“Did you forget Piper already?” Dylan asked, enjoying Levi’s wince. He turned to Eve. “He’s married. A newlywed, to be exact.”
“Congratulations,” Eve exclaimed to Levi. She didn’t show the slightest flicker of recognition toward Dylan. “First drink is on me”
“Thank you.” Levi raised the bottle to his lips and took a long drink. “Free beer is the sweetest kind.”
“Hey.” Dylan rapped his knuckled on the table. “Did you forget about me?”
“I didn’t,” Eve said, looking at him for the first time. She nodded toward his beer before holding out her hand. “That’ll be four dollars.”
Levi snorted, barely suppressing his laughter. With a grin, he wiped a trickle of liquid from his chin.
“Sorry for my gruff friend,” Levi said. “His manners leave something to be desired.”
“No problem,” Eve said, practically beaming at Levi. “You more than compensate for his deficiencies.”
“Deficiencies?” Frustrated, Dylan scrubbed a hand over his face. “Are you kidding?”
“I’m Levi, by the way. Levi Reynolds.” Levi pretended to read Eve’s nametag. “Eve. Nice to meet you. And my friend is—”
“I know who he is,” Eve said, ice dripping from each word?”
“You do?” Dylan exchanged confused looks with Levi. Certain he’d never met Eve in his life before tonight, he frowned. “How?”
“Enjoy your drinks,” she said. “If you want another round and I’m not around, flag down one of the other waitresses. Any of them will be happy to serve you.”
Dylan grabbed at Eve’s arm but, more elusive than a lightning-quick running back, she slipped through his fingers.
“Did you see that?” Dylan demanded of Levi.
“Hard to miss,” Levi said. “Should we call Darcy Stratham? The Knights’ general manager is a progressive person and the team can always use speed on offense. Who knows? She might sign Eve to a contract on the spot.”
“Does my pain amuse you?” Dylan wanted to know.
“No,” Levi said, then proceeded to contradict himself. “But if the tables were turned, you’d laugh your ass off if a woman thoroughly put me in my place.”
Dylan wasn’t worried about his place. Instead, he had the feeling something about Eve was off. The flicker he saw in her eyes made him uncomfortable.
“You know the premonition you get during a game when a play is about to go south?” Dylan asked.
“The tingle at the back of my neck?” Levi nodded. “Sure. Tells me it’s time to chuck the play and improvise.”
Dylan planned to meet with Eve and have a reasonable conversation so he could get a better idea of what was going on. But when he searched the crowd and she was nowhere to be seen, the tingle Levi mentioned turned into a full-blown electric jolt that shot him to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” Levi asked.
“My instincts tell me Eve is about to blow up my playbook.” Dylan flagged down a waitress. “Is Eve Montgomery on a break?”
“She left for the night. But I’ll be happy to get you whatever you need.” The pretty redhead—very much Dylan’s type—batted her eyelashes. “Anything.”
“Maybe another time,” Dylan said, not the least bit interested. He looked at Levi. “Let’s go.”
“You think Eve plans to take the kid and run?” Levi asked as they jumped into the rented SUV.
Dylan checked the information he had on Eve and typed her address into the navigation system.
“Maybe. Probably,” he said, pulling out of the parking lot and turning right. “She recognized me and if she’s smart, it didn’t take her long to figure out why I’m here.”
“But why run?” Levi frowned. “If you turn out to be the little girl’s uncle, all the better. If not, you’ll head out of Dodge. No muss, no fuss.”
“Maybe Eve is worried I’ll demand she returns the money. Maybe after the way Tanner abandoned her friend, she doesn’t like the idea of his family having anything to do with the girl.” Dylan shrugged. “Who knows. But before she takes a powder, I plan to find out.”
Trident, New Mexico wasn’t a large city. However, the person who planned the layout must have been drunk at the time. One-way streets turned into dead ends. Roads looped around each other leading nowhere. Without the car’s GPS, Dylan never would have found Eve’s apartment.
“Where are the streetlights?” Levi asked as they parked near a vacant building that once was home to an Italian restaurant. “I can barely see my hand in front of my face.”
“No moon and everything’s shut up for the night.” Dylan used the flashlight on his phone. At the side of the building, a few feet down the alleyway, he found a doorway. He looked inside. “Here’s the place.”
“The place is pretty rundown,” Levi observed as he followed Dylan up a set of stairs to the second floor. “Clean as a whistle, though. Not a speck of dirt to be seen. Not even a gum wrapper. Maybe Eve is a neat freak.”
“Maybe I don’t give a shit.”
“Uh, oh,” Levi said. “You reached the point where your anger has turned ice cold. Not a good omen for Eve.”
“She ran. Without provocation,” Dylan said without inflection. Ten feet down the hall, he stopped at apartment number three. “Whatever she gets, she’s earned.”
Dylan raised his fist to pound on the door. Sporting a cooler head, Levi grabbed his arm.
“Before you destroy a perfectly good piece of wood, take a breath and remember.” Levi squeezed Dylan’s shoulder. “A little girl lives here. A person who might be your niece. Do you want to scare her first thing out of the box?”
Levi was right. Dylan would be happy to scare the crap out of Eve. After taking off the way she did, she deserved to have a few years shaved off her life out of sheer fright. But Daisy Juniper was the one innocent person in this whole mess and despite his protestations, he had a soft spot a mile wide where children were concerned.
If the little girl turned out to be his niece, he wanted to be her rock. A bastion of stability. The chances of earning her trust dropped considerably if the first side of
