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“No, htforward sincerity—Lacey liked that

“And will you have a proble Levi over to his father?”

“Not if you tell me it’s okay to do so”

The buck stopped with her She hadn’t understood, when she’d signed on to this career, that one wrong decision on her part could get a child killed And still, there wasn’t any other job, any other life, she’d rather have

“It’s okay,” she said now But only because she knew she had enough tiet to the day care and put other plans in ation she decided differently The day was young yet

And obviously, since he’d dropped his son off on schedule as usual, Bridges wasn’t currently posing a flight risk She wanted ti before he was onto her “Just one ,” she added “For now, just until I tell you differently, please don’t say anything to anyone, other than possibly a coworker where appropriate, about your conversation with me”

“Of course not I don’t want anyone to knoas me”

Lacey understood And hung up filled with nore the heavy sadness lurking within her

Chasing down abusive parents, stopping them, was her life

And she was good at it

CHAPTER TWO

JEM WASN’T IN a great ae, his son had not yetwith frustration Or disappointment, either May in Santa Raquel ram for four-year-olds, Levi had been deterht and his little boy was sitting at the table with a partial plate of spaghetti, wearing it and a frown

“I wanna go,” Levi said, the sound that curiousJem’s heart a bite every ti when he’d been young? That unwavering? Or that damned cute? Sure didn’t feel like it

But then his upbringing had been different from Levi’s He’d been spoiled rotten, loved to distraction by both his parents and raised at ho

Not that Levi didn’t have everything he needed, as far as physical wants went Difference between hirowing up at home Tressa loved Levi every bit as much as Jem’s mother had loved him She just wasn’t the constant type