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  “But I’m the one who left and came back thinking things would be the same. I had some pretty unrealistic expectations,” she explained. “But I do have a question.”

  “That’s fair.”

  “What did you mean when you said you came to North Carolina looking for me and saw me with a man in a suit?” She had wracked her brain, thinking of a man she had dated like that, and couldn’t find that memory. Even there, her type had been more blue collar, more like him.

  “I don’t remember the day, but I remember being at the courthouse. I had flowers in my hands, and you came down the steps. A man in a suit was with you. He had longish hair, and I watched as you hugged him. It was a pretty passionate embrace. He got into a Porsche.” His voice was quiet, but hard.

  It dawned on her immediately who that man was. It wasn’t often she hugged her clients, and in her career she’d barely had any who drove Porsches. “He was a client,” she told him. “His daughter had been attacked by some college guys on a class trip. I represented them, and we won. It was a hollow victory, though; she committed suicide the week before the trial. There was enough evidence that the state still tried the case, because there was more than one victim. That was an emotional day for both of us. Trust me, there was nothing with him, and you misunderstood the situation.” She shook her head at him. “I dated a few guys and maybe got serious with one, but it never felt like it did with you.”

  He turned so that he could face her. “I’m glad, babe. I always wondered, always worried that you’d found someone to replace me.”

  He felt hands on his shoulders and froze.

  “How sweet. He called you babe.”

  Glancing behind them, he saw the girl from the other day. What the fuck was her name? Karen? Drew shook his head at Charity, trying to get her attention away from the other woman. But Karen, or whatever her name was, was on a roll.

  “Sweetie, he calls women babe when he doesn’t remember their names. It’s easier for him to direct you while you’re sucking his cock or you’re riding him at the clubhouse. It’s less mess, because if he doesn’t call you by your name then he can call you Charity when he comes. He has a tattoo for that bitch.”

  Oh fuck, that was it. “Look, Karen.”

  “My name is fucking Laura. I don’t know why that’s so hard for you to remember.”

  His face was red with embarrassment and anger. Turning on her, he let his anger fly. “Don’t act like you’re surprised. You knew the deal with me; you knew exactly how it was going to be. You begged me for it, so don’t act like a woman scorned because I didn’t invite you into my bed after I busted a nut.”

  Laura was speechless as she glared at him. “You’re a piece of shit.”

  “And you’re a woman who enjoys sex but acts like she’s a prude. We both have our own issues, honey.”

  She turned to Charity. “I hope you can handle him.”

  The look on her face gave nothing away. If she were shocked, she didn’t let on, and he waited to see what she would say. “Hi, Laura, nice to meet you.” She held out her hand. “I’m Charity.”

  Laura spewed and sputtered, not able to get away from the two of them fast enough.

  Charity laughed as the woman walked away. “Did you really call them Charity when you came?”

  He shrugged, not wanting to embarrass himself any further. “I plead the fifth.”

  Their food came, and they were quiet as they took their first bites. She swallowed and took a drink of her Coke. “I wanted to say I’m sorry about last night. I feel like most of that was my fault.”

  “No.” Drew shook his head. “I wanted to act like ten years hadn’t passed when they have. We’re different people than we were back then.”

  “We are,” she agreed. “So I want you to ask me anything you want to know. The only way we’re going to get to know one another again is by asking those important questions.”

  *

  It made him a bastard, but he had one that he desperately wanted to know the answer to. The problem was—he didn’t know if he should feel obligated to know the answer to it. “There’s one thing.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin. “It shouldn’t bother me, and I shouldn’t even be asking you, but I want to know.”

  “Ask me. I don’t want to hide anything from you. That’s not how we’ve ever been.”

  “Did you leave some guy behind in North Carolina the way you left me behind?”

  “Drew,” she breathed. That was a punch to the gut, to hear those words come out of his mouth. Decisions had been made when she was younger, and she wouldn’t feel bad about them. There had been no future for her here; even he had told her that. “I remember the day I left, in my driveway, asking you to come with me to UK and we’d figure out a way to make it work. You said no.”

  “I did say no; because I knew I couldn’t stand in your way, and I didn’t.” He cleared his throat. “But now I feel like I have to know. I can’t let myself get attached to you if you decide you’re gonna up and leave again. Is there a reason for you to go back to North Carolina?”

  “There is nothing for me back there. I had a roommate in a condo I didn’t like so much, and there were only three guys in the last ten years. One I was halfway serious with, but he wasn’t you,” she admitted. “I could get so far in a relationship, and then I would start comparing them to you. Now, I want to know if I’ve been comparing them to a ghost or if you’re still what I remember.”

  “I haven’t been a saint,” he started.

  She laughed, loudly. “I never thought you would be, Drew Walker. Once you got over me, I knew you’d go play that field as far and wide as you could.”

  Now that pissed him off. “There was no getting over you, Char, still isn’t. All I did was try to live my life and not let another woman get too close. That’s why I called them babe. It didn’t make it personal, but I hope you know when I call you anything it’s a term of affection.”

