It All Falls Down (Rose Gardner Investigations #7) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,4

saying something,” I said wryly. “Especially since Hope has decided sleep is for losers.”

He released a laugh and headed to the coffee pot. “I remember those days.” There was plenty of longing in his tone.

Before Hope was born, Dermot had told me that he’d had a wife and children, but he hadn’t said what had become of them, and I hadn’t asked.

“You want to get to business right away or stick to pleasantries for now?” he asked as he poured coffee into a mug I’d left on the counter.

I spread batter into the waffle iron and closed it. “I say we get the business out of the way, then we can do pleasantries when Hope wakes up.”

“Okay,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee, then turning around and leaning his butt against the counter. “I take it Joe isn’t here is because he’s dealing with the murder south of town.”

“So it was a murder?” I asked. “He only told me they found a body.”

One side of his mouth quirked up. “A bullet to the back of the head is usually due to murder.”

A chill ran down my back. “Anyone I might know?”

“It was one of Malcolm’s men, but someone he brought on after the two of you split. I doubt you’d know him.”

I nodded.

James “Skeeter” Malcolm was the king of the crime world in Fenton County, Arkansas. He had a long criminal career, but he’d bought his crown a year and a half ago with my reluctant help. I’d seen his murder in a vision. It had happened at the auction for the top dog position in the Fenton County underworld, and rather than skip the event, he’d insisted I come with him. Since I was dating the assistant district attorney at the time, I’d needed a disguise—a sexy black dress, heels, and a hat with a thick veil to hide my face.

And so the Lady in Black was born.

I’d donned that hat and veil for several months, using my visions to help James figure out who was trying to sabotage him. Although I was helping James, I wasn’t doing it for him; in exchange, he’d agreed to protect my then-boyfriend, Mason (unbeknownst to Mason). But a funny thing happened over those months—James and I had become friends, and we’d stayed friends even after Mason broke up with me, and I (temporarily, it turned out) retired my hat and veil. We continued to be friends for several months, meeting once a week behind the abandoned Sinclair gas station on the west side of town. That was how I discovered something most people didn’t realize about the man most of the county feared. James Malcolm—Skeeter to everyone else—had a good heart.

I hadn’t meant to give him mine.

Our fling had begun with clandestine meetings that were dangerous and seductive and exciting. We would meet at his secret house in the woods south of town and play a beautiful game of pretend. Because James had made it very clear he had no interest in marriage or a family, and I had always dreamed of having both. We weren’t supposed to fall in love, only we had, and it had made everything more complicated.

Then I got pregnant, despite having been careful with birth control, and everything fell apart. He’d given me an ultimatum: him or the baby, but it hadn’t been a choice at all. He’d made his decision the moment he uttered those words.

He’d told me that if I aligned myself with the criminals who were joining forces to keep the Hardshaw Group out of the county, we would be enemies.

So that had been his choice too. Because from what I’d learned, Hardshaw had infiltrated other counties like a disease, bringing in hard drugs and harder people. Having Hardshaw in Fenton County wouldn’t be good for anyone other than the few people it enriched, and I had no intention of allowing them to destroy my home. Hope’s home.

“Any idea who did it?”

“If I had to guess, Denny Carmichael.” He took a sip of his coffee, then added, “I doubt he did it personally. Probably had a goon do it.”

“Do you think Denny is about to make a play for James’ position?”

“Hard to say. It could be that Carmichael found Malcolm’s guy snoopin’ around on his property and decided to teach him a lesson. Could be things are escalating. Carmichael is none too pleased with Malcolm’s involvement with Hardshaw. Maybe he’s acting on that. Especially in light of the news that Hardshaw kidnapped