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  “Conleigh,” she whispered.

  That’s when Conleigh broke down.

  “I just wanted some headphones that I didn’t have to share with all the other poor kids.” She burst out into explosive sobs. “Everyone makes fun of me!”

  Winnifred’s eyes closed, and her own tears started to fall.

  And that was when I realized that there was much more to this situation than met the eye.

  “Come in,” she pulled the door open wide, and then stepped back.

  My eyes went to the walker that was helping Winnifred walk, and I was suddenly very confused.

  Last week, she hadn’t been using a walker. Hell, she hadn’t looked anything but in control of her faculties.

  But she had been leaning quite heavily on that shopping cart, I told myself.

  She’d also glared rather glacially at her ex-husband like he was the worst of scum.

  Which had me confused, too.

  Matt had told everyone she’d left him. I’d only assumed that it was due to something in their relationship, but now I had a whole lot of questions running through my mind.

  The most important of which being: Who left who?

  Because this woman in front of me didn’t look like she would leave her husband. Not with a young kid who looked to be about four or five and a sixteen-year-old. Not when she couldn’t afford to make it on her own…which reminded me of a promise that I’d made to a friend a couple of months back.

  Her name was Krisney, and she’d bought this house.

  After moving back home following her parents’ deaths, she’d asked me to help keep an eye on it.

  I had…peripherally.

  Now I wondered if it wasn’t the house that I was supposed to keep an eye on, but its occupants.

  “Conleigh, head to your room, please,” Winnifred said tiredly.

  I waited until she was down the hall with the door closed before I turned my eyes to the mother.

  “Thank you for bringing her home,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  I studied the tired woman. “What’s going on that she can’t afford headphones?”

  Then I placed the headphones on the table with the receipt.

  Winnifred swallowed.

  Why really wasn’t any of my business, but when a teenage kid—one belonging to a cop at that—made the decision to steal, I kinda wanted to know why.

  And she wasn’t an exception.

  Technically, she didn’t have to tell me anything. Then again, I could’ve just as easily taken the kid to jail rather than to her mother’s.

  “Winnifred…”

  “Winnie,” she corrected, then sighed. “As for why, well…that’s a long story.”

  “I’m more than up to hearing it.”

  And I was, too. I really, really wanted to know, although I really wasn’t sure why the hell that was.

  Winnie looked down at her hands and then sighed. “I don’t have time. I have to be at work in a few minutes.” She looked torn. “And…” she shook her head, looking sick to her stomach. “I’m sorry.”

  The tears in her eyes were what convinced me to let her go and not push her, so I did.

  I tipped my hat—a simple black ball cap that said ‘MPD’ on it—and turned to walk away.

  I did notice, however, that she watched me go the entire way.

  I walked down the badly-in-need-of-a-mow front lawn, and straight to my cruiser in the driveway, not once turning around. I was damn proud of myself.

  It was soft, sweet women like her, with their hearts in their eyes, that were the most trouble. I, too, had a soft spot…one that was hell when you were also a cop. One that had always been there, and always would be there, thanks to one particular girl—one just like the trouble-making Conleigh—whom I’d met during one of my first weeks on the job. One who was, I thought, just a pain in the ass. One who, weeks after I tried to set her straight, was killed by her father because I had brought her home drunk.

  Shaking off my morose thoughts, I opened the door to my cruiser and got in.

  Once I was settled, I called Fender.

  “Yo,” he answered.

  “You know the neighbor across the street from me?”

  “The one with the two kids?”

  “Yeah,” I confirmed. “Those.”

  “A little, why?”

  “Her husband—ex-husband—is Matt Holyfield from work. Do you know what happened to her? The last time I saw her, she was running fucking marathons.”

  And she had been. Winnie Holyfield had been a goddamn record breaker. She ran marathons all over the world before she’d gotten married to Matt. It’d been a big deal when she’d lined up for a ten-kilometer race in a benefit for the president of our motorcycle club, the Dixie Wardens, better known as the Dixie Warden Rejects.

  Stone had died unexpectedly, and to help cover funeral expenses for his wife, the town had held a ten-kilometer race. Winnie Holyfield had shown up, and she hadn’t been alone. She’d brought a ton of her friends. Her tons of friends who had told their tons of friends, and then suddenly, our little ten-kilometer race had turned into a fucking benefit the size of which I’d never seen.

  The ten-kilometer race had turned into a half-marathon from there, and it’d gotten a ton of media coverage. And when I say a ton, I mean a fucking ton. The race had more than covered funeral expenses for our president. His wife, Mei, hadn’t had to shell out a single dime.

  Not that she was going to anyway.

  I had planned to pay for it. All of it.

  But I hadn’t needed to thanks to her.

  Winnie.

  Fender made a sound in his throat, and then clicked with his teeth.

  “I think she had a spinal stroke,” he said. “I remember hearing something about it at work. She’s okay, though, right?”

  I thought back to the walker I’d seen her using, then made a sound in the back of my throat. “I guess so. She’s using a walker, though.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Because she’s my neighbor?” I offered up the obvious.

