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She sucked in a breath, filling her lungs with outrage. “Now I know you’re lying.”

Jo watched his reaction closely.

His mouth opened as he gave a small shake of his head. Incredulous? “It’s the truth. Why would I lie?”

“No one believes she was murdered except me. Not the police. Not anyone.” She glared at him, her anger over what happened to Mom burning in her gut.

No one had truly listened, even after she’d become a target. No one believed her mother’s death was connected to the threats on Jo’s life. Or at the very least, none of it could be proven.

“Listen to me, Jo. I believe you. And now the police are leaning that way, calling her death suspicious.”

Jo narrowed her eyes. Whoever had hired him knew something, or else why hire him? The police maintained it was an accident. “Who hired you?”

“Her name is Naomi Bancroft. I was already looking into things when Mrs. Bancroft contacted CGIS and requested an investigation into Mira Cattrel’s murder.”

“CGIS?”

“Centurion Global Intelligence and Security.”

“And you work for them, then?”

“It’s basically a directory for veterans with specific skill sets. They connect clients with investigators, security and protective services, threat assessments. That sort of thing. I know the guy who runs it, and he knew I’d want to work on this case.”

Jo nodded, satisfied with his answer. “Why does this woman care? What’s the connection?”

“Apparently one of your mother’s last forensic art assignments identified a man who murdered someone at an ATM. The police have recently identified Mason Hyde as the killer, and he’s wanted for questioning in your mother’s death.”

“What?” Jo gasped. “I don’t believe this. Finally, they’re looking into it.” Her heart pounded erratically, and her hands shook. “No one notified me. Oh yeah. They couldn’t reach me if they wanted to.” Because she’d intentionally disappeared. “But that doesn’t explain the connection.”

“Mason Hyde is Naomi Bancroft’s brother.” Cole took her hand and squeezed.

“And now you’re working for the killer’s sister?” She jerked her hand away.

“Will you hear me out? Naomi believes he’s been set up. That he didn’t kill anyone.”

“And you were all too eager to jump on it? Cole, how could you?”

Cole rubbed his temples and shook his head. “I should have led with the fact that I was already looking into your mother’s death on the side. Working through CGIS for a client, I could dig into things officially and get to the truth, Jo.” His gaze pleaded with her. “For you.”

Jo looked away. She didn’t know what to think. I should just get out and get away while I can , before I get hurt again. Then again, she wanted to know everything about her mother’s murder investigation. She would definitely stay.

“I’m listening.”

“I had to start with the police reports, and then I needed to talk to you.”

The way he looked at her right now, she could almost imagine that he wanted to talk to her and his reasons for being with her now went beyond this investigation.

But that was Jo’s imagination. Her pitiful desire to have Cole come back for her with an explanation that she could accept and live with so they could be together again.

Pathetic. So much more was going on now.

Pop had left, and now Mom’s murder might actually get solved. Still...

One question burned in her chest. “Why were you looking into the investigation to begin with, Cole?”

She shouldn’t care, she really shouldn’t. But she had to know why he was really here.

He lifted a shoulder, and his brows furrowed as if he struggled to answer her question. After a few breaths, he finally replied, “I wanted you to be free, Jo. Free to live your life the way you want, not holed up in ... yeah, a beautiful place, but you have so much to offer the world.”

She let his words sink in.

The world. And Cole? A few months ago, he hadn’t wanted what she offered.

He roughed his hand over his mouth and chin. “You shouldn’t have to hide or fear for your life.”

She nodded and glanced around. They’d just been sitting here in his Yukon in the parking lot, talking things through. Catching up. The rain had stopped. Cars parked and cars left. People trudged along sidewalks on a rainy day. The world kept turning, oblivious to Jo’s personal battle.

Glancing at Cole, she angled her head. “That still doesn’t explain how and why you were there to pull me from the car.” At the exact moment I needed you.

“I went to Cedar Trails first to see you. Remi told me where you were headed.”

