She took it from his hand and smiled. “Thank you, Sam. I really appreciate this.”

He nodded and headed down the stairs back to the Bentley, leaving her alone in the spacious house.

She walked through the living room to the back deck and stepped out of the sliding glass doors. The breeze caught her hair and flipped it around her head.

The gentle sounds of the waves rolling in soothed fraught nerves. She raised her shoulders then relaxed them with a great big sigh.

A lawn chair beckoned, and she couldn’t resist sinking down onto it. She propped her feet up and gazed out over the stained waters of the gulf.

Remembering she needed to call Pop and give him a better explanation than that she just wasn’t coming in, she dug around in her pocket for her cell phone and hoped she got service this far out of Galveston.

“Why are you calling on the cell?” Pop asked when he answered.

She smiled. “Because I’m not at home.”

“Everything okay? I assumed you were sick. You don’t sound sick, but you don’t sound okay either.”

“I’m fine,” she managed in a wavery voice. “I just need…I need a vacation, Pop. I hope you don’t mind me taking a few days. I know I should have planned ahead but—”

He cut her off before she could delve further into her explanation. “You don’t need to justify a vacation to me, girl,” he said gruffly. “You deserve one, and you should take it. I don’t want to see you in here for a week at least.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, though she’d already committed to doing just that.

“We’ll manage just fine around here. Coffee won’t be worth a damn, but we’ll get by.”

She laughed. “Thanks, Pop. You’re the best.”

“You just take care. You haven’t been yourself lately.”

“I love you,” she said softly.

“Love you too, girl.”

Gray left the office and tore out of the parking lot like he was heading to a fire. He needed to call Mick and tell him things had escalated and that Samuels was most assuredly in Houston or close, but first, he had to make sure Faith was okay and square things with her.

He saw her car still in the parking lot and wheeled in beside it. He rushed to her door and knocked loudly. When he got no response, he knocked again. “Faith, it’s Gray. Open the door. It’s important.”

Again he waited but got no response. Dread tightened his chest. Her car was here. Why wasn’t she answering the door?

He knocked one more time in case she was in the shower and waited several long seconds. Then he did what any other cop would do in the situation. He kicked the door in.

It flew open and hit the opposing wall with a bang. He rushed in, wishing like hell he’d brought his gun. Her apartment was dark. Not a single light was on. The only sound he could hear was the humming of the refrigerator.

He hurried through the apartment, searching each room, but came up empty. Panic surged in his stomach, leaving him with a nauseated feeling. Where the fuck was she? Had Samuels already gotten to her?

He raced back out to his truck and pulled out his cell phone. He called Mick on his way back to the office. Hopefully Pop or Connor could provide a perfectly sane reason why Faith’s car was at her apartment and she was not.

When Mick picked up, Gray quickly outlined the letter he’d intercepted. Mick’s breathing hitched up several notches.

“He’s there. I knew the son of a bitch wouldn’t be able to resist hitting the daughter up for money. This is a perfect opportunity, Gray. We can use her as bait, draw Samuels out and nail his ass to the wall.”

“Whoa, wait just a damn minute, Mick. We aren’t using Faith as bait. Use your head. She’s an innocent victim here. No way I’d place her in that kind of danger.”

“You use your damn head,” Mick growled. “She’s our best chance at nailing this bastard. You shouldn’t even think twice. You know it’s a good idea.”

Gray had to swallow the angry retort. He sucked in a breath and tried to remain calm. “Mick, you’re worked up. You need to calm down and think rationally about this. No way catching Samuels is worth putting an innocent woman in harm’s way.”

“You’re thinking with your goddamn dick,” Mick said furiously.

“I will not involve Faith in this,” Gray ground out. “I think it’s best that I go to Pop and tell him everything. Get his help. He has a daughter to protect, and we have a killer to catch. We can bring in the local authorities and do this by the book.”

A string of curses erupted over the line.

Gray gritted his teeth and counted to ten. “I’m right, and you know it, Mick. I can’t believe you’d even consider using Faith like that. You’ve lost all perspective. I think you should step away and let me handle this.”

Silence fell over the line. “No, no, you’re right of course. Do what you need to do. I’m coming down there. I can be there in five hours. I’ll call you when I get in.”

Gray started to say that it wasn’t necessary, and actually preferable if Mick stayed in Dallas, but Mick had already hung up.

Gray bit out a curse and tossed the phone onto his seat.

He’d screwed everything up. Mick was way over the line, and Gray should have seen it before. He never should have let Mick talk him into this crazy-ass scheme.

But a small voice inside his head reminded him that if Mick hadn’t asked him to come down, Faith would still be in danger. A danger that no one would know about if Gray wasn’t here. If he could just find her before Samuels did, if he hadn’t already, then he could make things right. And make damn sure she stayed safe.

When he arrived back at the office, he barreled down the hallway to Pop’s doorway. He threw open the door and met with the irritated stares of Pop, Connor and Nathan.

“Where’s Faith?” Gray demanded as he strode in.

Pop quickly pushed the speakerphone button and picked up the receiver. Then he covered the mouthpiece with his hand and glared at Gray.

“This is an important call,” Pop bit out.

Gray put his hands on Pop’s desk, ignoring Nathan and Connor, and leaned toward Pop. “Faith could be in a lot of danger. Do you know where she is?”

“I’ll have to get back to you,” Pop said right before he hung up the phone.

Connor and Nathan surged to their feet about the time Pop’s feet hit the floor.

