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“Now that we know our MacLaine is Lainey, I’m going to do the chivalrous thing and fix her flat tire tonight. And if my skills are still up to snuff, I’m going to take her out on a date.”

“You know, this makes even more sense now,” Jada said.

“What does?” Mateo wanted to know.

“Lainey was living with mommy and daddy down in South Carolina. She was living the high life. She had a Mercedes AMG that they bought her, but now she’s driving around in a Toyota Corolla. Something tells me our little girl didn’t like living under mommy and daddy’s thumb, but she was missing the money.”

“But how did she get involved with the Kraken?” Mateo asked.

“Well, that’s your job to find out now, isn’t it?” Gideon asked.

“Yes, it is. Send me the file. I’ll talk to you two later.”

He hung up and went over to the barista. “Can I get a refill to go?”

“Absolutely.” She smiled.

8

“Flub-a-dub! Fudge-bonnet! Crap on a cracker!”

When was the last time she had been this out of sorts?

Oh yeah. When Bennett foisted Lifeless Luke on her because Trey needed to get him a date for the Country Club’s annual charity ball. Even now, thinking about that could set her pulse rate skyrocketing. It was just one more reason she’d left Charleston.

Lainey sighed. Maybe the gold coins in Gram’s safe deposit box would be worth a bunch of money, too. She really needed to get a better car than the one she’d been driving since college.

She was glad she was parked around the back of the building, near the seafood restaurant and the pet shop. Instead of watching her drive away, Maurice had just watched her from the corner and waved as soon as she’d opened her car door. He still had a lot to do before he could go home, and she knew he liked to get home to his wife’s home cooked meal. If she’d been parked out front, Maurice would have wanted to help her with her flat tire, and with his arthritis, it wouldn’t have been a good thing. She pulled out her phone and took her Triple A card out of her wallet and made a call. Three minutes later, she was back to thinking what a rotten day this had turned into.

First there was Janice, who from this day forward she would always think of as ‘Janice the Pervert.’

Then there was the Invisible Agent Ackerson.

Now she had a flat tire and a three-hour wait from Triple A.

Maybe she should just go check out the bar of Home Port next door. Penny said it was hopping. That was the one area where she and Penny disagreed. She just didn’t like the loud music, and the idea of being approached by a bunch of newly minted Naval officers held no appeal. It would be like meeting Dad’s latest crop of attorneys that he brought into the firm each year. All of them knew that the surest way to a partnership was marrying into the family. She preferred it when she and Penny could go to a quiet bar and have a drink and talk.

At least it wasn’t still ninety degrees—it was now a bearable eighty degrees with one hundred percent humidity. Lainey lifted her hair off the back of her neck and turned in a circle, trying to get a little bit of breeze going. It wasn’t working all that well. She worried about sitting in her car and running the air conditioning. Wouldn’t that run down the battery?

Google would know.

She pulled her phone out of her purse again and leaned against the car near the flat tire.

“Hello?”

Startled, she looked up from her internet search and saw a man standing thirty feet away from her. It looked like he had come from the bar, but he didn’t have that fresh-faced look of a boy who had just graduated from the Naval Academy. Actually, there was nothing boyish about this man.

“Hi,” Lainey smiled, secure in the knowledge that she had pepper spray and her phone.

“Is there a problem?”

He had a hint of a Spanish accent. It went with his dark, close-cropped hair that hinted at a curl.

“I have a flat tire, and I’m waiting for Triple-A.”

“Ahhh. So, you’re covered.” He looked up, then over. Then he frowned at her. “How soon will they be here? It’s getting dark soon, and there are only two lights here in the parking lot.”

“I could call Maurice. He’s the security guard at the bank, to come and wait with me if Triple-A takes too long.”