It was time to exorcise her hold on him, and for that, he would have to make her tell him thetruth.
Was there a baby, or was it allblackmail?
* * *
“How many onlineapplications did we get for the adoption event?” Linx sat in her sister’s diner across from her best friend and most loyal volunteer, TamiKing.
The two of them went back to elementary school, and had only lost touch when Tami went tocollege.
“I’m still going through them to remove the flakes and trolls,” Tami said, checking her notepad. “But I’d say we have a good seven or eight. We also have that guy who’s running Dogs forVets…”
Tami’s voice trailed as her eyes quirked with mischievousinterest.
Linx shrugged and stared at her reflection in her black coffee. “He’s asking for older dogs, and God knows how hard it is to placethem.”
“Why would he want geriatric dogs when they don’t last as long?” Tami asked as she picked up a breadstick and munched onit.
“They’re calmer, if they don’t have personality issues,” Linx replied. “Most of the vets want companionship. An older one is already housebroken, hopefully, and has been through sorrow and grief—kindredspirits.”
“Then we should give him as many as he wants,” Tamiconcurred.
“There’s a problem, though,” Linx said. “Our policy is that whoever adopts our rescue dogs is the final owner—not a pass through. We are the ones who should vet the eventual homes of ourguests.”
“Ideally so,” Tami said. “But we’re overcrowded, and some of the old guys have been here forever. Plus, we’re running low on funds, and we need to enlarge thekennels.”
“I don’t trust theguy.”
Tami let out a snort. “With your heart, sure, but you’ve got to admit it’s interesting he’s turning upnow.”
Tami didn’t know the details on Linx’s long-ago relationship with Grady, only the fallout—which was badenough.
“What’s so interesting?” Linx swirled a breadstick in the dip and looked for her sister, Joey. Why was it taking so long for her to take theirorder?
Her gazefroze.
“Speak of the devil.” She clenched her jaw. “There heis.”
Six-foot-two inches of rough and tough man took off his aviator sunglasses and glared at her from the entrance of thediner.
That man was too arrogant for his own good. What gave him the right to walk around like a modern-day James Dean, complete with black leather jacket, black boots, and skin so tan he could be mistaken for apirate?
Heck, he even smoothed his thick hair back like he was a twenty-first century reincarnation of a rebel without acause.
“You’d think he owned this town.” Tami eyed him with eager curiosity as he wove his way towardthem.
Linx fought to keep her face from heating up as she reached for her phone and commanded it to call her brother, Todd, the townsheriff.
Grady put his hand on the back of the booth. “Why, Miss Linx, I thought you fought your ownbattles.”
Linx tapped the end-call button and slid her phone into her pocket. She’d clue her brother in later, and yes, she did fight her own battles, and she wasn’t going to let the likes of Grady Hart worm his way back into her good graces with some tall tale of doing good forveterans.
Bed was a different story, maybe, but a woman had to keep up appearances, especially in front of herfamily.
Except doing battle with Grady Hart was always a losing proposition. The man had an advantage—the smoldering gaze, work roughened hands, the grizzly stubble on his strong jaw—and he took it—early, often, and with muchrelish.
Linx tore her gaze from the mouth which would so easily and knowingly ignite her most sensitive zones. She grabbed a breadstick and shoved it into the creamy dip, in and out. Slowly, she twisted it between her succulent lips and gave him a sweet, innocent smile. “Jumped any fireslately?”
Fire season in the Sierra Nevada region, Gold Country California, started in May, and with the weather as dry as tinder, fires broke out all over the state, keeping crews of smokejumpers and wildfire firefighters busy, sooty, and exhausted—too busy and exhausted to cause trouble in her hometown of Colson’s Corner—a tiny village too high up and remote to garner muchtraffic.