  Even though that really wasn’t the reason why. I was just a curious bastard that wanted to know more about the beautiful woman I’d seen.

  The beautiful woman with her long, flowing auburn hair, her bright green eyes, and strong, muscular legs.

  Legs that looked like they’d been in even better shape once upon a time.

  She had generous breasts, a perfect figure that made my dick hard, and a ‘don’t get near me’ vibe that I’d felt the moment her eyes landed on mine.

  “Got it,” he said. “I’ll ask Audrey if she knows more. I think she said something about working with her, but I’m not quite sure.”

  Audrey was Fender’s wife, and she was a nurse at the county hospital. If Winnie worked there, that meant she was a medical professional of some kind.

  I knew she wasn’t a PA or a doctor. Otherwise her kid wouldn’t have to be stealing right now to resort to getting new headphones.

  A nurse, maybe?

  Whatever it was, I wasn’t sure. But I damn sure was going to find out.

  There was something about Winnifred “Winnie” Holyfield that was tugging at me, forcing me to play a game that I knew I didn’t have a chance at winning.

  But I was not one who didn’t give it his all.

  I was going to get down to the bottom of this. I was going to find out what put those shadows in her haunted eyes. And I was going to kick Matt’s ass if he had anything to do with putting them there.

  Because Winnie Holyfield had just gotten under my skin.

  She’d been there since I’d seen the look in her eyes as she walked past her ex-husband at the grocery store. And she just dug herself deeper a few short minutes ago when she pleaded with her eyes for me not to push her further than she was willing to go yet.

  Chapter 3

  Coffee: the difference between saying ‘fuck yeah’ an
d ‘fuck this.’

  -Coffee Cup

  Steel

  Round two came two days later, only this time Conleigh was caught by a clerk when she’d tried to steal a pair of shoes.

  Not shoes in her size, either. A pair in the size of a young boy.

  My heart melted at the same time it seized.

  Walking into the store, I went up to the cashier, paid for the shoes, and then grabbed the girl by the bicep.

  She was skinny—too skinny—and that wasn’t a good thing, either.

  Once I deposited her in the seat of my cruiser, the front seat this time, I took a detour to McDonald’s before heading to her house.

  “What do you want?”

  Conleigh’s wide, fearful eyes turned to me.

  “Uhhh,” she hesitated. “A double cheeseburger off the dollar menu?”

  My eye twitched.

  “You want a drink?”

  She licked her lips, and I could see that she’d love a drink.

  “What kind?”

  “Uhhh, a small sweet tea?”

  I waited until we were next in line, then ordered five double cheeseburgers, three large fries, two large sweet teas, and a shit ton of ketchup.

  I wasn’t ashamed. I ate a lot of fuckin’ ketchup.

  Also, I didn’t like tomatoes. Never had, and likely never would.

  “Is…is some of that for you?”

  I grinned. “Yeah.”

  “Good.” She swallowed.

  We didn’t say anything more until she was handed her food about two minutes later.

  “They’re so fast,” she whispered as her eyes lit on the bag of food.

  “They’re new,” I explained. “With them being new, they’re going to try really hard. Then, eventually, the new will wear off, and they’ll slow down, start fucking up orders. Shit like that.” Then I winced. “Sorry, I’m not used to a kid being around me.”

  She started to laugh. “If you only knew.”

  I wish I knew.

  “Only knew what?”

  “What my life is like.”

  She ate her hamburger, but her gaze kept drifting longingly toward the fries, and I snorted. “Eat them. I didn’t buy all this for me.”

  She did, scarfing them down like only a teenager who had no problems with her metabolism could.

  I’d be paying for this hamburger and fries later with about a mile per French fry, but it’d be worth it. There was nothing better than shitty food to make you forget what ails ya.

  And it obviously did for her, too, because by the time I dropped her back at school—where she damn well should have been instead of out stealing shoes—she was in a chatty mood.

  “My mother can’t afford anything. Least of all a meal out or these shoes for my brother.”

  I didn’t say anything to that. Couldn’t. Mostly because she kept talking, not letting me get a word in edgewise.

  “My mom had me when she was sixteen, and not long after that she got herself nationally certified as a paramedic. Only, with first me, and then my brother. She hasn’t been able to work on an ambulance. Unfortunately, she has to work at the hospital, and they make a whole lot less money there. Then there’s the fact that my ex-stepfather doesn’t pay child support. Which then turns into my mom doing it all on her own…except she can’t afford anything else because there’s not enough money.”

  She swallowed. “I want to get a job, but there’s nobody here that’s hiring. Without a car, I can’t drive to another city. I’m sorry I stole. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it, though. I can’t stand to see my baby brother with those stupid old shoes. He’s needed a new pair for a really long time. Months at least. I know my mother cries at night. I hear her.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “And the only thing that used to make her happy was running, and she can’t even do that anymore with all her medical bills racking up due to her stroke.”

  “Conleigh?”

  “Yeah?” she croaked.

  “You can’t skip school. Did you know that your mother could go to jail for you being truant?”

  Her mouth fell open.

