Archer stood when he approached.“How’d it go?”
“Nothin’.”
“Same here.”
Atticus looked around one more time, swearing he saw a curtain move in the trailer across the street.He stared until he assumed his eyes were playing tricks on him.
He made a mental note to swing back through if they didn’t come up with a better lead to follow.
“Where to now?”Archer asked when they were back in the truck.
“I want to drive by the high school.”He started the engine, began navigating the bumpy road again.“Get a feel for where those two met.”
“You’re a visual guy, huh?”
Atticus glanced over, smirked.He was proud of himself for not popping off the first thought that came to mind.I prefer to be the watchee, not the watcherdidn’t seem like the appropriate thing to say to your new partner.No matter how hot the guy was.
And damn if Archer Halligan wasn’t fucking hot.
Evan walked out onto the front porchwhen he heard Becs’s car pull up.He had called her half an hour ago and asked if she wanted to go with him to talk to Meredith Prescott.With Slade off helping Luca, he would’ve had to go solo otherwise.While he wasn’t opposed to working alone, he found that they could cover more ground when there were two of them.And in this case, it would likely work in his favor to have a female with him.Becs might put Meredith at ease.
“Hi, Mr.Vaughn,” Carly, Becs’s nine-year-old daughter, said as she skipped by him into the house.
“Hey, kid,” he greeted, his attention lingering on the driver’s side, waiting for Becs to make an appearance.
When she stepped around the car, coming into full view, he did his best not to ogle.Not an easy feat for a man who’d been lusting after this woman for months now.It took every ounce of his self-control to pretend otherwise, and from what he could tell, he was doing a relatively good job.Becs was still giving him the cold shoulder after the argument they had in New York back in August.
Not that he blamed her.It had taken a conversation with Kaye for Evan to realize how badly he’d fucked up.Since his mother wasn’t an idiot, she’d picked up on the tension between him and Becs and had called him on it.He’d explained it rather poorly, in his opinion, but that hadn’t stopped Kaye from telling him he was at fault for sending mixed signals.Evan had been angry with her at the time, probably because she’d told him something he already knew, and the guilt was weighing him down.
However, he was doing well to stick to his guns when it came to keeping her at a distance.Becs needed someone who could give her everything she wanted, not merely the things she needed.Since the death of his wife, Evan hadn’t felt like he was capable of giving anything to anyone.
“You ready?”Becs asked, not looking directly at him.
That was her thing now.Ever since New York, Becs had done her best not to be alone with him.He’d fucked that one up but good.And he was paying for it every single day, having to see her, having to work with her, and not being able to get close again.
It was nothing less than what he deserved.
“Yeah.Let me tell my mother.”
He pivoted on his heel and headed back into the house.He went directly to the kitchen, pouring out the rest of his coffee and rinsing the cup before setting it in the sink.
“You need anything before we go?”he asked Kaye, who was sitting at the table with Sophie and Carly, getting ready to put together a puzzle.
“We’ve got it all under control,” she answered, peering up at him.“You two have fun.”
“It’s work, Mom.”
She smiled.“Doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.”
Shaking his head because he knew what she was really saying, Evan glanced at his daughter.“Bye, Soph.”
“Bye, Dad.Have fun,” she said without looking at him, her full attention on getting the puzzle pieces spread out.
“We should be back in a couple of hours.”
When no one responded, he assumed they had it covered, so he made his way back outside, where Becs was waiting for him.
“My car or yours?”she asked, her gaze shifting just over his right shoulder.
