LITMIR.BIZ

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out at the ranch, another on a city street. Face it, his gut was telling him something was wrong and obviously the police felt the same way.

      How long would it take Neil Roberts to get to Shay, Washington? Less than a day. He’d had the time, maybe, though not knowing more of the details made assessing things like time difficult. But even if Roberts had gotten here, how or why would he connect Gina Cooke with Luke Tripper?

      “I have to go,” he said, getting to his feet. “I need to talk to the police.” He pulled his hat on his head, grabbed his jacket, then looked down at the still-seated Faith, who had both arms wrapped around his slumbering nephew. Pausing, he took a deep breath. “Damn, I actually forgot about the kids for a moment.”

      “Leave them with me,” she said, picking up a pen and quickly scribbling a number on a paper. “This is my cell. Call me when you get done doing whatever you have to do. I’ll take care of Noelle and Colin.”

      “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

      “You didn’t ask me.”

      “I’ll call Mrs. Murphy to come get them.”

      “In this weather? Just leave Colin’s car seat in the front office.”

      “You don’t know what you’re in for with that car seat,” he warned her. He dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “The second number reaches my cell phone. Call me if you need me. Meanwhile, tell me where you live and I’ll come get them in, say, an hour?”

      “Well, actually, I have a few things I need to do. Just call my cell and we’ll meet. The kids won’t be in the way, don’t worry.”

      Something was odd here, but he had the overriding feeling time was of the essence for Gina, so he let it go. “Thank you.” Before he left the room, he turned. Faith had gotten to her feet, the slumbering baby draped across her shoulder. She stood silhouetted against the gray skies visible through the windows at her back, her golden hair reflecting the indoor light. She looked at him expectantly, and all he could do was stare.

      He had the oddest feeling about her.

      “Is there something else?” she asked.

      He shook his head and left.

      Chapter Two

      Half an hour later, Faith found out what she was getting into with Colin’s car seat. The sedan seemed to reverberate with the baby’s outraged protest.

      “Noelle, honey, could you give Colin a toy or a cracker or something?” Faith asked, voice raised to be heard.

      Noelle, strapped into the back next to her brother, said, “It won’t work, Ms. Bishop. Nothing works in the car.”

      “I thought babies liked to go for rides,” Faith said, thinking of her nieces who always seemed to quiet down once the engine started.

      “Not Colin,” Noelle yelled with what sounded like a hint of pride.

      The weather hadn’t changed, except that the skies were darker than ever. Faith tried to think of somewhere besides her apartment where she could take small children and could think of nothing. Shay didn’t have a mall or an indoor playground, and she hadn’t had a chance to make any friends outside the school.

      “Where are we going?” Noelle asked, her voice smaller now, unsure, barely audible over her brother’s tirade.

      “I don’t know,” Faith mumbled. And then, because there really wasn’t another choice, she added, “My place.”

      After a few moments, Colin’s cries grew a little less raucous, and as Faith negotiated the wet streets, she thought back to her meeting with Luke Tripper.

      As she’d confessed to him, she’d heard about him first from the teacher she replaced, and then around the school. The bus story had intrigued her from the moment she heard it, maybe because she’d brushed against evil last spring, barely surviving a malicious attack. To hear about a man who ran back and forth to an overturned bus risking his life to save others reassured her in some odd way that people were still good. The look in his eyes when he admitted he hadn’t saved everyone had touched her deeply.

      So she’d wondered what he would be like—and had built a mental image of a hero: strong, fearless, able to leap tall buildings. Luke Tripper looked as though he was all those things.

      He was as tall as her brother, Zac, but not as lanky, more muscular, broad-shouldered, body trim and fit, thick, dark hair cut short. And those eyes. Smoldering, yes, but also focused and intense. She’d found herself struggling not to tell him her deepest, darkest secrets.

      Add to that a sophisticated air at odds with boots and jeans and a hat that looked as though it had been around the block a time or two. That inconsistency was due, no doubt, to the fact he’d only been a rancher for four or five months. Before that he’d been an FBI agent, rumored to have done covert work. The veneer left over from that career no doubt explained her desire to confide in him. Only her pledge to herself that she would solve her own problems kept her mouth shut.

      Besides, Trip had enough troubles of his own.

      Faith fought against a stab of pure, unadulterated self-pity. Sure, she missed Puget Sound, old friends and family, but she was in debt up to her eyeballs with medical bills and Shay was the only place she could find a decent job.

      There was another reason for her decision to move, too, and it had to do with her father and brother. Last May, Zac had married Olivia, Faith’s best friend, and had adopted her four little girls. He was sheriff in Westerly, his life was busy and full, and he was happier than Faith had ever seen him.

      Meanwhile, after twenty years of being a widower, her father had discovered love right in his own backyard with Olivia’s mother, Juliet Hart. The two were getting married in Hawaii over the holidays. Faith had told them she was too busy with her new job to travel to explain why she wouldn’t be at the ceremony. She hadn’t wanted to admit the truth: she couldn’t afford the trip. She hadn’t confided in either her father or her brother that her insurance hadn’t begun to cover expenses.

      The point was, both the men in her life had moved on, and yet she knew their happiness was affected by her own sense of detachment, and it killed her. She was tired of pretending everything was okay and was determined to solve her own problems.

      Where did that leave the little ache in her gut when she thought about Luke Tripper? In her gut, she supposed, buried and secret where it belonged.

      Faith’s apartment was actually the basement of a two-story house in the worst corner of the worst part of Shay. The price for paying off her mountainous medical bills was living in a terrible neighborhood with a landlady named Ruby Lee who gave Faith the heebie-jeebies.

      As she drove around the house to reach her private entrance in the back, some of her tension dissipated. The main garage was closed and the house looked dark. Hallelujah, it appeared Ruby wasn’t home. Faith parked under the lean-to attached to the garage.

      “This is where you live?” Noelle asked as Faith helped her unbuckle her seat belt and collect her backpack. Noelle looked a lot like her uncle. Same dark brown hair, only on Noelle it was long and braided. Same deep brown eyes.

      Faith took Colin out of his seat. The baby grabbed her around the neck and immediately stopped fussing, rubbing his damp eyes with a plump fist. Poor little guy looked tired.

      “This is where I live,” Faith said as the rain pounded the fiberglass roof of the lean-to. Holding tightly to Colin and the diaper bag Trip had left in the school office, she took Noelle’s hand. “Let’s run between the raindrops to the front porch, okay?”

      They dashed the ten feet to the feeble overhang covering the door. Faith struggled to keep up with Noelle, her left leg protesting a bit at the unevenness of the ground.

      Juggling baby and belongings, Faith dug for her keys. She found they were unnecessary, as the door pushed open when she touched the knob. Had

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