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Authors: Annie Reed
Tags: Fiction
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the end of our marriage, had to do with the one thing I’d tried to do as an investigator that I’d totally failed at: tracking down the hit-and-run driver who’d nearly killed Samantha.
When he really wanted to hurt me, he questioned my competence. That button only worked because deep down I questioned it, too.
But not this time around. It had only been bad timing that Melody had spotted me through that open door in the gym.
Wait a minute.
So what if Melody had spotted me? Reno’s still a small town. People run into other people they know all the time. Why had she assumed I was at the gym because of her?
Ryan hadn’t told her he’d hired me to find her stalker. As far as she knew, I was there investigating Mr. Muscles. Did she just assume that Ryan would ask me to follow her around, or that I would even agree to do something like that? She didn’t know me well enough to figure out exactly how big of a sap I am. Most ex-wives would have told their ex-husbands to go take a flying leap.
Unless Mr. Muscles did have something to do with Melody. Something she cared about. Something she didn’t want me to see.
Which brought me back around to the question of whether Mr. Muscles was still an undercover drug cop.
I’d apparently been quiet for too long. “Look, Abby,” Ryan said. “I didn’t mean...”
He did, but I let it drop.
“You need to know what happened,” I said. I gave him a quick, bullet-point summary of everything from the time I saw the SUV tail Melody from the cafe through the uncomfortable conversation in the gym. Everything except my phone call with Kyle, and the fact that Mr. Muscles had been snapping pictures of me.
“Okay,” he said when I was done. “Send me what you’ve got.”
I was already on the way back to my office, my iced tea safely ensconced in the cup holder and building up beads of sweat on the outside of the cardboard cup.
No wonder I was melting. Heat plus humidity, a rarity in my neck of the woods. Desert dwellers don’t do humidity well.
“Give me about a half hour,” I said. “I’ll make a quick stop at the office, and then I can get back out on the street and pick up the surveillance after Melody leaves the gym.”
“No. With any luck, what you’ve got will be enough to convince her to get a protective order against these guys. Especially—what did you call him?—Mr. Muscles? Go ahead and put together a bill for your time.”
I blinked. He’d just fired me. Nicely, but he’d still fired me.
We’d gone from sharing our lives together to me invoicing him for services rendered.
Well, wasn’t that just peachy. So much for being friends.
“Will do,” I said. I ended the call before he could say anything else.
It took me five minutes of grumbling before I cooled down enough to realize that maybe this was the final wakeup call I’d needed. Ryan had Melody in his life now, for better or worse. He didn’t need me anymore except in a professional capacity, and, as it turned out, he didn’t even want me there.
Well, fine. He didn’t have to tell me twice.
He could just go ahead and make a life with Melody and leave me out of it. If he had any more problems with Melody, he could leave me out of those as well.
I still had concerns about whether Melody’s issues with an undercover drug cop might affect Samantha, but Ryan’s next weekend with Samantha wasn’t until Labor Day. By then I should know whether the guy driving the white SUV was Lewis Richards and if he was still working undercover.
In the meantime, I’d keep an eye out for my daughter like I always did, concentrate on my own life, and tell my inner sap to take a flying leap the next time she reared her ugly head.
Abby Maxon, woman of resolve.
CHAPTER 10
THAT NIGHT I HAD a quick conversation on the phone with Kyle while I made a fancy dinner salad for Samantha and I to share while we watched the latest Robert Downey, Jr., movie on Blu-ray. To say he was
When he really wanted to hurt me, he questioned my competence. That button only worked because deep down I questioned it, too.
But not this time around. It had only been bad timing that Melody had spotted me through that open door in the gym.
Wait a minute.
So what if Melody had spotted me? Reno’s still a small town. People run into other people they know all the time. Why had she assumed I was at the gym because of her?
Ryan hadn’t told her he’d hired me to find her stalker. As far as she knew, I was there investigating Mr. Muscles. Did she just assume that Ryan would ask me to follow her around, or that I would even agree to do something like that? She didn’t know me well enough to figure out exactly how big of a sap I am. Most ex-wives would have told their ex-husbands to go take a flying leap.
Unless Mr. Muscles did have something to do with Melody. Something she cared about. Something she didn’t want me to see.
Which brought me back around to the question of whether Mr. Muscles was still an undercover drug cop.
I’d apparently been quiet for too long. “Look, Abby,” Ryan said. “I didn’t mean...”
He did, but I let it drop.
“You need to know what happened,” I said. I gave him a quick, bullet-point summary of everything from the time I saw the SUV tail Melody from the cafe through the uncomfortable conversation in the gym. Everything except my phone call with Kyle, and the fact that Mr. Muscles had been snapping pictures of me.
“Okay,” he said when I was done. “Send me what you’ve got.”
I was already on the way back to my office, my iced tea safely ensconced in the cup holder and building up beads of sweat on the outside of the cardboard cup.
No wonder I was melting. Heat plus humidity, a rarity in my neck of the woods. Desert dwellers don’t do humidity well.
“Give me about a half hour,” I said. “I’ll make a quick stop at the office, and then I can get back out on the street and pick up the surveillance after Melody leaves the gym.”
“No. With any luck, what you’ve got will be enough to convince her to get a protective order against these guys. Especially—what did you call him?—Mr. Muscles? Go ahead and put together a bill for your time.”
I blinked. He’d just fired me. Nicely, but he’d still fired me.
We’d gone from sharing our lives together to me invoicing him for services rendered.
Well, wasn’t that just peachy. So much for being friends.
“Will do,” I said. I ended the call before he could say anything else.
It took me five minutes of grumbling before I cooled down enough to realize that maybe this was the final wakeup call I’d needed. Ryan had Melody in his life now, for better or worse. He didn’t need me anymore except in a professional capacity, and, as it turned out, he didn’t even want me there.
Well, fine. He didn’t have to tell me twice.
He could just go ahead and make a life with Melody and leave me out of it. If he had any more problems with Melody, he could leave me out of those as well.
I still had concerns about whether Melody’s issues with an undercover drug cop might affect Samantha, but Ryan’s next weekend with Samantha wasn’t until Labor Day. By then I should know whether the guy driving the white SUV was Lewis Richards and if he was still working undercover.
In the meantime, I’d keep an eye out for my daughter like I always did, concentrate on my own life, and tell my inner sap to take a flying leap the next time she reared her ugly head.
Abby Maxon, woman of resolve.
CHAPTER 10
THAT NIGHT I HAD a quick conversation on the phone with Kyle while I made a fancy dinner salad for Samantha and I to share while we watched the latest Robert Downey, Jr., movie on Blu-ray. To say he was
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