Mission--Colton Justice

by Jennifer Morey

  “I’m just a girl from Austin, Texas, who grew up wanting to fight bad guys.”

  He grinned with enchantment lighting his soft, smart, daring eyes. “You must have had someone in your life who made you interested in fighting bad guys.”

  Like a man who’d taught her to fight? She wished her past had been that fanciful. She had to avert her face, not see his eyes.

  “No,” she finally said.

  “No one?”

  “My mom worked two day jobs, came home for a couple of hours after I got off school, then left for her night job. Every day. Seven days a week. My grandparents lived in Arizona and had given up on her before I was born. She didn’t know my paternal grandparents because my dad hightailed it a few months after I was born...which you already knew.” Adeline turned to the deputy sitting at the table, vaguely registering he was still alone.

  “You’re bitter about your childhood?”

  He was really going to pry? “No. My mother was an only child. Her mother was too messed up to raise a child properly. It was just me and my mother. We only needed each other.” Adeline often wished she could be part of a family of her own. She’d never experienced that.

  “Is that why your mom gave up on her? Or did she abandon her?”

  “She kicked her out for following in her footsteps. Mom got herself into trouble a lot and got herself pregnant. But she cleaned herself up when I was conceived. Not being like her mother was important to her.”

  The waitress arrived with their coffees. Adeline smelled the flavorful aroma and reached for some creamer.

  “I bet your mother would have liked your dad to stick around to help.” Jeremy picked up their conversation.

  Adeline stirred the creamer. “She was glad my dad left. My mother is not a weak person. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She wasn’t afraid to work. She wasn’t lazy. She liked hard work because it provided for me. And her. She taught me not to depend on anyone, least of all a man. Why depend on someone who won’t be there when it counts?” Adeline couldn’t stop the angry emotion. She hated how hard her mother had lived to provide for her daughter. It wasn’t fair. Adeline took care of her mother now, but the years of hardship had taken their toll. Her mother had aged before her time. She had circles under her eyes that hadn’t gone away with her lightened load, as though the man who’d gotten her pregnant had tattooed her.

  As Jeremy dumped creamer into his coffee, he asked, “She talked bad about your dad?”

  Adeline sipped her coffee before responding. “No, but he abandoned us. There’s a difference between a father who doesn’t want his kids and one who does but struggles to pay child support or find time outside work hours to see them or whatever. My dad didn’t want me. He didn’t love me and had no interest in loving me. I get it. I’m good with that. It taught me to choose the people I want in my life and not tolerate those who aren’t good for me.” She set down her cup, growing uncomfortable. “My father wasn’t good for me or my mother.”

  “Do you know where he is?” He sipped his coffee.

  “Yes.” But she didn’t care. That had been the point in finding out. She knew where her biological father was. Now she didn’t have to care.

  “Where? What’s he doing?”

  She just shook her head. Not going there. It wasn’t completely true she didn’t care. She hated what her father had done. She hated what he represented, the kind of man who had no heart. Maybe he was a serial killer.

  “It sounds like your mother did well,” he said. “Worked hard but did the right thing.”

  “Yes, she did.” But she was lonely and unhappy, and... “I barely ever saw her, especially when I was old enough to take care of myself, which started about when I was nine. She helped me go to college. Not financially, but she helped me find and apply for scholarships.” She smiled softly with the memory. “That was important to her, too.” Her mother loved her daughter. Adeline had never felt the lack of that. The few quality times they’d had together were all special.

  “Why didn’t she find someone else? If she looks anything like you, she should have had no trouble.”

  That often bothered Adeline. She worried her mother had never gotten over him.

  “She didn’t want to. Being a mother was enough for her.”

  After several seconds where Adeline felt Jeremy’s doubt, he finally said, “What did your mother think of you giving Tess and I a baby?”

  “She had a very open mind about it. She supported me.”

  He got a thoughtful look. He must come from a different kind of family. Wealthy. Elite college education. A mom and a dad. He had no trouble talking about his family because he came from a solid unit. While she’d come from a solid unit as well, hers was just two people: her mother and herself. She and her mother were close friends, made closer by the parental bond. She encountered few people who truly understood what it meant to be raised by a struggling single parent—at least, not that resembled her experience. And most she did encounter didn’t struggle to make a living. Adeline could now count herself among that demographic. She’d risen above what her mother had endured.

  “I’m sorry,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t mean to make you talk about anything that upsets you.”

  “No. I’m not upset. Don’t be sorry.” She warmed to his sensitivity. Had she ever met such a nice man before? “Your turn.”

  He chuckled softly. “All right. Well...as you know, I had a dad. He was demanding. Started teaching us at a young age. I could read junior high level by the time I was six. Forget the baseball bat and glove. It was all brains for my dad.” He glanced away, the memory not seeming to sit great with him.

  “No wonder you’re so successful in tech start-ups,” she said.

  He looked at her again. “He wanted me to be a lawyer. He was so disappointed in me I joked with him that I should star in a family drama movie where the mother or father tries to force their child to be a mini version of them.”

