shrugged again. “Mom’s not in the room. She’s gone to talk to Taylor. She thinks he’ll need her for the case.” Something drifted through her eyes and her mouth turned down. “He’s going to.”
Cullen all but bit his tongue off to keep from swearing.
“Dad.”
Looking up, he saw Jillian staring at him, her eyes somber. “Do you love me?”
“Jilly . . .” Unsure where that had come from, he shoved the chair back from the table and moved around to stand by her, kneeling down so that their faces were level. She looked so much like her mother, his first wife. Cullen’s memories of her were dim—they hadn’t really known each other, but he’d married her when they discovered she was pregnant. The marriage had been short-lived; she’d died during childbirth and Cullen had been on his own from day one.
Up until Taige came into their lives . . . into Jillian’s life, back into his. He’d known Taige since he’d been a kid, just a few years older than Jillian was now. He’d known her then, loved her then. And because he’d been a short-sighted fool, he’d lost her. He pushed those dark thoughts aside and focused on his daughter . . . their daughter.
“Baby, you know I love you. You’re everything.”
“Would you try to change me?” She watched him with eyes that were far too old, far too wise, for a fourteen-year-old child.
This was boggy ground here, he realized. Blowing out a breath, he weighed his words carefully. Jillian might not be able to read him the way she could read others, but she’d know a lie. “Change who you are? Not in a million years. But if there was something I could do to make life easier on you? I’d almost sell my soul to do it.”
“Mama’s told you a hundred times over . . . some of us just aren’t made for easy.” She reached over and caught his hand, linked their fingers. “I’m not made for easy. Neither is Mama. Regretting and wishing she wouldn’t do what she has to do hurts her, Dad. You can’t keep doing this to her.”
Old eyes. Old soul. “You’re too young to be this smart,” he said, sighing. “I’m supposed to be the one giving you advice. How did you get to be so smart?”
“That’s easy. You gave me a good mom.” Her nose wrinkled as she grinned at him. Then she bit her lip. “Dad . . . I want to go home. But Mom needs you here. Maybe Grandpa can come get me.”
Cullen grimaced. He wasn’t really quite ready to be away from his daughter. Not after how much she’d been hurting.
He knew his dad would take good care of her, but still.
“You think you’d be okay for a little while if I went to go talk to her?” he asked softly.
“I’m fourteen, you know.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not a baby.”
* * *
TAIGE stared at a picture of a young woman.
If Taige had guessed right, the woman in the image was in her mid-twenties. Absolutely beautiful, with big, blue eyes, big breasts, tiny waist, round hips. She looked like a living Barbie doll. But there was something in her eyes that made her look . . . well, sweet.
Too sweet. Oddly innocent. It bothered her to think of somebody innocent and sweet caught in this mess. Well, it bothered her to think of anybody caught in this, but still . . . innocence wasn’t exactly a common commodity in this world anymore.
“Who is she?” Taige asked, careful not to touch the picture.
“She was one of my prime’s suspect’s girlfriends,” Taylor said without even bothering to look at the picture. “They broke up about eighteen months ago, and a few weeks later, she went on a trip to Europe. Disappeared. Hasn’t been seen since. Naturally, he has nothing to do with her disappearance and is very distraught by it all.”
“Girlfriend . . .”
“Rumors of an engagement were surfacing but not official.”
“Hmmm.” She bent closer to the picture, as though the girl could whisper to her, if she just got closer. If she kept the contact to a minimum, she could keep from going on a little psychic stroll, she thought. And there was one waiting to happen here. She could feel it. The edges of the gray hovered around her, just waiting to suck her up.
She just couldn’t do it yet. She hadn’t yet talked to Jones about hanging around to help out with the case. Over