She walked to the window and looked out at the street while she tried to figure out the relationship between the professor and J. D.

After Noah had gone through the last box, he stood and asked Street if he’d had time to get into the computer.

“I got it up and running, but I can’t get into any of the files. He’s blocked access. We’ll have to take it with us and get one of our techs to work on it. That will take a big chunk of time.”

Noah smiled. “Maybe not.” He turned toward the window. “Jordan, would you mind breaking into a computer for us?”

She looked over her shoulder. “Be happy to,” she said, thankful she could be of use. “It wouldn’t happen to be a laptop, would it?” she couldn’t resist asking.

“Sugar, didn’t we talk about letting that go?”

She smiled. “Just asking.”

“You really think you can do it?” Street asked.

“I really do.”

She followed Noah into the den. The computer was a new model, and Jordan was impressed. Carrie had told her the prison had offered her computer classes, but she hadn’t been interested. Maybe J. D.’s place of incarceration had offered him the same training. And if it had, it looked like he had paid attention.

Noah pulled a chair up to the keyboard for her. “Go to it.”

It only took a second for her to pull up J. D.’s files. Opening them would take longer.

“Call me when you’re in,” Noah said.

He went back into the living room with Chaddick. Street stayed behind and watched Jordan’s fingers fly over the keys. Symbols and numbers filled up the screen. He didn’t know what she was doing, but she did, and that was all that mattered.

Jordan lost track of time as she concentrated on the computer screen and the task at hand. Finally, she broke through.

“I’m in!” she called out.

A folder opened just as Noah put his hands on her shoulders. “What have you got?”

“A list,” she answered. She leaned closer to the screen. “He kept records.”

Standing, Jordan moved out of the way so that Street could sit. Her back was stiff, and she noticed it was getting dark outside. How long had she been sitting there? She arched backward to stretch.

Chaddick leaned against the side of the desk. “Does it tell us anything?”

“I’d say so,” Street replied. “I’ve got first names only, no dates but days of the week, offenses, payoffs, and some locations.” He began to laugh. “I’m telling you, if all these people live in Serenity, this town’s a real hotbed of activity.”

“Who’s on the list?” Noah asked.

“I’ve got a Charlene paying four hundred dollars on a Friday at an insurance office.”

“Charlene? Why did she pay J. D. four hundred dollars?” Jordan asked.

Street grinned. “He had a video of her shacking up.”

“With her fiancé?”

All three agents looked at her, and she realized how stupid her question was. If Charlene had been sleeping with her fiancé, J. D. wouldn’t have been blackmailing her.

“Okay, I’m tired,” she said. “She was cheating on her fiancé.” Suddenly Jordan was full of outrage. “I gave that woman china! Vera Wang!”

Chaddick looked back at the screen. “She’s been paying for a while.”

“She’s been shacking up for a while,” Street added. “Guess she didn’t mind paying.”

“Who was she sleeping with?” Jordan asked. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Yes, I do. Who was it?”

“A guy named Kyle—”

Her hand flew to her throat. “Not Kyle Heffermint!”

Noah thought Jordan’s reaction was hilarious. He went to her and put his arm around her. “He’s the name-dropper, isn’t he? And he was hitting on you.”

“He’s the one,” she affirmed.

“There’s a Steve N. here,” Street continued.

“Could be Steve Nelson,” Noah said. “I met him at the restaurant. He runs the insurance agency.”

“He’s Charlene’s boss,” Jordan told him.

Street grinned. “That’s not all he is.”

“Oh, dear God, she wasn’t sleeping with Steve too, was she? No, I don’t believe it.”

“Want to watch the video?”

“Oh, my God, she was. And Steve’s married.”

“Yes,” Noah said drily, “which is why he’d pay blackmail to keep his affair secret.”

“I’m printing this out,” Street said, moving the mouse on the pad. “I’ll make two copies. You take one, Noah.”

“I’ll tell you this. Before I leave Serenity, I want to meet this Charlene,” Chaddick said.

Noah heard a car pull up outside. He went to the living room and looked out the front window. “Tech crew’s here now.”

“Good,” Street said. “They can box all this stuff up.” He went to the printer, sorted the copies, and handed a set to Noah.

“We’re taking off early in the morning,” Noah told him. “If you need anything, just let me know. And please keep me apprised.”

Jordan was more than ready to leave J. D. Dickey’s house. Once they were on the road, she said, “You think you know someone, and then you find out she’s a sex maniac.”

“But you didn’t really know Charlene, did you? You’d only just met her,” Noah countered.

“That’s true. But it’s still disheartening.”

“Unless you can think of another restaurant, I guess we’re going back to Jaffee’s. Okay with you?”

“Depends,” she said. “Is he on the list?”

He laughed. “You want to look?”

“You do it.”

Noah pulled over to the curb, put the car in park and quickly went through the list. He saw Amelia Ann’s name and wondered how Jordan would react if she knew.

“No Jaffee,” he said.

She sighed. “Good.”

Noah thought about the long day he’d put her through. “You’re a real trouper, you know that?” He looked at her for a long second, then reached over and cupped the back of her neck with his hand, and pulled her toward him.

“What…?” she began.

His mouth settled firmly on hers. She hadn’t expected his kiss, yet she instinctively parted her lips for his tongue. He took full advantage, and the kiss deepened. Noah didn’t do anything half measure. The kiss didn’t last long, but it was thorough. When he sat back, her heart was pounding. Falling against the seat, she tried to catch her breath.

Noah didn’t look like he was having any trouble catching his breath. He put the car in drive and continued on.

“I’m in the mood for fish,” he said. “And a cold beer.”

No mention about the kiss, no thank-you or even a “wasn’t that nice?” comment.

