and when I ask personal questions, she either changes the subject or shuts down.” I looked at Jamie. “What I’m getting at is I think she’s hiding from someone. I did a quick search into her social media. She had one account, briefly while attending college, and she only posted non-personal stuff, and no pictures. She closed the account just before moving here.”

“Her background check came back clean.” Dad said at the same time Jamie said, “Congruent with someone trying not to be found.”

“I don’t think she’s a criminal, though based on the lack of hits when I ran a search, she’s probably changed her name. My gut is telling me there’s something here.” Taking a deep breath, I voiced my fear for the first time. “I have a feeling Meg is in some kind of trouble.”

Dad leaned back and steepled his hands. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. After a few seconds, he let me know. “We need to know more about her, her past. If she is hiding from someone, who are they? And how much of a threat are they?”

I didn’t have to spell out the potential danger to mom. Because Meg worked at Grannie’s, they’d consider any threat to her to be a potential threat to everyone there. I might not convince them to help me for Meg’s sake, but I knew they’d help for mom, and everyone else.

After a brief pause, Jamie asked, “Are you two dating?” He knew I had a thing for her, hell he’d been teasing me about it for weeks, so it wasn’t an unreasonable question. It pissed me off anyway. My attraction to her had nothing to do with this, and I shouldn’t have to defend myself.

“No.” I shot him a dirty look. “We’re friends, if you can even call it that.”

“But you’re interested in more.” It wasn’t a question.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m intrigued by her and yes, I’ve shown interest, but for now, I’m not planning on pursuing a relationship with her.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure I was being honest with myself, so Jamie’s reaction didn’t surprise me.

His expression said it all; he didn’t believe me. To the random observer, my dad might appear bored, but I knew he was listening, collecting information from what I said, and what I didn’t.

“This has nothing to do with what I may or may not feel for her. She's be in trouble, and I want to help.” I ran my hand through my hair.Damn it. No wonder Jamie thinks I’m lying. How could I convince them if I couldn’t convince myself? Cops were great at reading body language, and I was the idiot trying to hide my feelings from two cops who’d known me my entire life. I didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing either of them I wasn’t interested in dating Meg. If I was lucky, they’d ignore it for the moment and focus on the bigger picture.

“I’m with you. I don’t think she’s a fugitive. Your mom’s an excellent judge of character and she likes Meg. And Beth trusts her with Chase.” Dad valued their opinions. “Your mother said Meg doesn’t seem shy, per se, but she doesn’t talk about herself or her life before Texas. Which alone isn’t a red flag, but add it to what you’ve seen…” He tapped his fingers on his desk.

“Jack, write up what you’ve learned so far. We’ll review it and then figure out what, if anything, we need to do next.” Dad said, “Jamie, can you review Grannie’s security videos for the last few weeks, see if anything stands out? I’ll talk to your mother tonight at dinner, see if she’s picked up on anything else.”

“On it.” Jamie went back to his desk and pulled up the video feed from Grannie’s security cameras. “We’ll figure this out, Jack, and if she needs our help, she’ll get it.” He might give me shit, but when push came to shove, I could always count on him.

I considered myself lucky to have a large, close-knit family, and to be working with my father and brother. We might not always see eye-to-eye, and we teased each other relentlessly, but we always had each other’s backs.

“Thanks.” I got up to go to my office so I could write up a detailed list of what I knew and what I suspected based on my observations.

“Hey Jack,” Jamie called out as I reached the door. “Have you talked to AJ about this?”

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