Page 26 of Healing Conviction

Her fork fell from her hand as she scoffed. “Jesus H. Christ, Drake, why dontcha tell me how you really feel?”

“I always do. Why don’t you?”

“Because then it’s out of my control.” She clamped her teeth shut and shook her head. “Let’s just say, I don’t have many memories of my childhood.”

“Why’s that?”

“So many questions,” she muttered.

“Maybe because I’m not getting many answers.”

She stabbed her fork into the soft food, causing a jarringclangfrom the metal against the hard plate. “Maybe I don’t have many memories of my childhood because I only like to remembergoodthings.”

A look of shock mixed with sympathy froze on his face, but thankfully, he ate the final bite of his burger, seemingly willing to let it go.

Thank the goddesses.

No one ever delved into her life like this. She was used to skating under the radar, with no one ever digging deeper than the surface level mirror image she showed them. It was almost refreshing to know someone cared, but it also sent every panic alarm firing in her body. Even if she could talk about her past to a BlackStone agent, she didn’twantto. Especially not with Drake. Why share your prologue with someone who’ll never bother finishing the book?

“Anywho… What’s our plan of action, handsome? You pulled me from my date for no reason. What gives?”

It was his turn to pause, and he swallowed before responding. “Snake said he didn’t know when the woman’s next shift was. My thought is, why wait when we can catch her at the start? If she’s working, perfect. If she’s not, we can find out when she works and be there then. Snake might gain a lead on the next woman by then, too. The quicker we get things over with, the quicker we can head back home.”

“Quicker we can head back home.”

See… he’s already trying to leave. Not that I expected anything less.

Drake had already nearly given up his life for hers, why the hell would he want to give any more than that?

She tossed her balled-up napkin onto her half empty plate. “Alrighty then. In the spirit of ‘getting things over with,’ let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

“You’re doing it again, Pix.” His eyes narrowed at the crumpled up paper, before looking up at her. “Talk to me. What’s wrong now?”

The flippant smile life had beaten into her long ago stretched across her face.

“Nothing, obvi’. Nothing at all.”

CHAPTERTEN

“Sorry, hon. She ain’t here. But if you want, I can call her and y’all can get a bite to eat while ya wait. We got our good cook in this mornin’. I always say…”

After getting Nora somerealdinner at Jacky’s, they’d driven all night to a Pancake Park in a small coastal town, showing up at the ass crack of dawn. All they knew was that Shanna worked there, although no one had been willing to give her schedule over the phone.

His determination to pick Nora up before she went home with herdatehad been purely selfish, but he’d reasoned that maybe if they got to the Pancake Park between third and first shift, they had a better chance to interview her as soon as possible before they headed to a hotel for a nap. It’d been a long shot, and it was sounding like he’d missed.

Instead, the waitress behind the counter, Tabitha, had been talking their ear off between customers for the past thirty minutes. He was exhausted and had long since stopped listening to her, letting Nora take the reins on the conversation while he daydreamed about sleeping on his pillow at BlackStone.

“Excuse me, Miss Tabitha?” Draco tuned back in at the sound of Nora’s voice. “I hate to interrupt, but Shanna Jacobs isnothere?”

The plump woman shook her head and lifted a coffeepot toward them. “‘Fraid not, sweetie. But how ‘bout breakfast—”

Fuck.

“Oh golly, that’s too bad!” Nora snapped her fingers and sucked her teeth. “We’ve driven all this way to surprise her. She’s family and we haven’t seen her in ages. Do you know when her next shift is?”

He had to hand it to his little pixie, Nora was a star at acting. Her voice dripped with her newly acquired sweet Southern accent. What with her demure outfit from the night before, she seemed like a regular Southern belle.

It was no wonder she was good at it, though. From what he could tell, Nora had perfected her ‘everything is sunshine and laughter’ side a long time ago.