“Aw, shucks, Tal.” Ryan let out a boisterous laugh. “You’ll make me blush.”

“As if anything could make you blush,” Talon said.

Then everyone laughed as Ryan filled the two empty glasses at the table and invited Jonah and me to sit down.

I inhaled. “It smells wonderful.”

Stupid again. I’d already said that.

Marjorie started to sit down but then popped back up. “Silly me. The garlic bread is still in the oven. Excuse me for a minute.”

“And I whipped up a salad,” Jade said. “One of the few things I’m capable of. It’s in the fridge, so please excuse me.”

Marjorie and Jade returned with the bread and salad, and the family began passing items around the table. I took modest amounts, even though I was starving for the first time in days. I didn’t want to appear too…what? When the garlic bread came around, I took two big slices.

The food was delicious, and I didn’t talk much, but I didn’t need to. The family was happy and jovial, talking a lot among themselves. A few times a question was directed at me, and I answered succinctly. Jonah took part in the family conversation, though he still seemed a little rigid. I wasn’t sure why.

After we finished dinner, Jade helped Brooke up from the table and came back about fifteen minutes later.

“My mother sends her apologies,” she said. “She needs to lie down now and rest.”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” I said. “It was so nice to meet her.”

Jonah placed his hand over mine, in full view of everyone still seated at the table. His hand was warm and felt nice, gave me comfort. And he seemed visibly less tense. Maybe the glass of wine had done him good.

“Now that Brooke is going to bed, I need to talk to all of you,” Talon said. “About Felicia.”

I felt conspicuous. What was he talking about?

Jonah squeezed my hand as if to offer me reassurance. “I haven’t told Melanie a lot of what’s going on.”

“I can certainly leave if it will make everyone more comfortable,” I said. It would certainly make me more comfortable.

“Of course not, Doc. I would’ve told you all of this by now anyway if we were having sessions.”

I warmed. We weren’t having sessions because I had been required to take a three-week leave of absence. Gina Cates’s parents had filed a complaint against me with the medical board. If her parents were behind the attack on me, their complaint would have no bearing. However, I would first have to prove they were behind it, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to. Only Jonah and the police knew what had happened at this point, and tonight was not the time to divulge the information. Talon clearly had something else on his mind.

Talon continued, “Felicia is our housekeeper, as you know. Has Jonah told you about the business card belonging to Jade’s ex-fiancé that we found lodged underneath the carpet in her bedroom?”

I nodded.

“There are three sets of fingerprints on it. We identified one set as Larry Wade’s. Jade matched them against the attorney database. One set we have yet to identify, although we are assuming they belong to Colin himself. The third set belongs to our housekeeper, Felicia Diaz.”

“And Felicia is the nicest person in the world,” Jade piped in.

“Yes,” Marj agreed. “None of us for a minute think she could be behind any of this.”

“How did you get her fingerprints?” I asked.

“We all had our fingerprints taken after the card was found,” Talon said. “We wanted to make sure that we could rule out anyone in the house.”

“I see,” I said.

“Anyway,” Talon said, “She’s coming here to talk to us tomorrow morning at ten. Joe, I really need you to be here.”

“Of course I will,” Jonah said.

“And Doc, feel free to join us as well.”

I shook my head. “I’ve never met Felicia, and I’m sure it would be more comfortable for her if she didn’t have a strange person there.”

“Come anyway,” Jade said. “You can keep my mother company. She’d love that.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the morning making chitchat with the former supermodel, but it would save me from being alone in Jonah’s house. “Maybe I will. I’m sure your mother is a lovely woman.”

I wasn’t speaking the truth, of course. I had heard the stories about how Brooke had abandoned Jade for her modeling career.

“Anyway, we need to talk about how to handle this,” Talon said. “Felicia’s been with us for a long time.”

“Yeah,” Jade said, “and she didn’t seem to get upset when you asked her to have her fingerprints taken.”

“True,” Talon said, “but the only reason I gave her was that I was installing the new security system that would be fingerprint identified.”

“I see,” Jonah said. “So she had no idea why we were really asking.”

“No,” Talon said.

“I think we should just be upfront with her,” Ryan said. “None of us really think she could’ve had anything to do with this.”

“But then how did her fingerprints get on the card?” Jonah asked.

“We’re all kind of stumped about that,” Marjorie said.

“Are you sure we should all be here, Tal?” Ryan asked. “She might feel like we’re ganging up on her.”

Talon rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. Maybe you have a point.”

“I can definitely sit this one out,” Jade said. “I haven’t known Felicia for as long as the rest of you. I think the four of you siblings can handle things without me.”

“I don’t know,” Marjorie said. “Ryan may be right. Maybe just you, Talon.”

“No, I need some backup.” He looked to Jonah. “I need my big brother.”

Jonah nodded. He would do anything for Talon. The guilt that he carried ensured that. But even if he didn’t carry so much guilt, I was sure he would do anything his brother needed. That was the kind of man he was.

“All right. I’ll be here,” Jonah said. “And there’s one thing you haven’t mentioned.”

“What’s that?” Talon asked.

“We’ll need her to get a DNA test. If her fingerprints are on the card, that blood sample might be hers as well.”