I dropped Jade off and then drove around a while, looking for a parking spot, finally deciding to use the valet service. It was Saturday, after all, and many people were here visiting, no doubt.

I signed in as a visitor and made my way up to the waiting area outside the ICU.

My nerves jumped when I walked into the area. Two cops were there, and Jade was already talking to them. Beside her stood a man about six feet tall with the same golden-brown hair I was used to seeing on the woman I loved. He was a nice-looking man, his skin tan, showing wrinkles around his eyes. Jade said he was in construction. He’d probably worked outside most of his life. He looked tired. And not just tired in that he had worked hard all his life. Tired and worried. Worried about someone he loved. Jade’s mother, I assumed.

I was going to have to meet her father—the father of the woman I loved. Here I was, thirty-five years old, and I had never met a woman’s father before.

Jade motioned me over, smiling. “There you are. Talon, this is my father, Brian Roberts. Dad, this is Talon Steel.”

Jade’s dad stuck out his hand. “Good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

The back of my neck chilled. Jade had seen some of my darker moments, but surely she hadn’t shared those with her father. “Nice to meet you too, sir,” I said.

Was that right? Did you call a woman’s father “sir”?

“Please, call me Brian.”

“All right.” I attempted a smile. “How’s your mom doing, Jade?”

“She’s good. They’re finally moving her out of ICU today.”

“That’s great, baby.” Then I snapped my head over to Brian. I had just called his daughter baby. But it didn’t seem to faze him. Thank God.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jade said. “This is Officer Shapley and Officer Duke. Talon Steel, my boyfriend.”

Boyfriend.

Never had a word imbued me with such warmth. And still, it was woefully deficient. For if I was Jade’s boyfriend, that made her my girlfriend—and “girlfriend” was such an inadequate term for what Jade was to me.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” the one called Shapley said.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can go sit down over there while the officers ask their questions,” I said to Jade.

“No, I wish you’d stay. Is that all right with you two, and with you, Dad?”

“It’s fine with me, sweetie,” Brian Roberts said. “I guess it’s really up to the officers here.”

“It’s fine,” Shapley said. “This is just preliminary questioning anyway.”

“So do you two think there’s enough to warrant an investigation here?” Brian asked.

Shapley, obviously the mouthpiece of the two, replied, “Yes. We’re definitely going to take a look at the vehicle. See if we can determine whether the airbag was tampered with. The only problem is that the vehicle has already been repaired. But we’ll have our experts take a look.”

Jade’s face fell. “Why was it repaired?”

“Ms. Roberts,” Shapley said, “no one had any reason to think there was any foul play. Mr. Kostas had the vehicle towed from the scene and repaired.”

“Mr. Kostas seems to be nowhere to be found.”

Shapley nodded. “True enough, and that is also something of a concern.”

“He’s a senator, for God’s sake,” Jade said. “He can’t just disappear.”

“No,” I said, my voice low. “He’s not.”

Jade turned to me, her steely eyes wide. “What?”

“I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you. I did some research on him. I should have mentioned it.” I sighed. How could I tell her I’d been side-tracked because of what I’d become convinced he was? I couldn’t, at least not in front of all these people

“He’s right, ma’am,” Shapely said. “He’s not a United States senator or an Iowa state senator.”

“But why would my mother say…” Jade bit her lip. “I guess she never thought to question him.”

“Brooke believes anything someone says if she’s getting attention and gifts,” Brian said.

“It’s certainly easy enough to check out,” Jade said, “but that might not have occurred to my mother. She did tend to let men walk all over her.”

“To be honest,” Shapley said, “Nico Kostas might not even be his real name. But we’re definitely going to look into this. That is, if we can find evidence that the airbag was tampered with.”

“You’ve just got to find it, please,” Jade begged. “I mean, why would he have disappeared? He supposedly cared about my mother, and now he’s just gone. Sounds like someone on the run to me.”

“Yes,” Shapley said, “it’s definitely suspicious. We’ll be in touch. Here’s my card.” Shapley handed one to each of us.

“Thank you for your time, Officers,” Brian said.

The two men nodded and walked away.

“I can’t believe it,” Jade said.

I put my arm around her. “What?”

“The jerk is a liar, and he tried to kill my mother. He’s probably going to get away with it. Now that the car’s been repaired, there won’t be any evidence of his tampering.”

“We don’t know if that’s what happened,” Brian said.

I kept my lips closed. That was what had happened all right. Somehow, in the recesses of my bones, I knew. Just like I knew that Larry Wade, my esteemed half uncle, had raped me when I was a child. So had this Nico character. And now he had tried to kill Jade’s mother.

Neither of them were going to get away with it.

 

Under the guise of needing to make a few business calls and run some errands, I left the waiting area. Jade was safe with her father, and she needed to be near her mother.

I did make some phone calls, but they had nothing to do with my business. Within ten minutes, I had the name of the body shop where Nico Kostas had taken his vehicle.

I drove over there and asked to speak to the person who handled the car. I was asked to sit until a man called Shem was available.

I thumbed through a Popular Mechanics issue from three years ago.

“Mr. Steel?”

I looked up. A young man, tall and thin, grease under his fingernails, his blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, stood before me.