Perilous Waters. Sandra Orchard
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his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for hers. “C’mon and hang out with my family today. It’ll take your mind off...last night.”
“I can’t even remember last night.” She blinked rapidly as if staving off tears. “That’s what scares me more than anything. Imagine what could have happened and I wouldn’t have even known.”
Yeah, that’s all he’d been doing all night. “Hey.” Despite his good intentions, he grazed his knuckles along her jawline. “We’ve got your back. Don’t let this creep spoil your holiday, okay?”
Her eyes met his, appreciation brimming in their sparkling ocean depths. “You’re right. Thank you. I’d love to meet the rest of your family.”
Perfect. Maybe this assignment would be a cakewalk after all. If she was willing to hang out with them for the whole cruise and Jake sweet-talked her sister into joining them, he might not have to tail her on their Skagway excursion. She might invite them along.
He led the way to the game room, which was on the same deck as their rooms. Mom, Dad, Jake and Tommy sat near the windows at a large round oak table covered with dominoes.
Mom and Dad rose together and Mom clasped Jen’s hands. “How are you feeling? We’ve been praying for you ever since we learned what happened.”
“Thank you.” Jen blinked again, her bottom lip quivering.
Sam wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “She’s fine, Mom.” The instant the words left his mouth, he wished he’d stayed the instinct to rescue Jen from his mother’s inquisition.
Mom’s gaze skittered from his arm on Jen’s shoulder to his face, and a not-good pleasure lit her eyes.
He resisted the instinct to jerk his arm back to his side.
Dad extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Jen. I’m Sam’s dad, Will Steele.” He smiled at Mom as she loosened her hold on Jen. “My wife, Anne.”
Jen’s forehead furrowed. “Steele? I thought...” She turned to Sam. “Didn’t you say your last name was Tate?”
Dad’s mouth flattened into a grim line. His parents knew better than to blow his cover, but the disappointment in Mom’s eyes made him feel lower than dirt. This was supposed to be a special vacation. Not a job. The thought was written all over Mom’s face.
Jake laughed. “He’s always doing that. Doesn’t think a woman will believe him if he tells her he’s Sam Steele.” Jake’s foot pushed a chair into Sam’s gut, letting him know he wasn’t happy about what he’d just done for him.
Oh, yeah, he’d owe his brother big-time for his quick thinking.
Mom and Dad regained their seats, looking relieved by Jake’s save.
Jen laughed. “Are you serious? People tease you about being a hard-boiled detective?”
“That was Sam Spade.” Sam held out a chair for her. “But yeah, it’s happened.” To his parents he said, “Jen and her sister own the Robbins Art Gallery,” hoping they’d assume he’d called himself Tate out of habit. He might do most of his undercover work on the East Coast, but the art world was too small to take chances.
“O-o-h.” Mom patted Jen’s hand. “I’m so sorry about your parents. I remember reading about their accident in the papers. You were much too young to lose them.”
“Yes,” Jen’s voice cracked.
Sam steeled himself against a rush of sympathy he couldn’t afford.
Tommy pressed a picture into her hands of a family waving from a boat with a bright yellow sun shining in the sky. “I drew this for you. To feel better.”
Jennifer looked at the crayon drawing as if it were the most valuable piece of art she’d ever seen. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” She pulled Tommy into a warm hug.
His nephew beamed under her attention.
Sam bumped his shoulder. “Good job, Bud.”
Tommy slapped the table, sending the dominoes jumping. “Play it again, Sam?”
Jen smothered a giggle with her hand, her eyes twinkling, which got Mom started over Tommy’s unintended Humphrey Bogart impersonation.
“See what I have to put up with?” Sam said.
Mom ribbed his arm. “Oh, you’re so hard done by.”
They flipped over all the dominoes and started a new game. Jen wasn’t competitive at all. In fact, she seemed to go out of her way to set out pieces Tommy could use.
“Hey, if I draw you a pretty picture, will you help me, too?” Sam begged after Tommy laid a double combo, winning the game.
“Maybe.” She flashed him an eye-twinkling grin, clearly enjoying the simple pleasure of playing a game with his family. Not something he would have expected.
Mom turned the played pieces over, mixing them for a new game. “You’re just out of practice. You need to get home more often.”
“You don’t live in the Seattle area?” Jen asked.
Did he imagine the hint of disappointment? He shook his head. She was a suspect. Their “relationship” wasn’t going anywhere. “No, Boston.”
“What do you do?”
Cringing at his family’s collective breath, he said, “I’m in security.” Experience had taught him to stick as close to the truth as possible, and given Jen’s current trouble, he suspected she’d be more apt to trust someone in security than the art broker he usually posed as. “I’ve actually done a lot of work with art galleries.”
“Look at the time,” his mother jumped in. “That Iditarod racer is giving a slide presentation in ten minutes. I really wanted to hear that.”
Jake started gathering dominoes. “Oh, yeah, about her sled dogs. You wanted to see that, didn’t you, Tommy?”
“Yeah!” Tommy eagerly joined the cleanup, as Sam’s dad sat back looking amused by his family’s theatrics. A veteran police officer and sheriff, Dad likely hadn’t doubted Sam could handle Jen’s question. Not that Sam didn’t appreciate his family’s efforts to cover his back, except...more than once he’d infiltrated networks that wouldn’t have just sliced his throat if they’d figured out he was an undercover cop; they’d have killed his family, too.
Another reason he preferred working on the opposite side of the country.
“Are you interested in seeing the presentation?” he asked Jennifer.
“Oh, yes, I think my sister mentioned that, too. I should leave a note in our room to let her know where I’ll be.”
“We’ll save you seats,” Mom chirped as they headed out.
“Beside me,” Tommy squealed.
Sam couldn’t blame his family for taking such a shine to her. But it was the gleam in his mother’s eye that had him worried. That and Jen’s wistful tone when she whispered close to his ear, “Your family’s great.”
They were. But they might not think the same about him after her arrest.
* * *
Leaving Sam in the hall, Jen crossed her cabin to the desk to jot a quick note for Cass. A smile tugged at her lips. Years ago, before the art gallery, she, Cass and their parents could while away an entire rainy afternoon playing games. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to cross paths with Sam and his family.
A breeze whispered through her hair.
Jen’s attention jerked to the open balcony door—then the closed bathroom door. “Cass, you back?”
No response.
The hair on Jen’s neck prickled. Had she forgotten to close