Noah glanced over. “Something wrong?” he asked, knowing full well there was. She glared at him. “You look a little irritated.”

Ya think? “No, nothing’s wrong.”

“Okay then.”

“I was just wondering how you can be so laid-back…you know, blasé.”

“Laid-back and blasé are two different things.”

“Then you’re both. You just kissed me.” There, she’d said it, and it was out there for discussion.

“Mmm, sure did.”

“That’s it? ‘Sure did’?”

She’d sounded so furious, he smiled. Jordan was something when she was wound up.

“What did you want me to say?”

He had to be kidding. He knew exactly what she wanted him to say. That the kiss meant something. It was a big deal. But apparently it wasn’t. He’d kissed a lot of women. What was this to him: same old, same old?

She thought about reminding him of the wild time they’d had the night before. She could also point out that this morning he had acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She knew that if he responded by asking her what she wanted him to say, she might very well pull a J. D. and punch him senseless.

She bet he’d remember that.

Even though, at the moment, it was a lovely fantasy, violence was never the answer.

They stopped at a red light and Noah looked over. “Now what are you thinking about, Sugar? You’ve got a perplexed look on your face.”

“Violence,” she immediately answered. “I was thinking about violence.”

He swore he never knew what she was going to say. “What about it?”

“It’s never the answer. That’s what my father and mother taught Sidney and me.”

“And your brothers?”

“They were usually trying to pummel one another into the ground. I think that’s why they all did so well in sports. They got to pound other teams.”

“So how did you get rid of your aggressive tendencies?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“I broke things.”

“Oh yeah?”

“It wasn’t vandalism,” she explained. “I broke things so I could put them back together. It was a…learning experience.”

“You must have driven your parents nuts.”

“Probably,” she agreed. “They were patient with me though, and after a while they got used to it.”

“What are some of the things you broke?”

“You have to remember, I was a kid, so of course I started small. A toaster, an old fan, a lawn mower…”

“Lawn mower?”

She smiled. “That’s still a sore subject with my father. He came home from work early one afternoon and found all the parts of his lawn mower, down to the nuts and bolts, spread out on the drive. He wasn’t happy.”

Noah was having a hard time picturing her with grease on her face and hands, screwing things together. Jordan was so feminine now. He couldn’t imagine it.

“Did you get the lawn mower back together?”

“With my brothers’ help, which, by the way, I didn’t need. The next week my father brought home an old, broken computer. He told me I could have it, but I had to promise I wouldn’t touch any more appliances, lawn mowers, or cars.”

“Cars?”

“I never worked on one of those. Not interested. And once I got a computer…”

“You found your calling.”

“I guess I did. What about you? What were you like as a little boy? Were you packing a gun back then?”

“Ornery,” he answered. “I got into my share of fights, I suppose, but we lived in Texas,” he reminded her, “and that meant playing football in high school. I did all right and ended up getting an athletic scholarship to college. All through school I was always a model student.” Even he couldn’t say the lie with a straight face. “I didn’t like rules back then.”

“And you don’t like rules now.”

“I guess I don’t.”

“You’re a rebel,” she said.

“That’s what Doctor Morganstern calls me.”

“May I ask you something?”

He pulled the car into the parking lot behind the Home Away from Home Motel’s courtyard. “Sure. What do you want to know?”

“Have you ever been in a relationship that lasted more than a week or two? Have you really ever committed to one woman, even for a little while?”

He didn’t waste a second thinking over his response. “No.”

If the abruptness in his answer and his emphatic tone were an attempt to get her to drop the subject, he was mistaken.

“Goodness. Aren’t you Mister Sensitive.”

He parked and opened the door. “Sugar, there’s not a sensitive bone in my body.”

He was wrong about that, but she wasn’t going to argue.

“What about you?” he asked. “You ever been in a long relationship?”

Before she could answer, he came around and opened her door. Taking Jordan’s hand, Noah walked toward the street. The lot was dimly lit by a lamp at the far end, and the only sound was the night settling in around them.

He stopped for a moment and stared into her eyes. “I know what you’re all about, Jordan Buchanan.”

“And would you care to explain it all to me?”

“No.”

And the subject was closed.

Chapter Thirty

“I’M TELLING YOU RIGHT NOW, IF JAFFEE’S BISTRO IS CROWDED, I’M going in the back door and eating in the kitchen.”

Noah asked the obvious question. “Why?”

Jordan looked at him as if the answer should be obvious. “I don’t want to go through another inquisition. And I certainly don’t want people glaring at me while I eat. It’s bad for the digestion.”

“People are curious, that’s all,” he reasoned. “Face it, Sugar. You’re news.”

“Oh, I’m news all right,” she said. “Since I arrived here three people have died. If you consider the number of times I’ve been here, the number of residents, and the number of unexpected deaths, and then leave room for a statistical anomaly…”

“Which I’m guessing would be you.”

“That’s right. I’m the deviation in my calculations.”

“Of course you are,” he said drily.

“You can, therefore, draw one conclusion.”

“Which is?”

“I’ve started an epidemic.”

He put his arm around her and pulled her toward him. “That’s my girl,” he drawled.

“This isn’t funny.”

“Sugar, it kinda is.”

She sighed. She couldn’t believe how quickly she became rattled these days. “Okay, maybe I’m being a little unreasonable, which, by the way, is totally not me. I’m always reasonable. But here…I can’t seem to think straight.” Especially when I’m around you, she silently added.

They walked around a corner and crossed the street. Jaffee’s was directly ahead of them, and Jordan could see a few customers inside, but most of the tables were empty.

“We get in, we eat, we get out. Agreed?”

“That sounds like a wonderful dining experience. Can we sit at a table, or must we stand while we eat?” he asked as he swung the door open.