involved in everything from home burglaries and drug dealing to bank holdups and freight-cargo heists, most of these involving the murder of any possible witnesses.
By the time law enforcement brought him down, he was a kingpin in various criminal enterprises ranging from stolen-vehicle chop shops to hot-property fencing rings and racketeering. Anyone who got in his way was annihilated. Homicidal maniac would be a mild description of the charismatic and remorseless criminal with a trail of dead bodies and destroyed lives in his wake.
“How does society breed these animals?” Jax shook his head.
“You’re blaming society as a psycho-mill now?” She gazed at him coolly.
He almost responded with a quick defense of his comment, then noted the slight curve at the corners of her mouth. She was teasing him—and a goofy heart-thump startled him into openmouthed silence.
Her grin broadened. “With your years in the Marshals Service, I’d think you would have run into plenty of this type along the way. What soured you into litigator over lawman?”
“Soured?” The sudden taste on his tongue matched the word.
The churning in his gut was a toxic cocktail of grief, guilt and regret. A timely reminder of why he could not allow himself to respond to his attraction to this woman.
He sat back in his chair and looked away from those deep brown eyes. “It was either get out of law enforcement or have my own humanity eroded into oblivion. God opened the door for me to do something that daily allows me a different way to protect the most innocent from the most depraved.”
“God opened the door, or did you make a choice that required drastic action?” Again, that fine eyebrow went up, but then she waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind. I guess I used to have more of that faith stuff than I do now. Bottom line, I admire you for admitting when you needed a change and then making it happen.”
Jax bit back further remarks on faith. Who was he to talk when he sometimes wrestled with his own?
He leaned closer to Daci. “My bottom line? If this guy does try to reenter Serena’s life, we need to nab him before he can inflict any damage—either by hurting Serena or grabbing his son. Serena and Chase are so close to becoming a healthy family.”
Her mouth tightened. “If that’s going to happen, she needs to do more than stay alive and off the sauce. She’s going to have to perform an extreme makeover on her taste in men. That’s rare. I rate their chances a long shot, but I’m all for offering them the full protection of the law.”
A low rumble originating from her belly punctuated her last sentence, and a blush crept up her neck.
“Hungry?” Jax grinned.
She managed an answering smile and rubbed her middle. “Time got away from us, and my tummy noticed.”
Jax rose. “I know a place a few blocks away that serves the best clam chowder in a fresh-baked bread bowl I’ve ever tasted.”
“Sam’s Clams?”
“You’ve eaten there?”
“The day I came in for orientation. My new coworkers recommended it. Apparently, the charm of the place is an open secret around here.”
“I remember that from my marshal days.” His grin faded.
Why was he inviting Daci Marlowe to have lunch with him? It would have been just as easy to wave and walk out to each seek their own meals.
“Okay, partner, you talked me into it.” Her lighthearted words jerked him back into the moment. “A working lunch it is.”
A tight coil unwound in Jax’s belly. A working lunch. That’s all this was. He could do that.
They left the office and walked out the building’s glass doors into the warmth of a New England spring day. The sky was blue and nearly cloudless, and a breeze carried the scents of flowering landscape bushes.
Crossing the small courtyard to the sidewalk, Jax stuffed his hands into his pockets and fell into step with his companion. “Have you always lived in Springfield?”
“Moved here from Boston when I got the posting. This is my first duty day.”
“That’s why you didn’t eat breakfast this morning.”
She sent him a sharp look as they entered the crosswalk of a busy street, along with a straggling line of pedestrians. “How do you know I didn’t?”
He smirked. “First day. First assignment. Oh, yeah, I remember what that was like. Hunger was gnawing a hole in my stomach by noon, but if I had eaten breakfast before I reported for duty, I would have puked on my boss’s shoes.”
A full-throated laugh burst from Daci, and Jax’s heart tripped over itself at the husky, happy sound.
The roar of an engine and screech of tires yanked his head around. A small SUV jetted around the corner through a red light and roared straight at them.
Icy-hot sparks shot through Daci’s middle as she and Jax leaped forward. The SUV whipped past them so close the air current shoved her into a silver-haired woman ahead of her. With a shriek that blended with the startled cries of others in the crosswalk, the woman sprawled to the pavement. Heaving in long breaths, Daci squatted beside her. The silver-haired woman lay on her side, her complexion bleached, her eyes and mouth as round as eggs.
“Are you alright?”
The woman blinked up at Daci. “That car nearly ran you over. What is wrong with people today?”
Daci shook her head. “I can’t answer that, ma’am. Are you able to stand?”
“I—I don’t know.” She rubbed her elbow and attempted to sit up but subsided with a groan. “My arm hurts...and my hip.”
“Stay still.” Daci put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “We’ll get paramedics here.”
“I’ll call for an ambulance,” a deep voice said from behind her.
Daci looked up to find Jax gazing down at them. A strange buoyancy filled her chest at seeing him standing there, safe and sound, tapping on his phone to call for assistance. She glanced around to see if anyone else had been hurt. People milled in the street in various stages of wide-eyed shock. On the sidewalk, a few gawkers excitedly chattered on their cell phones. Traffic was at a standstill, though a few impatient souls were starting to honk.
Sirens began to wail in the distance as DC Reynolds and the desk clerk, Randy Lathrop, hurried out to them in the street. Daci remained beside the injured woman as her coworkers took charge and rerouted traffic until the local authorities could arrive and assume command.
Daci rose as her boss strode up to her.
“Glad to see you’re okay,” he said.
“Just a little shaken, sir.”
“See