“That traitor.” Jo half smiled. Of course, Remi Grant would want Cole to find Jo. Remi was her boss at the lodge and her dearest friend of late. Remi hadn’t wanted Jo to chase her father down. “Why not call me or text me?”

“Would you have responded?”

“I don’t know.”

“Exactly. Remi told me what you were driving and that you’d texted you thought your dad was in the Columbia Center.

I couldn’t miss the big, loud Land Rover racing around a corner to the ferry, and then I spotted you in the driver’s seat.

Stupid traffic kept me from making it myself.

So I paid a boater to follow the ferry. I was going to catch up on the other side. I thought to head you off.”

“Head me off. Why? You could have just waited for me at Cedar Trails.”

“I was trying to catch up. Thought I could help with your father. Look, I don’t know what’s going on there, that’s beside the point. I tried to follow, and I missed the ferry. That’s when I witnessed the vehicle going into the water.”

“Nothing else? You didn’t see the suspect?”

“No. I saw the vehicle in the water, I should say. I wasn’t looking at the ferry. I was looking at the car.”

Jo sat up. Leaned closer. “And you didn’t know it was me in the car?”

“I didn’t.”

Wow. She couldn’t believe this. “You just dove in...” Cole hated the water. He might have been traumatized one too many times. Maybe even had PTSD, but that didn’t stop this man. He’d faced his fear to save a stranger.

“Someone was in the vehicle, that was all that mattered.” He averted his pained gaze. “I was shocked to see you.” His voice hitched.

This strong, quiet professional was showing some kind of emotion for her?

Jo wanted to lean into him and forget that she hadn’t heard a word from him in months.

Forget that he had acted like he didn’t care at all.

What she saw now seemed to prove otherwise.

But she’d been burned too many times, and even today her own father had let her down.

She wasn’t trusting anyone again. Not for a long time, if ever.

“If there’s anything I can do to help you with your father, just let me know.”

Her life was one big, twisted roller coaster.

She wanted to know about her mother. She wanted to know about her father.

“I don’t know where he is. He’s just ..

. gone. I tracked him to the Columbia Center, where his cell said he was, and the security guard told me he’d left. Now the little red dot is gone.”

“Remi said he left a note,” Cole said.

“Yep. Said that he was sorry he led danger to me.”

“Did you tell the police about that? Maybe the murder on the ferry—”

“I wasn’t the target. I was just the witness.” Jo glanced out the window again and shook her head. “This is what I get for leaving my hideaway.”

“While I don’t know what kind of danger he could have brought your way, and that raises a lot of concerns, is there anything more we can do while we’re here to look for him? Because, if we find him, we can get answers.”

“It’s a dead end. I’m going to go now. I’m taking the next ferry.”

“Across the sound?”

“Yep.”

“You were just attacked. Took a dunk in the water and almost...”

“You don’t need to remind me.”

“I’ll go too. Maybe you can tell me the facts surrounding your mother’s death back in Michigan along the way.”

“I’ll consider it. I’m just exhausted. I need to think.” And I need space.

An escape from Cole would be nice, but how do you ask the guy who just saved your life to get lost?

She wasn’t sure about anything anymore, except it seemed like someone always wanted to kill her. If she thought about it too long, furious tears would surge, and she couldn’t let Cole see her like that. He’d only known her when she was strong. Never vulnerable.

“I have an idea.” Eyes bright, he stared at her.

“I’ll see if I can get security footage.

We could find out where your father was going.

I don’t like the idea that you followed him, potentially putting yourself in harm’s way—whatever the danger is—but I’m here, and I can protect you now. What do you think?”

She angled her head. “I mean, he’s a mechanic. What kind of danger could he have gotten himself into?”

“He could owe money to the mob. I don’t know.”

“Pop? No way.” She quirked her face. “What’s your gut feeling about this?”

“I’d like to know what he’s involved in so I can assess any threat against you.”

“Maybe there’s something we can do to help him,” she said.