  “Looks like I have a decision to make,” she whispered, taking a bite of the wing in front of her. It gave her a minute to think about things and let her look away from those eyes that had her mesmerized every time she looked into them.

  “Looks like it,” he agreed. “Do you want to see where this goes? Do you want to give us a chance? Since you’ve come to town there’s been no one else, and there won’t be as long as we’re together.”

  That was a good question. Regardless of what happened with CRISIS, Charity knew she wouldn’t be going back to NC, but could she live in a town with Drew and not be with him? That was an even bigger question. Could she stand by and watch him meet another woman, fall in love with her, and potentially have a family? She couldn’t answer that question right now, but she knew she wanted to give it a shot.

  “I want to.”

  He reached over and grabbed her hand, threading their fingers together. “Then we do this together, because I do too.”

  “It won’t be easy, being with me while I’m working on this CRISIS case,” she warned. “I get up to my eyeballs in work and sometimes forget to come up for air.”

  “That’s when I distract you and tell you to take a break. Trust me, I understand about CRISIS. I’ve been around Meredith a long time.” He let go of her and took a bite of his own wing.

  “As long as we understand each other,” she mimicked him.

  “We do. You do what you have to do, I’ll do what I have to do, and at the end of the day, we’re together. That’s my request. The nights we can spend together, we do. Otherwise, we aren’t going to be able to know how each other has changed.”

  “Kiss on it?” she asked, leaning towards him. She wanted to feel his lips again, know that he was with her and not some nameless woman. “Oh, and don’t ever call me babe again.”

  He grabbed her up in his arms, pressing their mouths together. Kissing on it felt just right.

  ‡

  Chapter Thirteen

  “This is frustrating,” Mandy groaned as she threw her pen down on the table
.

  She, Charity, and Meredith had all congregated at the clubhouse. Anything they could find that traced back to Dixon McCall was spread out in front of them. They were searching for the needle in the haystack. The one thing that would give the accusations Maggie and Skylar had leveled against him weight. They would need that weight in order to get the order of protection and the help they wanted for the mother/daughter duo.

  Charity ran her hand through her hair. “Let’s think about this. If he is doing the things they say, he’s going to need a place to store the things he’s taking in the home invasions.”

  Meredith pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Let’s look at the arrest records. Where have they gotten him before?”

  There were three folders of arrest records; Dixon apparently wasn’t a stranger to the Warren County Jail. Each one of them took a folder.

  “If you find an arrest within five miles of another one, put it out to the side,” Charity instructed. “Then we’ll compare what we all have. There will be a pattern.”

  There had to be; they had very little to go on. Dixon did not believe in a bank, he didn’t believe in much as far as electronics. From everything they could tell, he basically lived off the grid, which meant there was hardly an electronic or paper trail—making their job damn hard. Everybody was bound to slip up once in a while, and Charity knew that would be the thing that would allow them to make a breakthrough.

  “How’s it going, ladies?” Tyler Blackfoot asked as he walked into the clubhouse, flanked by his and Meredith’s son, Caelin.

  Charity did a double take as she looked up. “Holy God, he looks just like you.” She felt like she was looking at a younger version of Tyler. The only difference being that this one was a few inches shorter and about forty pounds lighter.

  Meredith laughed as she stood up to give them both a hug. “You have no idea how much that worries me.”

  “To answer your question,” Mandy said as she popped a chip in her mouth, “it’s going, but this dude is totally off the grid. We’re having a hard time finding anything.”

  “Steele will be back in about an hour. I’m sure he’d love to help,” Tyler offered before turning his attention back to Meredith. “I need the keys to the SUV. He needs new running shoes, and Addy texted me to see if I could pick her and Tatum up from cheerleading practice.”

  “Ohhh, are you going for dad of the year?” Meredith laughed as she reached into her purse and grabbed out her keys. “Those two can be loud after practice.”

  Tyler groaned. “I know, that’s why I’m bringing him with me.” He motioned towards Caelin.

  “And he promised I could get a new video game too.”

  Charity grinned when she heard Caelin talk. He was the second coming of Tyler Blackfoot, he even sounded like his dad.

  “Really?” Meredith eyed the two of them.

  “No different than when you took Addy to get a haircut with you,” Tyler pointed out. “We’ll see you later.” He leaned down, kissing her unabashedly in front of everyone else.

  “See you two later.”

  Charity waited until they left before she turned to Meredith. “Seriously, what are you going to do with Tyler Blackfoot’s twin?”

  Meredith sighed deeply. “He is eleven years old, and I’m telling you, women think he is a teenager. It doesn’t help that he hangs out with Tatum a lot, and he’s got her wrapped around his finger, so she takes him everywhere with her.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” Charity took a drink of her water.

  “No, but then because Tatum looks like she does, do they assume he’s even older?”

  “Yes!” Meredith ran her hand through her hair. “I have had women, in front of me, proposition him. Proposition my son. How fucked up is that?”

  “He looks like his dad.” Mandy shrugged. “I mean, we all know how powerful the Blackfoot charm is.”

  “He’s a kid.”