  “Are you bitter?”

  His discomfort eased in his eyes. “No. I’m grateful my father pushed me. I didn’t like it as a kid, but I wouldn’t have been as successful if I hadn’t been shown the way of the world from early on.”

  Her mother had done similarly with her. “I can’t imagine it’s unusual for fathers to want their kids to be raging successes.”

  “No. Mothers, too. My mother stayed home to raise us. She was the supporter and my dad was the enforcer. But I wish he would have let the kid in me discover things on his own. Teach. Don’t cram education down kid’s throats.”

  She nodded. She’d had a little of both worlds. “I didn’t start reading junior high level until junior high, but I was cleaning house and cooking dinner by the time I was eleven.” She sipped her coffee, taking her time, then putting the cup down. “Are you from Shadow Creek?”

  “No, Austin, but I’ve always liked Shadow Creek and moved here after college.”

  He must like smaller towns. So did she, as long as authorities cleaned out the people like Livia Colton. “What about brothers and sisters?”

  “I have a younger sister. She’s a lawyer,” he said.

  “Is she nice?” she asked in a teasing way.

  “Yes, as long as you agree with her.”

  Now Adeline laughed briefly. Most lawyers she knew or heard of bulldozed their way through life—Oscar aside. He seemed nice. They might have nice qualities to their personalities but hospitality workers, they were not.

  “She’s single. Incurable workaholic. But she makes Dad proud.”

  “You adore her, don’t you?” She could see his eyes and heard his tone.

  “Yes. She’s a lot of fun when she isn’t wearing her lawyer hat.”

  He had the same outlook as her and Adeline wondered how many other ideas they shared in common. “Isn’t your dad
proud of you?”

  “I think he’s jealous. I followed my own path and I’m more successful than him.” He didn’t brag, only stated the truth. Adeline liked that. Straight shooters always appealed to her most. She’d mark that as another characteristic they had in common.

  “Maybe you should remind him he taught you to read junior high level by the time you were six,” she said.

  “I have. Except I wouldn’t say ‘I remind him.’ It’s more like ‘I accuse him.’”

  She smiled at his light tone. “But you love him, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I love my whole family. We just have hot buttons like every other family.”

  Adeline wouldn’t comment on that. She didn’t know what it was like to have a dad and feel love for the man. She felt nothing but disrespect for her dad.

  She checked on the deputy, amazed that she’d almost forgotten him. He’d finished eating his Danish and coffee. Was it a break and a snack or was this breakfast?

  “Our friend is going to be leaving soon,” she said.

  “Did you ever hook up with a guy?” Jeremy asked, apparently not finished quenching his curiosity. “You’re what...twenty-seven now?”

  He was thirty-four. Adeline remembered when Tess had told her about when she’d first met him, all bubbly with infatuation. Adeline had been a little green with envy over it, wanting that for herself but never having found it.

  “I’ve had boyfriends.” This was another thing she didn’t talk about.

  “Didn’t rise to the bar?” he teased.

  “I’m picky.”

  As he met her gaze, she felt him about to probe into why when their subject paid and stood.

  “He’s on the move,” she said.

  Jeremy had already put down cash to cover their ticket. She was relieved to be finished with their conversation, and wondered why it had begun anyway.

  * * *

  After three more hours watching the Nicholson’s house, it had become clear the man wasn’t going anywhere else. His two young kids had bounced out of the house when he’d pulled into the driveway and his wife waited with a smile in the open doorway, watching as the deputy knelt with open arms and his little girls crashed into him. Jeremy was a pretty good read on people and this guy didn’t strike him as a criminal or anyone who’d associate themselves with Livia, but appearances could be misleading.

  He’d driven Adeline back to his place.

  Parked in front on the stone slab drive area, he wasn’t ready to go inside. Once they did, she’d go off on her own. He’d keep her nearby for a while longer.

  “Let’s take a walk,” he said. “The sun is setting. There’s a lake not far from here. I want to show you.”

  After staring at him briefly, probably wondering why, she got out and said, “I need to change.”

  “We won’t go far. What you have on is fine.” The air had begun to chill but she had her coat. He started walking.

  “Tomorrow we should hang out by the station to see if there’s any connection between them and Livia,” Adeline said as they walked. “I need to find evidence to support a reason that deputy might hide any involvement in causing Tess’s accident.”

  “Okay.” He was more interested in the sky changing colors than another boring day watching a clean deputy. He was also much more interested in her. The spark that had been there when he’d first met her and returned when she’d come to his office had grown into something more. Something about her drew him in. When this day ended he might address that. Right now he just wanted to take in a sunset with her.

  “Nicholson may be working with someone who doesn’t live as nice as he does,” she said. “If he is as clean as he seems, maybe there is another who is not. That won’t explain why the deputy you dealt with brushed you off, though.”

