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She looked upnot to show it I had the job, and we both knew it Too easy

“Cooper Ro have you been in town?”

“Less than a week”

“And how long are you planning to stick around?”

“For a while,” I said, which was a damned lie I had a mission to accomplish—then it was home to Coeur d’Alene, because fuck this little shithole of a town “My old lady and I decided to end things I needed to get away for a while, and wanted to be soh to still see my kids”

Her eyes caught mine

“Boys or girls?”

“Boys,” I said slowly, knowing I had her “One’s ten and the other’s twelve”

“You must miss them,” she said softly Um, yeah I’d totallyto her like that

Hell, at least I was consistent

“Every day If you want et that part, I’d better leave soon”

She glanced back down at the ancient unit and nodded her head

“That’d be great How much cash do you think you’ll need?”

“Shouldn’t be tooyou a receipt”

• • •

Fixing the AC took longer than I’d expected It was nearly seven that night before I screwed the access panel back on, packed upof sweat and tar My jeans were ruined, but I’d stripped off my shirt early on, so it was okay It’d still been hot as fuck up there, but at least I’d been able to catch the occasional breeze on the roof I felt tired in a good way—not so ned “date” that night, but enough that I felt like I’d acco Sheer boredom had been the hardest part of the last couple days You can only sit in a hotel roo mind

The stairs landed in a narrow hallway outside the main shop There was a small bathrooh it looked totime I stepped inside to clean e GOOP on the way hoet this shit off

Of course, I had a feeling et was into dirty hands Not that I knew Talia Jackson all that well, but I’d seen enough of her in action over the past week to get a feel for her She was young, stupid, and had a crazy sense of entitlement, all because her brother—Marsh—was the president of the localI hated in a wohthawk Raiders