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“Don’t be an ass.” But her words were all watery, too. She ruined him. She just destroyed him. And she didn’t have a clue.
“I’ve been told it’s my natural state. Well, byyou,come to think of it.” He pressed a kiss on her forehead, ignoring the instinctive jump his little skittish tiger kitten gave, then stepped back. “I'm not quite understanding why we are out here today."
"I'm hunting for names. More than just…Cole’s.” She looked down at the small, understated headstone that he suspected had been paid for by the county a long, long time ago.
Poor Zoey Sofia, this whole family thing was really hard for her.
Her kid sister had told him that herself.
Murdoch wasn’t an idiot—he knew he wanted to protect her from every moment of hurt he possibly could.
They’d putHe loved Zoey! on his own tombstone when the time came. That would be his final instructions for his poor, beleaguered nieces and nephews who’d have to deal with his estate someday.
Here lies Uncle Murdoch Michael. He loved Zoey Sofia forever!would probably be more like it.
"Why?"
'"I have some of my mother's important papers. Copies. Luc has the originals. There was a small life insurance policy and a handwritten will in her night table drawer the police found after she died. Stating she wanted to be buried in the same graveyard as her father. I found Cole’s birth certificate a few days ago in her storage shed. Sydney and I tracked him to here. This was the only Cole Daviess I could find in burial records that was anywhere near the dates we have. I’m here to confirm it says Daviess on the tombstone, get dates for sure. And go from there. She never gave her father's name in her instructions. Just that he was buried in Coleson cemetery, in Garrity County. So I'm here to make a list of any men old enough to have been her father."
Hell, there were more than two hundred and fifty tombstones here, some barely more than stubs that time had erased. This was going to take a while. "Why is it so important to you to find out now?"
He understood the power of family secrets. He understood passion and quests. But why now? Zoey had left Garrity a year ago. "What's really going on here, Zo? What are you hiding?"
Dark fathomless eyes stared into his. He just waited. When she tried to go around him, he deliberately blocked her. His eyes met hers. “Tell me. No one will hear us but the ghosts around us right now. Tell me. Let me help.”
“I’m quitting the TSP. November first.”
Her brother Cole’s birthday. The irony of that struck him hard. “I didn’t know that.”
She hadlivedher job with the TSP. Loved it, taken great pride in it. Far more than he had, and he was damned proud to wear the badge. Making the decision to quit would have been cutting her soul in half for her—he wasn’t stupid.
The turmoil was still in those Zoey eyes of hers.
“Some of my resources will end. Those kids out there somewhere. They are haunting me. I need to know if they are safe. Or...if they are being hurt just like Pen was. Just like Pen was no more than trash that needed taken out. Pen was barely breathing when they found her. Denise just left her.”
"Like you were?" She was on a quixotic quest into the past. Hell. The hurts she was going to face… “You're searching for siblings who may or may not even exist."
"Simon possibly remembers her being pregnant. There are probably more kids out there. I need to know where they are and if they need us. I am finding those kids. No matter what."
He swore. Missing kids would always be one of his triggers. How could it not? His sister's case had been one of the oldest missing child cases in the region. The terror they'd all felt when they'd lost her for so long, he would never forget that. That hurt—he never wanted someone else to feel what his family had.Ever.
Especially Zoey or the little sister she adored so much.
He could see the pain in Zoey’s big dark eyes. Siren eyes—eyes designed to steal a man's very soul.
Murdoch cupped her cheeks before he could stop himself. "Then let me help you.We can find them a hell of a lot faster if we work together. We are kind of good at this stuff, you know."
To hell with it. They both just needed it. And the ghosts of the Colesons and Burkes and Fowlers and Dwaynes and Hunters and every other family buried there around them now were practically whispering for him to do it.
That it wasright.
Not that Murdoch believed in ghosts haunting a man. But memories? Hell, yeah. He believed in memories more dangerous than anyghostcould ever be.
Those memories could haunt forever.
He pressed his lips to hers gently. For the first—and last—time. Just so she’d stop feeling like she was so alone. He never wanted her to feel like that at all. He kissed her just for a moment and then stepped back before he did something stupid.
“Let’s start looking then, babe. If your family came from Garrity, we will find them. We’ll just start right here.”
