up the fight, that enabled him to hang on to hope for future exoneration.
The same fighter’s blood that flowed in Con’s veins. That gave him the determination not to give up on Bailey and their future. Con swiped the back of his hand over the moisture trickling into his eyes. He wasn’t getting teary-eyed, dammit. It was sweat from the exertion.
Their dad had died before he could clear his name. Assumed dead during the invasion robbery of his own house.
They’d never found his body. Or his killer.
The resulting court hearing had declared him legally dead. Murdered. There were still hard-line cops who thought he’d faked the crime scene. Rumor had him living the high life on a remote tropical island with his hot half million and a hot mistress.
Nobody who’d known Brian bought that garbage any more than they believed he’d stolen the money. But it hurt like hell.
Con cleared his throat. “Is the man in the bank my dad? No. No way.”
“No wonder you’re upset. It must have been an awful shock.”
The understatement of the millennium. “You believe me, don’t you—the man holding up the bank is not my dad?” Because he’d wavered, it seemed very, very important she did not.
She held him tight. “Absolutely. Your mom is too intelligent and principled to marry a dirty cop. And an unscrupulous man could never have raised four sons with such deeply rooted integrity.”
He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her silky curls. If he hadn’t known before she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, her loyalty would have sealed the deal. He breathed in her flowery fragrance. “Thank you.”
She drew away to look at him. “How did a criminal get your father’s watch? Why would he wear it? It has no monetary value.”
“One possibility.” When the first stunned, frozen moments had passed, and he’d assured himself the man wearing the watch was not his father, the answer had wrenched his guts. “Pop died when robbers invaded our home. Those men are robbers. The math adds up.”
“You think the criminal in the bank is responsible for your father’s murder, and the watch is a…sick souvenir?”
“Yes. And I intend to prove it.” He leaned his head against the wall. “The day he died, we’d been to a soccer game, did I tell you that?”
“No.” She stroked his hair. “Go ahead. Talking will help.”
“Grady was a senior in high school. It was the state championship. We’d planned a family outing, but Dad caught the flu. He was really torqued about missing out. He insisted on going, but Mom wouldn’t let him. You know Mom, she prevailed.”
Her lips curved in a tender smile. “I imagine she did.”
“Pop went to every game, every school event, every Boy Scout activity when work permitted. He was a great dad.”
“He was. You’ve got some wonderful memories.”
Yeah, but this wasn’t one of them. “Grady’s alma mater won. The three of us carried him into the house on our shoulders, with Mom brandishing his MVP award. We were chanting some stupid cheer at the top of our lungs. We got halfway across the living room before we noticed the place was trashed. Stuff was missing.” Staring over her shoulder into the gloomy store, he felt the blow all over again as he relived that awful night.
“Mom tore upstairs to the master bedroom. Grady and I hit the kitchen, Aidan and Liam rushed into the family room, calling for Pop. Then they went dead quiet. A tangible wall of silence rolled out. I don’t know how to explain, but the shock hung in the air.”
“You don’t have to. I’ve experienced that feeling.”
“Grady and I looked at one another, and knew bone deep it was bad. We ran into the family room. It was worse than anything we could have imagined. Sick and weak as he’d been, Pop must have put up a hell of a fight. Blood was everywhere. Enough blood…” He faltered, then soldiered on. “For the ME to testify Pop couldn’t have survived. They never found his body.”
“I’m sorry. Losing your father is hard enough when you’ve got closure.”
They’d been forced to hold a memorial service instead of a funeral. There was no coffin to drape the flag over. After the mournful echo of “Taps” faded, the honor guard had simply handed the folded flag to his mother. “We didn’t want Mom to see the carnage. It took both Aidan and me to keep her out. We brought