“What are you talking about, son?” Pop demanded. “I just talked to Faith a while ago. She seemed well enough.”

Gray nearly wilted in relief. He sagged into a nearby chair and blew out his breath in a deep sigh.

“I need to know where she is.”

Connor folded his arms over his chest and stared menacingly at Gray. “I don’t see that it’s any of your business where she is, but I’d sure like to know why you think it is.”

“I want to get back to the part where you think she’s in danger,” Pop interjected.

In response, Gray pulled out the letter he’d opened and flipped it onto the table. “Careful,” he said when Pop reached for it. “That’s evidence.”

Pop scowled but carefully slid the paper out of the envelope and gingerly opened it. His frown deepened as he read, and Nathan and Connor crowded over his shoulder so they could see as well.

“What the fuck?” Nathan said.

Pop’s hand shook as he set the letter back down. “What do you know about this, and where did you get it?” he asked Gray.

Gray twisted his lips and shook his head knowing he’d have to come clean with the entire story. “Faith’s mother has been calling her and asking for money,” he said, after deciding to start with the more pertinent information. He’d get to his deception in a minute.

“Goddamn it,” Connor swore. “I knew something was bothering her.”

“But what does her mother have to do with this?” Nathan asked. “You don’t think she—”

Gray shook his head. “Celia is mixed up with a man who is suspected of murdering my partner,” he said softly.

Three sets of eyes drilled holes in his skull.

“I have a feeling I’m not going to like what I’m about to hear,” Pop said in a near growl.

“No, you probably won’t,” Gray said. “I came down here as a favor to my partner’s father. Alex, my partner, was killed in the line of duty. The investigation wasn’t going anywhere, and there was a lot of finger pointing, most of it directed at my partner.

“Mick did some poking around on his own and came up with Eric Samuels, a man who happened to have hooked up with Faith’s mom right before the murder. Then they both disappeared.”

“That doesn’t explain why you came down here,” Nathan pointed out.

Gray met Nathan’s gaze then looked back at Pop. “Mick’s investigation also turned up the fact that Celia Martin liked to lean on Faith for money when she was in dire straits.”

“That much is true,” Pop muttered. “Damn bitch. I should have known better than to think she’d get out of Faith’s life permanently.”

“So you came down here to get close to Faith, hoping Celia would turn up,” Connor said in a dangerously low tone.

Gray sucked in his breath and took the last plunge. “Mick arranged for me to get a job here through a mutual acquaintance of his and Pop’s. I bugged Faith’s office and home phone and waited for her mother to call. She actually called the first day I met Faith, but I hadn’t gotten the tap in place yet.”

“Son of a bitch,” Connor seethed. “And you didn’t think to tell us any of this?”

“You’ve been using her,” Nathan observed quietly. “I knew something weird was going on between you two. Just how close did you get to her in this little investigation of yours?”

Connor took a menacing step forward, and Pop put his arm out to halt him. “Not now, damn it. I want to hear the rest of this.”

Gray stood, meeting Connor’s unspoken challenge. “A few days after that first phone call, she called again, and I found Faith in her office extremely upset. Later, when I listened to the playback, I could hear Samuels in the background making threatening remarks to Faith’s mother. Mick gave me a report that he and Celia had been spotted in Huntsville, so we thought they might be headed this way.”

Pop bit out an uncharacteristic swear word.

“This morning I found this in the mail,” Gray said, pointing to the letter on the desk. “The bastard is here, which is why we have to find Faith and keep her safe.”

Connor clenched his fists at his side and his neck muscles bulged and flexed. “She wouldn’t be in any danger if you had been honest with us from the beginning. It’s kind of hard to protect her when we’re kept in the fucking dark.”

Pop picked up his cell phone and punched in a number with trembling fingers. He stuck the phone to his ear and stood, twitching impatiently. A few seconds later, he bit out another curse before he closed the phone and dropped it on the desk.

“I got her damn voice mail.”

“You don’t know where she is?” Gray asked incredulously.

“No, I don’t damn well know where she is. She called and said she needed a vacation. I told her to take one. I didn’t even think to ask her where she was. I didn’t think it was important at the time.” Pop sank down in his chair and rubbed a hand over his hair. “I need a minute to think, damn it.”

“Do you have any contacts with the Houston PD?” Gray asked. “We need to have Faith’s apartment watched. Maybe even set up a decoy. If Samuels is watching, he’ll likely go for her there. Faith has a set routine that she normally doesn’t deviate from.”

“Yeah, you’d know wouldn’t you,” Nathan said with a grunt.

“We could set a trap for the asshole,” Connor said. “Sounds like he’s pretty damn desperate.”

“That was my thought,” Gray said. “We need to find Faith, tell her what’s going on and stash her someplace safe.”

Pop shook his head. “No.”

Gray, Connor and Nathan all looked at him in surprise.

Pop stared back at them in turns. “I don’t want her to know about any of this.”

Gray shook his head in confusion. “How are you going to keep it from her? And why would you keep it from her? She needs to know.”

“Just give me a damn minute to think,” Pop growled. He put his forehead in his hands and looked down for a long moment.

“I’ve got a plan,” Gray said slowly, his brow furrowing as he gave more thought to the idea forming in his head.

“Maybe you should let us handle this,” Connor said acidly. “I’m not too crazy about your plans so far.”

Pop held up his hand. “I’m not too happy about any of this myself, but right now, the most important thing is making sure Faith is safe. Everything else can wait.”