“She takes me to school.”
“That’s good. What else?”
“She gives me ice cream.”
Colin chuckled. “Wow, that’s so much better than taking you to school.” He looked up to wink at Maren and saw the unshed tears in her eyes. He had to look back at Juni quickly. “What else?”
“She reads me stories out of the Fairy Book, and she fixed the Blue Fairy and Mr. Kibble.” Now she was getting excited. “And she bought me Snoopy in Las Vegas because he looked lonely on the shelf.”
“She does so many things for you, huh? You know what else she does?”
Juni shook her head, hanging on Colin’s every word.
“She keeps yousafe, Junebug. She brought you here to us, to your family, to keep you safe.”
“Uncle Reid and Uncle Beckett are family but they’re far away right now.”
“They are, so she brought you here. You’re safe here, Juni.” Before he realized it, he’d reached out to cup her cheek. “She can sit with you while you color, and we’ll be back inside before you know it. Nothing and no one is going to get you here.”
“That’s right, Juni,” Mac chimed in. “We’ll be real quick.”
Juni kept her gaze on Colin. Then she nodded.
“Thanks, Juni.” Colin straightened. He braved another look at Maren. She was blinking back tears now, and the warm, beautiful smile she was giving him was killing him, making it impossible to remember that this was just an assignment.
“Let’s pick out a good drawing for Colin, what do you say?” Maren put her hand between Juni’s shoulder blades and gently guided her back to the table. She looked over her shoulder and smiled again, gratitude shining in her eyes.
Mac clapped Colin on the shoulder, bringing him back down to reality. He gestured for Colin to go ahead of him out the back door to the small patio just off the kitchen. They walked down a flagstone path through the well-kept garden, past a bench with a metal placard on it facing one of the flower beds, toward the fence at the edge of the forest behind the house. Colin wasn’t expecting an attack. They were on Watchdog property, and while it wasn’t hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world, there were dozens of cameras positioned around the buildings, the roads, and in the woods, and they both had radios.
Mac had his radio clipped to his belt and his gaze on the house, but his posture was easy and non-threatening, the way he might have approached a spooked horse on the ranch he grew up on in Alberta.
Which means he’s about to say something I’m not going to like.
Colin put it off by briefing Mac on the meeting, trying to tamp down the frustration that wanted to bleed through his voice. Maren was clean. Juni was clean. The sister was the problem, not them.
Mac took it all in with the occasional nod and that warm, thoughtful expression he wore when he was working through something.
“So they’re keeping Maren in the dark,” Mac said finally.
“For now. They said.”
“They?”
“Gina mostly.”
Mac nodded. “And you think that’s wrong.”
“I think Maren’s owed the full truth.” Colin stopped at the corner post and checked it. Solid. “She spent four years raising her sister’s kid believing her sister’s death was nothing more than some rando asshole who fled the scene. Now she’s here because the sister—the twin—she trusted was living a double life and had shut her out.” Colin turned and kept walking down the side yard. Mac fell in beside him.
“Just so you know,” Mac said after a moment, “I’m not hitting on Maren.”
Colin stopped dead. His head snapped toward Mac. “What? Why would you think I cared?”
Mac kept his eyes straight ahead, but there was a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Mighta been the green-eyed monster in your eyes when you opened that door this morning and saw us sitting cozy at the table.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He started walking again, faster.
“Mmm.”