He rubbed his jaw as his face scrunched up. “Maybe. So have you tried to contact him?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve texted multiple times, and I’ve called, and I get no response.”

“I’ve met your dad a few times, of course, but I wouldn’t say I know him that well. Other than he is an auto mechanic, what can you tell me about him?”

“You mean you haven’t already run background checks and looked into everything about my life, which includes my parents?” She studied him, trying to get a read on him.

“I read the police report about what happened in Michigan. I came to talk to you. That’s it. Now we’re here in Seattle. What would you like to do?”

“I guess, yeah, let’s look at the security footage.” She knew some of how law enforcement worked but not about the kind of private agency for which Cole worked.

She got out her cell again and looked at the locator app. Nothing.

“Okay, then. We’ll head to the Columbia Center parking.” He steered from the parking lot.

“Back to my question about your father,” he said. “What can you tell me about him other than he’s a mechanic?”

“Pop is my biological father. I only just met him three years ago. I grew up with a different father. His name was Dale, but he left when I was a kid. I never heard from him again because he died from a heart attack.” A vise clamped down on her throat, strangling her.

“I don’t know where that came from.” Cole hadn’t asked about Dale.

Cole touched her arm. “It’s okay, Jo. That would be hard on any kid. Believe me, I’ve got my own family horror stories.”

She knew there was tension between him and Hawk growing up.

Still, they were as close as any siblings she’d known.

But Cole had never talked about his family with her before.

He claimed that after everything that happened, he wanted to focus on the good things, the present and the future.

She’d done the same, leaving the past in the past.

She wiped away the tear that leaked and glanced at him. “Will you tell me sometime?”

As if that opportunity would come because they were friends and would have plenty of time to talk about it. That wasn’t happening.

“Sometime.” He shifted uncomfortably. “What happened? Why’d Dale leave?”

“I was ten when I overheard Mom and Dad—Dale—fighting, and then he left for good. Walked out on us both. I never knew why. All I knew was that I really hated my mother. I thought she had sent him away. It took me a long time to get over it.” A friend had invited Jo to church, and she learned that she was supposed to forgive.

That didn’t mean she would forget that her dad left her.

But she’d forgiven him, and she’d forgiven her mother and had even followed in her footsteps to work as a forensic artist.

“That’s hard to get over.”

“Three years ago, Mom finally told me why he left. It just took her sixteen years to get around to it. I was twenty-six. For the first ten years of my life, she’d let Dale believe that he was my biological father, and he left when he found out the truth.

She hadn’t cheated on him, so she says, but she was already pregnant when they met.

They had a whirlwind romance and married in just two months. ”

Jo dragged in a long breath, then continued.

“And that’s when she dropped another bomb.

She told me that if anything happened to her, I needed to leave and to hide.

That she’d left instructions for me in our bank safety-deposit box.

Her hands were shaking, so I could tell that she was upset.

Scared, even. Can you imagine how that freaked me out?

Mom had been angry and hurt by his actions too, that much was clear.

She’d kept that from me, to keep from hurting me.

But something had triggered her—I realized after the fact, of course—to finally tell me the truth.

She tells me the truth about my father and warns me something bad might happen all in the same breath. ”

“And your biological father?”

“She left me hanging. I don’t know if she just didn’t know who he was. Or she wasn’t willing to tell me. But she died before we could talk it out.”

“What happened after she told you the truth?”

“I was so stunned—so furious with her—that I stormed out. I took a long walk in the park near my apartment. Worked through things. Prayed. Finally, I blew off enough steam that I went to her house to talk to her, but she wasn’t there.

I had a key. Still had a room there. I made cookies while I waited.

Thought we would talk. Everything would be fine again.

I loved Mom. I fell asleep on the couch waiting.

She never made it home. I learned about the accident hours later. ”

Her heart had been utterly shattered.

It wouldn’t be the first time, and as she looked at Cole’s profile . . . she knew it would definitely not be the last.