Music played softly in the background. The restaurant in Tucson wasn’t crowded, but there was a healthy after-lunch crowd. I stood against the wall and watched, wary of any changes that might indicate trouble. She was nervous, as I had been before visiting Conor, but she was strong. She hid it well.

They were exchanging photos or phone numbers, their cells on the table. She leaned into him and said something that made him look up with surprise on his face. I wondered for a moment what it might be, but thought I knew. People looked at Alli and thought her daughters were probably working as waitresses in roadside diners. They often had that look on their faces when she announced that Tommy was going to Vanderbilt in the fall.

It was dangerous to underestimate Alli.

We’d been home for a few weeks now. The Guardians were quiet, not really up to much. The construction on Stone Security’s offices was ongoing, more rooms than partitions in the old warehouse now. The operatives were living in the local hotel, while Jack and Ruth were living in a modest home in the same neighborhood as the house Alli and I were currently sharing. Ruth liked the area. She’d grown up less than a mile from there.

We had more clients now, mostly private security gigs, watching over executives visiting the area or local business owners who were made paranoid after the rumors that had been circulating these past months. It was steady work that kept us busy. And, of course, Alli still had the shop. She’d inherited Harry’s place, too. She’d given Jack free reign of it, and he’d opened it and staffed it with local people, making it available to those who were afraid for their safety, but not afraid enough to hire security. There were a lot of those around.

The Guardians were good for business, but I had this feeling that there was a boulder hanging over all our heads, and it would fall sooner rather than later.

Smythe pled guilty to most of the charges against him. The other Guardians were due to go on trial over the next few months. After that…only time would tell.

Alli turned and waved to me. I crossed the room and joined her and her father.

“Mr. Sullivan,” Alli’s father, Andrew Young, said, holding out a hand in greeting. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too, Mr. Young.”

“If I’d known who you were when we first met, it would have made things quite interesting.”

“Are you disappointed you didn’t know?” Alli asked.

He looked at his daughter, the same green eyes moving over her pretty face. “I’m glad to know anyone in your life, darling. I’ve never stopped thinking about you, worrying about you.”

She smiled, her expression like that of a small child.

I looked at him, though, catching something in his eyes that seemed a little off. I wasn’t sure what it was, telling myself that it was just a touch of nerves on his part. But it was something that bothered me for a long time after we left that restaurant.

It was almost like shame. Or disgust.

But that wasn’t possible, was it?

“Yesterday I was a man with a long-lost daughter. Today I’m a father with two granddaughters. I feel so rich!”

I understood that feeling. “I’m expecting a grandchild myself,” I informed him. “It’s a roller coaster, isn’t it?”

“It sure is.”

We had a drink together, the three of us. Andrew talked about his work, and Alli bragged about Tommy and Sue. It was a friendly conversation that continued as we walked out the door and to my truck.

“I can’t wait to meet the girls,” Andrew told Alli. “Soon, I hope.”

“Of course.”

“I bet you’ve done an amazing job with them. But children need more than just a mother. They need their whole family around them.”

It was an odd statement that, like that weird look, bothered me. Alli didn’t seem bothered by it, though.

“What kind of religion does your father practice?” I asked Alli as we drove to our hotel.

“I don’t know that he does. When I was a kid, he went to church some Sundays, but not always. It was like a hobby more than a following.”

“But he teaches religion.”

“He taught history. Religion was just a subgenre of that.”

“He comes at it from a historical viewpoint?”

“That’s what it means, yes.”

She seemed annoyed by my questions, but I was confused. We had been told he was an expert on religion, especially this particular religion that had pervaded Ellaville and spurred on the Guardians. His answers to our questions had been vague…he never really answered anything with many specifics. Jack didn’t think that was odd. He thought it was a habit particular to educators. But I was beginning to wonder if maybe there wasn’t more to it than that.

“Has it ever crossed your mind that someone’s sending these Guardian leaders to Ellaville?”

Alli glanced at me. “What do you mean?”

“That someone chose Ellaville to be cleaned up by the Guardians.”

“I suppose that’s possible.”

“Who do you think it was?”

She shrugged. “A local pastor? A passing visitor? I don’t know.”

“Why send another leader after Smythe was arrested? We cleaned them out. It was over. The church members seemed as relieved as the rest of the town. Why send Briggs Thomas to reorganize them?”

“I really don’t care, Crispin. All I care about is that they leave us alone.”

“But what if someone’s behind it? What if that person has a motive that we haven’t yet discovered? What if that motive can point us to a way to stop this?”

“That would be great. But how do we find that person or his motive?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does this have to do with my father?”

I didn’t know. But I had this sinking feeling that there was a connection. And I had this feeling that it would all come back to hit us in the face very soon.

Had I made a mistake in connecting Alli to her father? Was I taking us down a road I couldn’t escape? Was there a darkness still lurking in our future?

But then Alli reached over and kissed my neck, her breath warm on my skin. Her hand moved slowly up my thigh, and she squeezed lightly. We were nearly to the hotel and the big bed that waited for us there. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry over things that I didn’t even understand, let alone know were a problem. I could be barking up empty trees.

Maybe it was time for me to sit back and let someone else pick up the reins. Maybe Patrick could figure this thing out for the rest of us…