A Kiss for Luck by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2014-11-04T21:08:16+00:00

Chapter 6

The courtroom was a fine place to hone acting skills—one manifestation of an ability to deceive. Gideon didn’t have to fake his eagerness to hear Hollister Winters’s plans though.

“Just because the child was spotted at the home of a relative in Damson Valley doesn’t mean he lives here,” Gideon replied when Winters had wound down.

Predictably, Winters wanted to know what any phone book could have told him.

“We have two elementary schools,” Gideon said. He kept Sadie anchored to him with his free arm, because he was that worried she’d slip off to her sister’s house and out of his life. “The school on the eastern side of town is Barbara Fritchey Elementary, at 1100 Plum Road, and the elementary schools in this county get out at 2:30 p.m. We don’t have private elementary schools out here, though, of course”—he really should not mess with this buffoon, but he did anyway—“many children are homeschooled, particularly in rural areas.”

Sadie smacked his arm for that, a reassuring display of temper. Even more reassuring was the way she remained plastered against him, her arm around his waist.

“If you’re releasing me from further obligations to you, where should I send the balance of your retainer?” Gideon asked.

Winters squawked about a full refund being owed him because Gideon had not spent any time on the case—despite two goose chases across the Pennsylvania line and several hours of cyber-research to fill in data gaps. The guy who screwed his battered wife out of her marital settlement, stiffed his kid for child support, and defrauded his fellow taxpayers couldn’t be bothered to pay his own bills.

And yet in this case, the man’s greed would contribute to his downfall.

“A full refund, then,” Gideon said. “I have no obligation to you, and I’ve done nothing on the case.” Sadie heard the follow-up rant, of course, because Winters was nearly bellowing into the phone.

Maryland had serious wiretapping laws, but nothing in them prevented somebody from overhearing a shouted conversation. Then too, Winters’s ranting probably fell under the “excited utterance” hearsay exception and thus could be admissible in court.

“I wish you the best of luck,” Gideon said, ending the call and shoving the phone in his pocket. He kissed Sadie’s temple. “He’ll bloody well need it.”

The room seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief, and Sadie’s embrace lost some of its desperation.

“What are my orders?” Finn asked from behind a plate that had held a prodigious serving of spaghetti only minutes earlier.

“Sadie will call her sister and update her on the situation,” Gideon said. “Your job is to take the night watch and see that Sam gets on the bus safely tomorrow morning.”

“Right-o, mates. I should take Baby with me?”

Sadie answered. “Yes. Sam will like Baby, if he hasn’t already gone to bed.”

Finn set the plate down, knife and fork crossed daintily, napkin refolded on the place mat. “What do I need to know about your sister, Sadie?”

Sadie leaned her forehead on Gideon’s chest.

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