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Murdoch gave her back the paper. Zoey took it, resisting the urge to kick him. Jerk. No man on earth got under her skin likethisone.
He knew it, too.
“So what are we looking for? I’m a pretty good investigator, or so I’ve heard. Let me help—I have nothing else to do tonight, except arrest Peach the Fuzz for trespassing again. He’s a repeat offender.” He looked around at the stones, the Texas wind blowing his too-long hair everywhere. The black T-shirt and aviator glasses he wore made him look hot, rugged, and dangerous. Tempting, damn it. “I don't think they've had a burial in this churchyard in the entire time I've been here."
“Almost five years ago. Elliot Marshall was still the sheriff here then.”
"Who'd they bury?"
"Denise Daviess."
“Hell. I didn’t realize, Zo. Sorry I’m being such an ass.” He dropped the hands he still had on her waist and stepped back. Going serious in an instant.
"She was my mother." Zoey hesitated before she told him more. Then the words just came out. Somehow. "She was killed by the man who stabbed your brother five years ago, Murdoch. Simon ran away. Cam found Simon. The man who killed her then found Simon and Cam. You know the rest. They kept the kid’s identity secret five years ago. To protect him. Paige told me about…the connection to your brother after you started at Garrity.”
He almost flinched. Of course. He adored his brothers and sisters—even if he complained about them every chance he could. "I didn't realize the kid involved in that investigation was your brother. How old is he now?"
"He’s sixteen. My sister Paige has him now."
"That's the kid I've seen with Pen before, isn’t it?"
"Yes. Simon. He went through a really rough time after what happened. We tend to keep his existence quiet. To protect him. Just like we do Nikkie Jean and Caine's five, and all the rest of the kids. We know being Luc's family can bring trouble." And eyes on them. She was still adjusting to that part. Before the shooting, her connections to Luc, and to the governor, were mostly unknown. But it had become public knowledge while she’d been unconscious. Three random TSP women shot in an ambush after a choir concert was newsworthy for a few days—but one of those women being thegovernor’ssister-in-law,that was worth weeks ofclicksfor the hungry news sites. Add in her brother being a billionaire—Zoey had been clickbait for months.
Zoey wasn’t cynical—she just knew how it all worked. One enterprising journalist dug into her background, found Pen, connected Pen to Ariella—and now her entire history was out there for anyone to find.
Her life couldn’t go back to being what it was. No matter what she really wanted. Her small, quiet life in little Garrity was in the past now. Forever.
All she could do was adapt, keep going. Move forward.
Somehow.
"No kidding. So why are we grave hunting today if you already know where your mother is buried?"
"It's not her I'm looking for. I can do this myself. I’m sure you have things to do.”
“Not going anywhere. And you can’t make me.” He shot her that trademark Murdoch grin that always heated her insides. Not in a good way. Sometimes, he’d grin that grin at her and then go do whatever in the hell he wanted. A more maddening man had never existed. “I’m here to serve and protect you. Creepy graveyard’s not safe for hot babes like you. You are far too tempting to the undead. Consider me your protection from vampires and all that. I mean, they could be hanging around here in Texas and we'd never know."
"Please, everyone knows vampires hang out in Colorado.” She started toward the back of the graveyard. Like she'd expected, her shadow followed.
At least he’d knocked her out of the stupid moment ofhurther purpose for being there had caused.
That woman’s photo she’d given Sydney had haunted her.
Denise had come from somewhere.Zoey had known that. But never before had Zoey felt likeshehad come from somewhere, too.
That she would probably never have the chance to know where that somewhere was…brought back memories of being a girl no older than Keller and asking the question of why sheand Pen hadn’t had anywhere to really belong. And getting the answer back thattheyjust hadn’t mattered. That was a hurt she would never forget. "I'm not looking for Denise, though her grave will be nearby. Although…I’m not quite sure where hers is either.”
Or if she even wanted to know. Would she ever stop feeling this confused by her mother, and her mother’s actions? This…angry? Maybe it would be different if the circumstances of her abandonment had been different, but Denise had been so callous. With all of her children. Zoey could never understand that.
"How exactly did you get Pen? She’s told me a few things, but…”
"It's no secret. Someone left me at the hospital around two days after I was born; my CPS files say my mother was a drug user, but medical files don’t support that. I’m still not sure what the truth is—other than that I was left. She disappeared after leaving a note saying that she didn’t want me because I wasdefective. And why she thought so. They then tested me for a heart condition at the time, but I didn’t have it. Eleven years later, nearly the same thing happened to Pen, only someone—we assume it was our mother—just left her in the ambulance bay in a baby carrier, propped up against the side of the building. In January. With a note saying, ‘This one keeps turning blue.’ Pen had the rare heart condition and had to have the surgery. Somehow they put it together that she was my sister. DNA proved it a year or so later, I think. I have conflicting records in my file—and Pen’s. When she was around seven, I started researching what I had to do to get her; we’d maintained visitation no matter what. We had a problematic social worker who kept delaying my fight. Until I could afford a better attorney. I didn't stop until I got her when she was eleven and had run away from the special needs home they’d put her in. We've been together ever since."
"She's lucky to have you."
She’d heard that before. But…it wasn’t like that.
"No. It's never been that way. I had no one until I had her. She changed my world. In a good way." Without loving Pen, Zoey didn’t know what she would have become. Pen had been the center of her world.
