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Was he also remembering exactly how well they’d worked together by the bar, his hand sliding down her neck…What was that ?
    “You almost ate our witness.”
    She waved that away. “Details. We got answers.”
    He considered her for several long seconds. “I have a feeling partnering with you will be complicated.”
    “I’m not simple.”
    “Far from easy,” he said.
    “I’m not easy.”
    That got the corner of his mouth to lift, almost a smile. “I’ll regret this.”
    “Shake on it?”
    He eyed her outstretched hand, as he’d done at the condo.
    “What, Caidos don’t do handshakes?”
    “No.”
    She held her question about why he didn’t want to touch or, in particular, be touched.
    But he touched you. She shivered at the memory, at the need he’d seemed to feel for her.
    “Who is Tara?” he asked. “And could something that happened five months ago play into this?”
    Lyra rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know, but it sure looks like it’s connected. My twin brother, Kirin, was dating Tara’s daughter, Ellie. Tara is Dragon, but she married a Deuce, and Ellie took after her dad’s class of Crescent. Huff totally disapproved of Kirin and Ellie being together, which I thought was weird considering he married a Dragon. After Tara went missing, Pop admitted that she secretly gave him her blessing for Kirin and Ellie’s relationship…and they became clandestine friends. Once the authorities found out, Pop became the first suspect. Some people, including me, think Huff did something to her. Because there was no sign of foul play, the case went cold.”
    Archer was observing her. “There’s more. Something that bothers you.”
    “How do you know?”
    He made a vague gesture toward her. “Your facial expression.”
    Yeah, right.
    “A few days after Tara’s disappearance, Kirin, Ellie, and I were at the office in the bakery. I spotted a note tucked beneath the calendar pad on the desk. As I started to pull it out, I realized it was from Tara. Has your mind ever jumped from one possibility to another at lightning speed? No, you’ve probably never done anything impulsive in your life.” Except maybe that thing in the bar…
    “All I saw was that it was signed ‘Love, Tara.’ I panicked. What if she wrote something that looked bad? What if Pop went to prison because of a word, a phrase, and the next thing I knew I was sticking the note into the Yankee candle jar that was on the desk.”
    Unfortunately her rash action had fractured Kirin’s relationship with Ellie.
    Archer raised his eyebrows. “You burned the note?”
    “Men are convicted on circumstantial evidence all the time, even without a body. I couldn’t take a chance of some stupid note sending Pop to prison. I knew he didn’t do anything to Tara. Of course, in hindsight, I wish I’d read it. Subconsciously I must have thought that if he’d kept the note and hidden it…” She couldn’t even say it.
    “That he was in love with her.”
    Lyra nodded. “And…maybe that baby is his.” She didn’t want to think it, but damn, the possibility nipped at her.
    “I can help you go back in your mind so you can read the note.”
    “Really? Like hypnosis?”
    “Yes, only I see the scene, too.”
    “You can go into my head?”
    His mouth turned up in a half-smile. “Scary thought. For me, too.”
    His smile, gawd, it tickled her stomach and inflated her chest. “All right, I’m game.”
    “We should go…” He was surveying the surroundings and his smile disappeared. “To my place. Where are you parked?”
    “Against the curb over there. I’ll meet you at the Raphael.”
    Archer accompanied her despite her obvious send-off. He peered in the back of her Jeep, then closed her door once she’d gotten in. “Wait and follow me into the garage.”
    “I know the way.”
    “It’s not your sense of direction that concerns me.” His gaze zeroed in on something behind her. “It’s the wraiths hanging around.”

Chapter 5
    A