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"It’s not quite that bad, though I do have to adavehim, so he picked up Taylor and headed their way

"Taylor likes hin Is it serious?" asked Jenny

"Dead serious"

Caleb split his attention between Lana’s art lesson and Kara He didn’t trust the wo him more suspicious

He phoned Monroe and had hi out of the ordinary Her record was clean other than a single speeding ticket

Stil, so was off Caleb moved to a quiet corner and dialed Grant "Got any men to spare for surveilance duty?" he asked

"Sure Lana?"

"No Another wo," said Grant

"This is serious"

"Okay, okay Give ave him Kara’s car round check "Keep an eye on her?"

"I’roup

The finger painting went on in iant sheets of paper They were cute wearing too-largeover their sirl in particular caught Caleb’s eye Her long braided pigtails reminded him of his sister, Hannah, when she was five

She had a s in concentration as she tried to place one more perfect petal on her flower

Lana crouched down beside the girl and said soirl listened carefuly, as if Lana was teling her the secret of life A minute later, Lana produced a paintbrush froirl The little girl’s eyes brightened, and she took the brush as if it were a delicate instruuided her hand over the paper, and after a irl’s smile ide as Lana left her with the new toy and came to stand beside hiers," said Lana, grinning as she watched the girl

"I see A Picasso in training"

Lana wrinkled her nose "I see more Monet than Picasso in her"

Caleb felt a smile stretch his ed "It’s easy to love soives you a fun place to play"

"It’s more than that"

"Yes, but they don’t need to know that Not at this age Just let them play"

Caleb watched as Tina carefuly dipped the brush in green paint and went after the leaves of her floith the same intense concentration she did the petals "Tina looks "

Lana’s ful h Her dad’s in prison She spent the first several years of her life in the room next to the one where her mom turned tricks tothat to a child, and he was torn between anger at Tina’s mother and syht she had no choice "And now?"

Lana sighed "Her mom is stil a prostitute, but at least Tina doesn’t have to listen"

"That’s so myself I can’t fix al the world’s probleet to keep doing it"

Caleb’s arood there, and he was getting way too faainst his "We’l find a way to make the auction happen"

"I don’t kno I can’t find any hotel wiling to rent us space for what I can pay"

"So why not use this place? It’s big enough to hold a crowd, and there’s that giant basebal field outside"

"This place isn’t swanky enough for the kind of croe’l be puling in"

"So pul in a different crowd Aim to attract the middle class rather than the rich folks"

"But I need the rich folks and al their nice money," said Lana

"You can earn just as er crowd of not-so-rich people"

"But how do I do that? I’enius, nothat’s ever worked for me in the past"

"What about a carnival instead of an art auction? You ht even be able to draw in "

"I wouldn’t know the first thing about setting up a carnival"

"It just so happens that my buddy Grant and I do We’ve helped with two carnivals for the fa hits" They hadn’t been large carnivals, but she didn’t need to know that He was sure he could pul this off

"I don’t have the money to rent rides and I’m not entirely convinced they’re safe, anyway"

"No rides, then Just soames and plenty of junk food"

She looked up at hi like that could earn money?"

"I know it can If you want, have the art auction be part of the event Not everyone who’s rich is too snobby to show up just because it’s not a nice banquet roo on her Those blue eyes sparkled as excitement took over the fear that seemed to lurk constantly under the surface

"Okay, we’l try it"