“Absolutely not.” I shake my head, not even considering it. “No way.”

“Come on, Wyatt, Just listen.” Cora pleads with me.

“Listen, you saw what happened last night. You were right there.”

She rolls her eyes. “I know.”

“So how do you think this is a good idea?” I ask.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out, hesitating a second. I take a look around the room. The Great American is crowded for a Sunday morning. The coffee’s hot, though, and Cora’s looking at me with that concerned expression. Like she thinks I’m an idiot for being cautious or something.

“Atticus went to my mom’s like a month before he was killed,” she tells me finally. “She says he was looking for money, like usual, but he said something strange.”

That gets my attention. “What did he say?”

“He said that he had a job coming, and that he could pay her back once it worked out. His girlfriend was there, too.”

“Kristi?” I cock my head, eyes narrowing.

“Bingo. And she mentioned someone named ‘J’ taking care of them.”

I sigh. I don’t like where this is going, not at all. “And you think that’s Jaxson.” It’s a huge assumption based off of the memory of her drunk mother and an offhand comment by an addict.

“Exactly,” she says. “What if this job has something to do with what happened?”

“It’s a stretch,” I say seriously. “A really big one.”

“You saw the way Kristi was acting. And Jaxson threatening us like that?” She shakes her head, blowing on her coffee to cool it down slightly. “Come on, Wyatt. It doesn’t get more suspicious.”

“I can’t deny that,” I admit. I was thinking the same thing. “But you want to stroll right into the lion’s den.”

“It’s his parents’ trailer,” she says. “What’s he going to do, murder us in front of them?”

I grin. “Sure, maybe. You know how those trailer park people can be.” She rolls her eyes at that and gives me a look. She didn’t like that joke. “Anyway, how do you even know that he still lives with his parents?”

“Facebook. He doesn’t say it, but I’ve seen a bunch of pictures lately taken at a trailer. I’d bet anything that’s his parents’ place.”

“It’s a stretch,” I say again, but this time I’m starting to consider it, despite myself. If he really is living with his parents, then it would be somewhat safe to show up there, though I don’t know how it’ll make him react. “A really big stretch. You want to take a big risk based entirely on a guess.”

“Yeah, I do,” she says earnestly. She leans forward and locks eyes with me. “Because you’re leaving soon, and this may be the best lead I get before you go. So I might as well chase this now, with you here to protect me, instead of doing it after you leave.”

I stare at her for a second, slightly annoyed. She smiles sweetly at me, batting her eyelashes, which just makes me groan. “You’re blackmailing me, you know,” I say.

“I know,” she answers, grinning.

“I knew you were trouble.”

“So you’ll do it.”

“We’re eating breakfast first,” I say, flagging down the waitress.

I know I don’t have any other choice. She’s going to do this idiotic thing no matter what, and she’s right, I am leaving soon.

The thought isn’t comforting, not at all. I don’t want to leave her, not when I’ve dragged her deeper into this. Jaxson saw us together, they’re staking out her house, and who knows what else. She’s in danger, and I’m going to abandon her, go back to my own life, and try to forget all about this.

I doubt I can, which means I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do.

For now though, we’re going to Jaxson’s house, the guy that threatened us. It’s totally stupid and irresponsible and yet I can’t say no to her, and that’s maybe the most dangerous part of this whole thing.

* * *

We stop in front of the trailer and I kill the engine. “Listen to me. I have one rule.”

She looks at me with that cute, innocent stare, really playing it up. “Yes, sir?”

I roll my eyes. “Just listen, okay? If I tell you to run the fuck away, you run away. If I tell you to dive onto the ground and scream, you do it. Okay?”

“I’ll do what you say, I promise.”

“Good.” I pop open the glovebox and pull out my gun. She gapes at it as I check the slide and inspect the magazine. “You ready?”

I don’t say anything about the gun. I can tell it makes Cora uncomfortable based on the way she keeps looking away from it. “Let’s go,” I say.

We climb out of the car and I slip the gun into my waistband. We walk up to the front of the trailer and I knock this time, taking the lead.

An older woman answers the door. She’s older than my mom, wrinkled with frizzy, untamed hair and golden brown skin like she spends hours in a tanning bed.

“Who are you?” she croaks.

“Ma’am, I’m Wyatt, friend of Jaxson’s.”

She stares at me for a second. “You don’t look like his friend.”

I grin. “Thank you.”

She sighs and turn away from the door. “Jaxson!” she screams. “Friends are here!”

