She’d thought about burying that ring with him. But she couldn’t do it.
It was all she had had left of him.
He hadn’t even told his parents and brother about her at that point. They hadn’t known.
Had fought her on what should happen to him after his death.
They had blamed her for not stopping what had happened that day. It had taken her a while to accept that she couldn’t have done anything different. Nothing would have changed what happened to James. Nothing.
She’d had his will, had his instructions, and his power of attorney. That was all she had had left of him.
His final wishes. Details.
Today…would have been his thirty-third birthday.
She should go home. Or take Kudos and Karma on a hike somewhere. Anything but sitting there with the memories.
Nat couldn’t go home. Not yet. She’d go crazy there, pull out the lone album of photos she had of him.
Nat stopped playing, dropped her head to the keys and wept.
Until a hard hand wrapped around her neck and jerked her to her feet.
Around.
Nat stared down the barrel of a gun and froze.
114
Ava and Livy had been feeling a bit better. Livy was clearheaded enough to understand that her parents and aunt were all gone. That she and her sister were alone. Unlike Ava, who truly didn’t understand that death was permanent—Livy did.
Jac had spent most of the ninety-minute visit holding the girls and reassuring them. They wouldn’t be alone.
She was going to take care of them. She’d promised.
There had been a social worker in the room now.
One Jac had known well. She’d been the same social worker who had handled the case for Miranda when she’d kept a three-year-old girl whose mother had been a victim in a previous case. It had been a temporary placement. The social worker was a good one—was one that cared a great deal about the kids she had on her docket.
After Ava and Livy finally fell asleep again, Jac and the social worker had had an honest talk. About what would most likely happen to the girls—and Bentley—if someone didn’t step up and offer to take them in, as fictive kin.
As it was, Olivia would have to transfer out of the private school, their parents’ house would have to be sold, with the proceeds going to debts and funeral expenses, and they were all three now wards of the state.
If someone didn’t have enough beds, or if someone decided they were better off apart, they would be separated. Their world had been completely destroyed.
And now they were literally waiting for someone to step up and fix things for them.
Jac had come to a decision. One she hoped Max would fully support.
She had promised Rachel she would take care of them. She had promised the girls she would take care of them, too.
They reminded her so much of her and Nat when they were younger. Alone and facing the world of monsters with just each other.
No child should ever have to face that.
Jac intended to keep her promise.
But first…she had to stop by her house again. Ava had spilled grape juice down the front of Jac’s blouse.
She had just enough time for a quick change of clothes and get back to PAVAD.
She wanted to grab Max, have a heart-to-heart about the Sturvin girls.
See if what she wanted now would change things between the two of them again.
She didn’t want to admit it, but a small part of her expected him to run. To want no part of it. It would be a massive life change neither one of them could ever have predicted, after all.
He’d run from her before. With far less provocation.
Another, larger, part of her knew that was stupid.
Max had explained why he’d run. And she’d understood.
This was just the first bump in the road they’d have if they were going to make a relationship between them work.
She suspected that was exactly what they were going to try to do. She was willing. He said he was, too.
It would just take time. Like everything else in life worth having.
She pulled into her driveway, behind Nat’s Jeep. She was glad her little sister was still there.
Nat would be a good practice conversation for the one she’d be having with Max today.
Jac had just made it to the front porch when movement from the side yard caught her attention.
Karma. Whimpering and hunkering down. Afraid.
That wasn’t right.
Her sister’s dog shouldn’t be out of the fenced backyard. Her sister’s dogs didn’t do what they weren’t supposed to do. They hadn’t acted out in years, since puppyhood. Especially the extremely timid Karma, who rarely wandered that far from Nat’s side.
Fierce growling came from the backyard. Barking. Snarling. Angry.
He wasn’t stopping.
Kudos.
The dogs wouldn’t be doing this—not without something being wrong. Not to mention, Nat would have calmed, comforted them—if she was able. Nat was exceptionally attuned to the dogs’ needs.
Someone, some thing must be stopping her sister from doing just that.
Jac grabbed her phone and brought up the security app. She’d had cameras installed just two days before Rachel had been killed. It was a system Carrie Lorcan had designed for her own brother-in-law’s company.
She’d asked Jac and several others in computer forensics if they’d like to test it. Jac had agreed—this system hadn’t even been released to the public. She hadn’t been taking chances with her safety—not with PAVAD being targeted.
Her sister’s dogs wouldn’t be doing this without a problem.
PAVAD agents were all at risk right now.
Including Jac; including Nat.
The camera for the living room buffered.
Where Nat stood.
Nat wasn’t alone.
There was a man in Jac’s house. In full PAVAD tactical gear.
With a semiautomatic.
Aimed right at her sister’s head.
115
Her green eyes were red-rimmed. Eugene had stood in the corner of the living room, right there by the back door—he’d slipped inside using the key he’d found earlier, after letting that big brute of a dog out of the fence.
Eugene could have killed her so easily, just put a bullet in the back of her head and walked away. No one would have ever connected him to