  Charity shook her head as she continued to look through her pile of arrest records. “No, he’s an almost-teenager in a man’s body. Good luck with all that.”

  “I found a gray hair yesterday, that’s why Addy and I went to the salon,” Meredith confessed. “This kid is driving me to gray hair.”

  Mandy and Charity glanced at one another, grinning as they laughed.

  Charity loved this, she realized. People who knew her past, people that she had a history with. Ones she knew inside and out. In some ways it was like she hadn’t left, and in others it was as if she’d been gone for even longer.

  “I don’t know about y’all, but I’m done,” Mandy said as she stood up and stretched. The spot in front of her that had been filled with papers was now empty.

  “Me too.” Meredith slammed the last paper down.

  “This is my last one,” Charity answered. “Now let’s go through what we’ve got and see if any of it matches.”

  They laid the papers out, all studying the addresses.

  “He’s over near the eastern side of the county a lot,” Charity observed, running a hand over her forehead.

  “Maybe Steele can help us with that,” Meredith suggested.

  In the end, anything that would help them was worth a shot.

  ‡

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Hey guys,” Charity greeted Drew and Dalton. Over her shoulder, she carried her bag, which had pictures of a building Steele had found. The building was small enough to give Dixon room to meet with his fellow members of the League of Rogue Nations and big enough for him to house stolen goods. She wanted to talk to Maggie about it.

  The two of them were taking their turn watching CRISIS. As was customary, both of them were smoking cigarettes and standing in a neutral area so they could see everything and still be able to talk to one another.

  As she walked up, she leaned into Drew when he offered up his arms for a hug. Sinking into him was like sinking into a bed that she hadn’t been in, in a long time. He was as familiar as warm sheets on a cold night.

  “What’s going on?” Drew asked her, kissing her on the cheek. Taking another drag off his cigarette, he leaned against the vinyl siding of the building and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his body.

  “I have a couple of questions I need to ask Maggie and Skylar.” She shivered, looking around. The back of her hair stood up on her neck, and she was reminded of the saying that someone had walked on her grave. “Does anybody else have the creeps right now?”

  “It’s been quiet, almost too quiet. I’ve been expecting something to happen for a while, especially since you keep coming to visit. Sooner or later, they’re going to serve Dixon and tell his ass that he has to appear. He’s gonna have to face this shit.” Dalton leaned against the house too.

  She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Sinking further into Drew’s side, she relished having him here beside her. He always seemed to make things better. “I guess I better go see if I have everything straightened out with the two upstairs. I want to make sure I have all my facts before I ask the judge to grant me protection. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s not to look like a dumbass.”

  “Do you want us to come with you?” Drew asked, suddenly not sure if he wanted her out of his sight. He was getting the creepy feeling she’d been talking about.

  Shaking her head, she walked up the rest of the stairs beside the front door. “They aren’t going to talk if either one of you are there. I feel like Maggie is only doing this so that she can get out of the life she’s in now. It’s a great place to be, but sometimes those motivations can hinder as well. She’s not doing this for the greater good; she’s doing it to benefit herself. While I’m okay with that, I still want to play my cards close to my chest.”

  “Like a wounded animal fights when it’s cornered?” Dalton asked.

  “Exactly. I know she knows probably more than she’s telling, but I need her to tell me all she knows about the home invasions. The home invasions are her ticket to everything sh
e wants.”

  *

  Walking through CRISIS house, she waved hi to the few people she knew before going up the stairs. Again she was hit with the feeling of nostalgia and memories. They played over and over and over in her mind. Sometimes she had come here after being with Drew, other times she had come here instead of being with Drew. To her, this place could have been a time warp. Cautiously, she knocked on the door.

  “It’s Charity,” she was sure to announce her presence.

  The door opened, and she walked in. “Hi, ladies,” she greeted them, setting her bag on the table in the room.

  “Have you found anything out on the information I gave you?” Maggie asked. Her jaw moved easier today, but still looked as if it hurt her to talk.

  “I did.” Charity had a seat and crossed her legs, leaning forward so that she rested her arms on her thighs. “I think we have enough that we can go to the judge and ask for some protection.”

  Maggie seemed to breathe easier. Reaching into her bag, Charity pulled out aerial pictures of the warehouse Steele had located for her. “I think I found his hideout. My question to you is what the hell is he doing with all the stuff he’s stealing? As far as I can tell, he’s untraceable.”

  “He is.” Maggie licked her lips and ran her hand through her hair. It was a nervous gesture that most people had. “That’s what makes him so scary. That’s why I worry about what he’s gonna do to us when he finds out we haven’t disappeared and that we aren’t dead.”

  “Then tell me anything you know, anything. Any little piece of information that may seem insignificant will help me protect you,” Charity begged.

  She waited what felt like a lifetime before Maggie began speaking. “The break-ins that have been happening around the county. I don’t think anyone has put two and two together. They haven’t been happening for just the past few months. This has been something that’s ongoing.”

  “He’s been doing this for longer than say a year? Is he targeting specific people?” she asked, taking her notebook out, starting to make notes.