It was so normal, so opposite of what she did on a day-to-day basis.
Emery had asked Jac to help with her school activities before. Jac understood why; most of the parents that volunteered at Brynlock were female. There were a few involved fathers, of course, but most of the volunteers were mothers.
Emery was very much about fitting in exactly as her friends did right now. She had some insecurities she was battling. There weren’t many single fathers at Brynlock. Emery thought that made her too different.
That meant, if they had a mom or stepmom at the school, Emery wanted someone who looked like them, too. She was all about conforming now.
It drove Max nuts.
He was so insecure about his ability to parent a little girl. Jac understood it, though; she’d been that little girl before.
The father Jac had had was a monster.
Emery’s father was the exact opposite. Emery was just going through a natural phase of noticing her contemporaries and obsessing over every possible difference between them. Jac hadn’t minded; she loved working with kids. If her life had followed a different path, she would most likely have been a teacher, or pediatrician or child psychiatrist.
Now, she spent most of her time split between the Child Exploitation Protection Division and the Complex Crimes Unit Team Three of PAVAD. Team three ended up with the cases involving children more often than the other teams. It was starting to become their specialty. That was a natural evolution of law enforcement teams—some became better at certain cases than others.
Jac had worked with Emery’s father for more than five years. She’d known and loved the little girl almost as long. She was going to enjoy this rare night hanging out with her favorite kid in the world.
It would help them all—Emery would be safe, Max would be free to focus on whatever he was doing, and Jac would be able to forget for a while a little boy whose entire world had changed over stolen video games.
Jac needed to forget right now.
She’d just try not to worry about the tension and the secrets in Max’s voice tonight.
Because something had happened at PAVAD.
Max was right out there in the middle of it.
That…that could be very, very dangerous right now.
3
FBI Agent Todd Barnes clutched the envelope of cash close and hoped no one saw him. He’d seen several people entering the school gymnasium that he recognized. He’d only been a few yards behind one of those people, but fortunately for him Jaclyn Jones hadn’t turned around long enough to identify him.
He slouched and pulled the ball cap down and tightened his Carhart coat over his clothes. The jeans and sweatshirt beneath were a far cry from what he usually wore. He’d bought the whole outfit off the rack at a dollar store just for this.
He wanted to blend in with all the good little sports daddies at Brynlock academy.
He had a special project tonight. One he wasn’t about to screw up.
Todd knew he was being tested. Seeing just what he was willing to do.
If it meant bringing down PAVAD, he would do anything asked of them. It couldn’t keep going on unchecked like it was. That was going to get someone killed. Todd had the scar to prove it.
The man he was supposed to meet was late.
Todd pulled his hood over his head and waited under the streetlight like he was supposed to. He’d always hated the damned rain. Rain in November was ten times as bad. It was fucking cold out here tonight.
Someone walked by him. Todd swore and backed out of the light.
It was one of those damned Lorcan brothers’ wives. The redhead with the weird hazel eyes and the chest that made men drool.
Well, Todd would drool, too. If she was his. He tried to heat himself up by imagining her naked for a few moments.
Hard to do with the two kids she was carrying into the building right there. They certainly ruined his image of her.
Maybe it was time he started doing the work to find another girlfriend. One he could be serious about this time. Could count on; the last woman he’d been seriously involved with had left him for one of his former teammates. He’d never forgive Agent Strette for that betrayal.
Once this thing with PAVAD was over, he’d have a hell of a lot more money in his pocket. He’d find a woman of quality.
He could buy a house. Find a lady to share it with. It would be nice to have regular sex again with a woman who cared about what he had to say. One he could train to do what he liked in the bed.
Who knew? Maybe he’d actually like her, and they’d tie the knot and have a few kids. Send them to a fancy place like Brynlock. Then he wouldn’t be going back to a plain, empty apartment.
A school basketball game, he thought. What a shit-in-the-hole.
All TV-sitcom perfect.
There was the damned director of PAVAD’s wife right there, a toddler on her hip and at least half a dozen kids trailing after her like ducks, with half of them wearing team sweatshirts under their coats.
She looked all prissy and rich and sexy in that older woman kind of way.
Even that billionaire asshole married to the blonde from PAVAD forensics was there, strutting around like he owned the place. Mr. Moneybags jogged up to the redhead and took the youngest baby out of her arms.
Hell, for all Todd knew, the guy probably did own the place now. News was always going on about him buying up stuff. Him and that Barratt-Handley guy from down in Texas. Like it was a competition or something.
After fifteen minutes, the man Todd was supposed to meet finally came out.
Todd was seriously unimpressed.
The guy was completely unremarkable. If he hadn’t said the code word, Todd never would have realized it was him. What a wiener.
Todd handed over the envelope, turned, and
