Page 7 of Strike Fast

“No.”

Autumn looked scandalized. “None of them?”

Tess bit back a laugh. “Not a single one.”

“But you’ve seen the movies,” she said with a frown. “Or at least some of them.”

“Nope, afraid not.”

Autumn sat back, an expression of disbelief on her little face. “What? I thought you said you have three nieces.”

“I do, but they’re a lot older than you, mostly all grown up now, and into different stuff.” And they sure as hell hadn’t been this mature at age nine. Autumn was scaring her a little.

She gave Tess a dubious look and returned to her crafting. “Well, if you don’t like to read you should at least watch the movies, they’re awesome. Anyway, Dad took me to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.” She sighed, shook her head, her eyes wistful. “It was just like being in the movies.”

“That good, huh?”

“Amazing. Even Dad liked it.”

Tess didn’t know the man, but she thought it was incredibly sweet that Reid had planned the trip and taken his daughter to a place that clearly meant so much to her. “Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah. I don’t get to see him all that much, so it was cool to have a trip with him. He’s a good dad. Even if my mom doesn’t think so,” she added.

Tess’s ears perked up. “She doesn’t?”

“Nah. They don’t get along. My mom’s always mad at him, no matter how hard he tries.”

Interesting, that Autumn would defend him. And it sounded to Tess like she got caught in the middle a lot. “I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

She shrugged. “I’m used to it. I just don’t like it when my mom says bad stuff about him. He loves me and he’s doing the best he can.”

He had a sweet little protector, that was for sure. “That’s good. I know he has to be away a lot, for work.”

Autumn nodded. “Do you go away a lot too?”

“Yes.” The Aviation Division was based out of Fort Worth, but she moved around wherever she was needed, including overseas. And she was glad for the ever-changing scenery, because keeping busy had saved her sanity in the years since Brian died. “I go home to Nevada when I can to visit my parents and my sister and her family, but I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like.”

Autumn gave a solemn nod. “It’s a sacrifice families like ours have to make so that the world can be a better place.”

The little girl’s maturity was astounding, although that last bit sounded exactly like something a parent would say to their child to explain their situation. Tess didn’t quite know what to make of it. Maybe Autumn just had a crazy high IQ or something.

“Hey, how’d you guys make out?” a familiar male voice drawled from the doorway.

Tess looked over her shoulder just as Special Agent Prentiss entered the kitchen, a half-smile on his ruggedly handsome face. Her heart beat faster at the sight of him. He was a little over six feet, and broad through the chest and shoulders, his arms well-muscled below the short sleeves of his T-shirt. “Good. We’ve been busy making a pack of pom-pom puppies.”

“I see that.” He went straight to Autumn, set his big hands on her little shoulders and bent to kiss the top of her head as he took in their efforts. “They’re pretty cute.”

“Yes, and I made you this one,” she told him, picking up a floppy brown-and-black one with ears that stuck straight out of its head, a little pink felt tongue lolling out of its mouth. “It’s a German Shepherd.”

“My favorite,” he said, cradling it in his palm.

“I know,” Autumn said, her voice full of pride. “So are you done now?”

His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, and the obvious warmth between the two of them made him even hotter to Tess. “All done.”

Autumn turned to her. “We’re going to dinner and a movie now. Or maybe a movie and then dinner. You wanna come with us?”

Taken aback by the offer, it took Tess a moment to respond. “Oh, I couldn’t—”

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