“What the fuck, ma?” he shouts back. She slowly walks back into the trailer. I catch a glimpse of a cigarette in the ash tray, a game show on TV, and a cat prowling along the floor. Jaxson comes around the corner.

“Who the fuck is—” He stops when he spots me and Cora.

He glances at his mother and back to us. I can tell he’s trying to decide what he wants to do in this situation. He’s not wearing a shirt, just a pair of baggy jeans. He hesitates a second, wondering if he should turn back, but I shake my head subtly. I don’t want him going into that room again and coming back out with a gun.

He sets his jaw and comes to the door. “The fuck you want, Wyatt?”

“Can we talk?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “I’m listening.”

I stare him down. “Outside.”

He glances back. “Ma, I’ll be out front.” He opens the door and steps out. He pulls it shut behind him and walks out toward the street.

We follow him. He doesn’t bother looking at Cora. He crosses his arms and turns on me.

“This was a big fucking mistake, Wyatt,” he says, showing his teeth.

“Relax,” I say. “We’re not here to stir shit.”

“You’re not?” he asks. “You here to talk about the old days?”

“Sure,” I say. “Why not?”

He laughs and eyes me. “Fuck you, Wyatt. You were always such a boring kiss ass, you know that?”

My eye twitches but I keep it together. “Do you know Atticus’s ex?” I ask him suddenly.

“Kristi?” he says, and then instantly I can tell he regrets that response.

I smile at him. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

He clearly didn’t mean to give that up. “What about her?” he asks.

“She’s been pretty hard to track down,” I say, glancing at Cora. She keeps her face straight, not giving anything away.

“Yeah, why you lookin’ for her?”

“You know why, Jaxson. She might know something.”

He shakes his head, grinning. “You still don’t get it?”

“I guess not. Explain it to me.”

“Atticus is a fucking nothing,” he says. “A little fucking worm that got stomped on. You fucking think anyone cares about him?”

“Kristi might,” I say.

“Kristi don’t give a fuck about him, nobody does.” He looks at Cora. “Sorry, kid, but it’s the fucking truth. Your brother was scum, pure and simple.”

“What do you think you are?” Cora snaps at him.

He grins at her. “Got a mouth on this one,” he says.

“Jaxson,” I say, pulling his attention back to me. “Where’s Kristi?”

“Dunno. With her mom, I bet.”

I nod at that. So the guy knows Kristi, and knows her well enough to guess right. Either that, or he actually does fucking know where she is right now.

Still, this means he knows her, and probably pretty well.

“Were you close with Atticus before he died?” I ask him, changing the subject.

“The guy hung around me and my boys, but no, fuck him,” Jaxson says. “And fuck you too, Wyatt. I’m not talking to you.”

“Why not?” I ask him.

Jaxson must suddenly realize that he has no reason to answer my questions. “Because fuck you, that’s why. You come here again, I will go back for that gun and murder you dumb ass. You get me?”

“You shouldn’t toss around threats, Jaxson,” I say. “I’ve been nice.”

“Fuck your nice, bitch.” He turns to Cora. “And you, well, you better stay safe, yeah?”

He cackles and heads back to the trailer. We stand and watch him go. I cross my arms and only relax when he’s finally inside.

I grab Cora’s arm and pull her back to the car. We get inside as fast as we can and we pull out of there quick.

“Nothing,” she says softly. “We got nothing. Why were you asking him about Kristi? We already saw her.”

I turn to her and grin. “Think about it,” I say.

She screws up her face. “Don’t be an ass.”

“I just showed that your theory might actually be right.”

She chews her lip a second, and I see it suddenly click. “He knows her,” she says. “He knows her well enough to guess where she is, or he actually does know.”

I grin huge. “Either way, that means that they both could be involved in this. And that ‘J’ your mom mentioned might actually be Jaxson.”

“Damn,” she says softly, laughing. “That’s devious.”

“It’s about the best we could hope for,” I admit. “More than he wanted to give us, at least.”

“What now?” she asks.

I shake my head. “Now, we keep working the case.”

She grins at me and we drive in silence. My mind’s working on a ton of levels, but most of me is thinking about how beautiful Cora looks when she smiles, and how easily she’s taking to this investigation stuff. She’s smart as a whip and sexy on top of it.

I should be able to say no to her. But my god, I really can’t. I just want more.

But that threat Jaxson threw at her still lingers in my mind, and I’m torn all over again.