“Across the sound?”
“Yep.”
“You were just attacked. Took a dunk in the water and almost...”
“You don’t need to remind me.”
“I’ll go too. Maybe you can tell me the facts surrounding your mother’s death back in Michigan along the way.”
“I’ll consider it. I’m just exhausted. I need to think.”And I need space.
An escape from Cole would be nice, but how do you ask the guy who just saved your life to get lost?
She wasn’t sure about anything anymore, except it seemed like someone always wanted to kill her. If she thought about it too long, furious tears would surge, and she couldn’t let Cole see her like that. He’d only known her when she was strong. Never vulnerable.
“I have an idea.” Eyes bright, he stared at her. “I’ll see if I can get security footage. We could find out where your father was going. I don’t like the idea that you followed him, potentially putting yourself in harm’s way—whatever the danger is—but I’m here, and I can protect you now. What do you think?”
She angled her head. “I mean, he’s a mechanic. What kind of danger could he have gotten himself into?”
“He could owe money to the mob. I don’t know.”
“Pop? No way.” She quirked her face. “What’s yourgutfeeling about this?”
“I’d like to know what he’s involved in so I can assess any threat against you.”
“Maybe there’s something we can do to help him,” she said.
He rubbed his jaw as his face scrunched up. “Maybe. So have you tried to contact him?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve texted multiple times, and I’ve called, and I get no response.”
“I’ve met your dad a few times, of course, but I wouldn’t say I know him that well. Other than he is an auto mechanic, what can you tell me about him?”
“You mean you haven’t already run background checks and looked into everything about my life, which includes my parents?” She studied him, trying to get a read on him.
“I read the police report about what happened in Michigan. I came to talk to you. That’s it. Now we’re here in Seattle. What would you like to do?”
“I guess, yeah, let’s look at the security footage.” She knew some of how law enforcement worked but not about the kind of private agency for which Cole worked.
She got out her cell again and looked at the locator app. Nothing.
“Okay, then. We’ll head to the Columbia Center parking.” He steered from the parking lot.
“Back to my question about your father,” he said. “What can you tell me about him other than he’s a mechanic?”
“Pop is my biological father. I only just met him three years ago. I grew up with a different father. His name was Dale, but he left when I was a kid. I never heard from him again because he died from a heart attack.” A vise clamped down on her throat, strangling her. “I don’t know where that came from.” Cole hadn’t asked about Dale.
Cole touched her arm. “It’s okay, Jo. That would be hard on any kid. Believe me, I’ve got my own family horror stories.”
She knew there was tension between him and Hawk growing up. Still, they were as close as any siblings she’d known. But Cole had never talked about his family with her before. He claimed that after everything that happened, he wanted to focus on the good things, the present and the future. She’d done the same, leaving the past in the past.
She wiped away the tear that leaked and glanced at him. “Will you tell me sometime?”
As if that opportunity would come because they werefriends and would have plenty of time to talk about it. That wasn’t happening.
“Sometime.” He shifted uncomfortably. “What happened? Why’d Dale leave?”
“I was ten when I overheard Mom and Dad—Dale—fighting, and then he left for good. Walked out on us both. I never knew why. All I knew was that I really hated my mother. I thought she had sent him away. It took me a long time to get over it.” A friend had invited Jo to church, and she learned that she was supposed to forgive. That didn’t mean she would forget that her dad left her. But she’d forgiven him, and she’d forgiven her mother and had even followed in her footsteps to work as a forensic artist.