  She seemed to ramble on. He didn’t think she was convinced any deputies were connected in any way to Tess’s accident. While that rubbed him wrong, he let it go. He heard the awkwardness in her voice, as though she talked just for something to say. She was affected by their day as much as him. That pushed away any opinion she had about the accident and gave him an alluring thrill instead.

  Spending time with her, talking, sharing, had kept a fire burning. Her passion talking about her family—her mother—made him curious. What about that upset her? Her mother had worked a lot of hours. Maybe she regretted not having more time together.

  Her upbringing was so different from his. Different from Tess’s, too. They’d both had two parents and siblings. Money.

  “No more talk about surveillance.” He stopped where the neighborhood ended, at a park with a lake. “Look.” He pointed to the setting sun’s reflection on the water, a painting of trees and a blue-and-orange sky.

  “Nice.” She watched with him as the colors deepened. “Why is this more important than trying to find out if Livia still has connections to dirty deputies?”

  “It isn’t. It’s called taking a break. Unwinding.”

  She watched the sky a few moments longer. “Do you do this often?”

  “I haven’t been here since before...” He couldn’t finish, or say his dead wife’s name.

  “You watched sunsets with Tess?”

  “All the time.”

  “How romantic.” Adeline turned her head.

  “She wasn’t as appreciative as I was about them.”

  “Sunsets?” She gave his a quizzical look, and then her expression smoothed. “Tess wasn’t much for idle moments.”

  She faced the setting sun again. “My favorite time of day is when the sun rises, those first moments when light chases the quiet darkness away.”

  With a soft curve to her mouth, she turned to him again.

  Their eyes met and he forgot everything but her. Wasn’t this exactly why he’d brought her here? If he faced the honest truth, yes. He craved a quiet, intimate moment with her. He missed them with Tess, and now he realized he missed them in general, that close connection, the stirrings of loving feelings, companionship.

  Taking her hand, he pulled her toward him, on autopilot, letting instinct guide him. She seemed to do the same, her hands going to his chest, blue eyes communicating her own rising desire. So beautiful.

  He slid his other hand behind her head. “I don’t know why I’m doing this. I just know I have to.” With that, he kissed her, a light, warm touch that ignited more feeling than he anticipated. She responded instantly, pressing against him for more. If he gave her more, they could create something he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle.

  Withdrawing, he said, “We better get back.”

  The sky had darkened and the chill in the air had increased in the few moments that followed the setting sun.

  “Yeah.” She sounded relieved as she began walking ahead of him toward his house.

  * * *

  Flustered all the way back to Jeremy’s house, Adeline still felt her lips tingle when she stepped inside through the garage. Leaving the entryway, she went into the spacious living room, the floor-to-ceiling windows dark now that the sun had set. She went to the open kitchen, removed her jacket and draped it over one of the kitchen island chairs.

  “Are you hungry?” Jeremy asked, placing his jacket next to hers.

  “Not terribly.”

  “I can order something delivered. Pizza?”

  “Sure.” The distraction would help get her mind off Jeremy kissing her.

  As he removed his cell, a sound from upstairs made her turn and Jeremy pause.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked.

  “Yes. It sounded like something dropped.”

  “When is your mother dropping Jamie off?” he asked.

  “In about an hour,” she said.

  “Stay here.”

  “Hey. I’m th
e one who’s armed.” She removed her pistol and put her other hand on his chest.

  “Adeline, no. I’ll go first.” He took the pistol from her, making her suck in a startled breath.

  Following him, she asked, “When did you learn how to shoot?”

  “Shh. When I was a teenager.”

  She climbed the stairs after him. In the open loft, she stopped with him to listen. The sound came from here and she saw Jeremy’s desk was messy and a stapler had fallen to the floor. No one had come downstairs. Did that mean someone was still up here?

  Another sound coming from a bedroom down the hall made Jeremy rush in that direction. He first checked Jamie’s room, and then ran to the next. Filmy curtains blew in from an open window; the screen was cut and also moving in the breeze.

  Adeline rushed to look through the window and saw a man running across Jeremy’s property. He had the same stature as the one she’d seen the first time she’d arrived there.

  “Is that the man you chased off my property?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yes, I think so. He has the same build, but it’s hard to say. It’s pretty dark.” She left the window as Jeremy closed and locked the latch, going back into the office where things had been disturbed.

  “What was he looking for?”

  Jeremy sifted through the papers that had been disturbed and shook his mouse. A locked screen came up on his desktop computer.

  “He couldn’t have cracked my password,” Jeremy said.

  “Do you have anything on Tess’s accident?” she asked.

  He opened a file drawer and withdrew a folder. Together they looked into its contents. All he had were documents for insurance covering her accident and death, just auto and life.

  “Nothing is missing,” Jeremy said. “But he might have taken pictures.”

  “Why? None of this proves anything other than Tess died in an accident.” What else could this relate to, though, if not Jeremy’s action in taking a look at Tess’s accident as a possible murder?

  Jeremy put the file away and stood still, looking across the loft. “He must have bypassed my security.”