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ever again."
    "So you came home to Rawlings?"
    "Not right away. The thing about working in the government is that it's basically a massive corporation with a corporation mentality. The thing about working in the CIA is that what they did to me was a corporate mentality screw-up, and initially they were trying to drop the blame on me to protect their big-time bonuses. I wasn't having any part of it. The decision to leave me out there stranded on my own was a calculated decision by one desk jockey in a position of power who had never worked in the field. A dead agent would have solved his problem. I didn't die, but two innocents did, and I was pissed. Someone was going to pay for his decision. The higher-ups closed ranks to protect him, but a court order to release taped phone calls, and e-mails changed their tunes real fast."
    "You took them down," Jack said with admiration in his voice.
    "Not exactly," Josie said. "I wanted to, I intended to, but I'm not an idiot. When something goes that wrong, and you're on the inside of it, you feel powerless to fight back. Suddenly, with several millions of dollars backing me up, I didn't feel so defenseless. I quit my job and got myself a very shrewd lawyer.
    "I didn't want to play their game, but I wasn't about to let them throw me to the dogs either. Ultimately, my lawyer was better at playing their games than they were. Three idiots lost their jobs, and at least I know that their bad decisions won't put any more agents at risk. I got a nice retirement fund out of it, and they even paid my lawyer fees which I must say would have been costly but well worth it. The Agency got to play the good guys in the press after I signed about three million affidavits promising not to be a whistle blower and rat them out to the press along with their promises to protect my record of employment. I refused the last commendation they offered me. I felt like they offered it as part of the payoff, not because I earned it, which I did.
    "After all that, I needed a breath of fresh air and I took a trip. I visited England, Ireland and Scotland, and roamed around Europe for a while. There's a lot over there to enjoy. Each country has something special and unique, but I was a visitor—a tourist, and I didn't belong there. I did enjoy backpacking, staying in little hostels, catching busses and trains. I even booked myself onto a fancy cruise ship that visited a lot of islands. But I very quickly realized I didn't fit on that cruise. I guess I wasn't meant to live a rich and pampered lifestyle. I left the ship in mid-cruise, and I realized that I didn't need or want a rich lifestyle. Instead, I needed real, honest, hard-working, normal people in my life.
    "You can't get any more real than Rawlings. I had a house here, but Uncle Mason's Trust, which had been paying the taxes for all those years, was about gone. I had to make a decision to get rid of the place and move on, or move in and make something out of it and stick. I decided to stick. By the way, neither my lottery win nor my legal settlement is public knowledge. If I didn't trust you not to spread it around I wouldn't have told you about it. If someone wants to dig deep enough, they will find the information, but it's no one's business."
    "No one has questioned where you came up with a chunk of money?" Jack asked.
    Josie shook her head and shrugged. "It's not all in one place. The rumor is that I was married and fleeced my ex-husband in the divorce settlement."
    "Doesn't that bother you?"
    "Not really. It's a small town, Jack. Some people are never going to change their minds about me and will always think the worst. I know what I've accomplished. My record speaks for itself, and that's enough for me."
    "I never changed my mind about you," Jack said thoughtfully. "I always thought you were a plucky little kid that needed a keeper. You're still plucky, but now I have to upgrade my mental list to add beautiful, smart and tough."

Chapter 2
    Jack left the