  “I’m on lunch. I would’ve made it back in time to get to my next class. I’m never not in class. Even when I’m sick.”

  I grinned. “Good. But for future reference, should you ever think differently, the school can file that against your mother. So, be mindful of the choices you make, okay?”

  She nodded.

  I gestured to the shoes. “Take those with you, and if you ever need anything, there are other ways of getting it. I guarantee it. If you don’t think there’s any other way, call me.”

  “I don’t have a phone…at least not one with any minutes on it.”

  I grinned. “I’m pretty sure you can find one that you can borrow. You call me if you need me.”

  I passed her one of my cards that was in the dash of my cruiser.

  It read Steel Cross, Chief of Police.

  “You’re the chief of police?” she whispered, horrified.

  I winked at her. “You got the top boss, honey. You should be happy.”

  She looked anything but happy. She now looks terrified.

  “The offer stands, Conleigh. If you need me, call me. Okay?”

  She swallowed, nodded, and then got out of the cruiser.

  She was about to shut the door when she halted and turned, her eyes once again meeting mine.

  “Thank you for the food. For the headphones. And the shoes. Cody will love you forever.”

  I smirked. “Tell him that I take payment in the form of colored pictures.”

  She smiled, then shut the door quietly before rushing into the school, the shoes clutched tightly to her chest.

  I watched her go all the way in, then parked and got out.

  I walked into the school, waving at the office ladies on the way to the school resource officer’s office.

  He looked up when I appeared in the doorway.

  “Yo,” he said, looking confused. “What are you doing here?”

  Matt Holyfield, Conleigh’s stepfather, and a man who had always gotten on my nerves.

  “Matt,” I said, coming inside. “We got a problem.”

  He listened as I spoke about the girl, Conleigh.

  “So, what’s the problem?” Matt asked. “If she’s not doing it at school, there’s not really much I can do on my end.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “The problem is that I need to keep that girl in line, and I need to keep an eye on her. Her mom’s going through a rough patch, and I’d rather not have her fall into the deep end with no floaties. Gave her my information if she ever needed help, but I’d like her to contact you if anything else gets out of hand.”

  Matt’s lips twitched. But not in a smiling kind of way. In a ‘you’ve got to be fucking joking’ kind of way.

  What the fuck was going on here?

  “I’m here.”

  I pounded once on his desk with my fist, not using my voice because I knew that I was about to tell the fucker to get the fuck out.

  God, I hated the guy.

  “All right, my next stop is her mom’s place. Wish me luck.”

  Matt snorted. “Good luck doing anything with that cun—ugh, woman. She’s batshit crazy.”

  I didn’t reply to that.

  Winnie, at least in my dealings with her, hadn’t been crazy.

  She’d been conscientious, sad and over-worked.

  What she had not been was crazy.

  She hadn’t yelled and screamed at Conleigh—and I’d been listening to them for weeks now because they liked to keep their windows open, and I did, too.

  “Language, Matt,” I growled. “And let me know if you hear anything more about Conleigh.”

  Matt gave me a lazy two finger salute, and I knew I wouldn’t be hearing anything from the little shit.

  Thoughts on who I could use to replace him if h
e wasn’t doing his job, I stopped by the office on my way out and had a little chat with the principal.

  He hadn’t personally had any dealings with Matt, but that wasn’t to say that he was doing any good, either.

  I walked out of the school with a lot on my mind, and a lot of it had to do with the woman that I was going to see.

  My last stop was Winnie’s place, hoping that she would be home at lunchtime rather than at work.

  I wasn’t disappointed. She was at home.

  I got out of my cruiser, walked up the same still-in-need-of-a-mow lawn, and knocked on the front door.

  It took her much longer this time to answer the door.

  “Ummm,” she hesitated, looking like she’d just woken from a nap. “What are you doing here?”

  She looked scared like I was going to tell her that she was being arrested.

  I winced.

  “I had another run-in with your girl today.”

  Her shoulders slumped.

  “Really?” she whispered. “Did she…what happened?”

  “What happened was that she tried to steal a pair of shoes for your son and got caught doing it by the store manager. After picking her up, I dropped her back off at school.”

  Her mouth fell open.

  “You’re joking.”

  I shook my head.

  “Fuck,” she whispered, then sighed and stepped back. “Come in.”

  I did, and she closed the door behind me.

  Today she was using a cane.

  It made me wonder if she had good days and bad days, or if maybe she was just getting better day by day.

  I wanted to ask her about the spinal stroke, and whether or not she was going to recover, but I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.

  She turned and walked into the kitchen, her eyes glancing at the monitor on the table before she sighed and took a seat.

  My eyes lit on the woman’s backside, and all my breath stalled in my chest.

  She was an older version of the girl. She for sure could’ve passed as her sister.

  Hot damn, was she breathtaking.

  “My ex-husband, the one I saw you in the store with a few weeks ago?”

  Matt Holyfield.

  “Yeah.”

  “He’s the reason Conleigh is the way she is.” She sighed. “When we split, she just changed. It’s like her light went out, and another one, a darker one, turned on.”