Dark Legacy by Jen Talty (best non fiction books to read .TXT) 📕

on your friend.” He downed his coffee in one gulp. “I’ll text you contact information for a buddy of mine. I send him a lot of cases like this. He’s good, and he’ll be discreet. I’m really sorry, but it would be like asking you to perform brain surgery just because you have a PhD. It’s not your specialty.”

She opened her mouth and snapped it shut three times. His specialty was finding people. Said so right on his business card that he’d given her when they first met. She had half a mind to call him on his bullshit, but the sudden screeching of tires spinning on the pavement of the road above caught her attention.

A van nearly missed a vehicle at a standstill at the top of their driveway.

“Stupid place to park a car.” Jackson flipped his mug, tossing the last few drops of the liquid to the grass. “Do you happen to know the owner of that vehicle?”

She stared at a light blue sedan. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “But the first cabin on the hill isn’t rented this year, that I know of. Maybe it’s someone looking into it.”

“Third morning in a row that I’ve noticed. But it’s never there before I go to bed at night.”

“Do you think it’s something we should be worried about?” she asked.

“I’m probably being paranoid. I should really get going.” He tipped his hat.

“I’ll see you tonight at nine.”

“I know you’ve got plans with family, so take your time. We can do drinks another night.”

“Are you canceling on me because I had a baby when I was a young girl and gave her up?” She drew her lips into a tight line, breathing in through her nose and exhaling with purpose. It wouldn’t be the first time a man had taken offense to her choice.

Or maybe it was because she’d had sex at such a young age. Imagine if he knew the truth. That would blow his mind into a million tiny pieces.

“It’s not that. I just think with it being the anniversary of your father’s death and being around your family, it might be best if we do it another night.”

“I don’t need you to think for me.” She shoved the mug at his chest. “Thanks for the coffee.” She turned on her heel and stomped into her house, slamming the door.

She didn’t need Jackson to find her daughter.

She didn’t need him to have a drink with her.

Hell, she didn’t need him one damn bit.

Her phone buzzed.

She glanced at her mother’s name flashing across the screen. “Sorry, Mom, I’m not dealing with your drama today.”

Jackson took off his sunglasses, slipped them into his front pocket, and stared across the parking lot at the local bank in the middle of Saratoga Springs, about twenty-five minutes south of the village of Lake George.

He shouldn’t have been so harsh with his response to Shannon’s request. He certainly could have declined in a way that didn’t make him come off like a judgmental asshole. He respected the fact that she’d been brave enough to have a child at sixteen and give it up for adoption.

That had been the only good thing his birth mother had done, and he wished she’d left well enough alone.

“You look constipated. And whenever you scrunch your forehead like that, something is bothering you.” Katie said. “Now, lay it on me.”

“I just have a lot on my mind. Don’t forget to send the check to the painters. They really did a great job.”

“You’re such a girl,” Katie said. “Your smooth, chocolate-whatever paint isn’t going to act as some kind of truth serum, so our clients tell us why they really hired us. We don’t need to be their therapist, and we certainly don’t need to know all the sorted details of their lives. We just need the work, and we’re the best at finding things.”

“We are. And it was my sister who picked out the color. You have to admit, the office looks so much better.”

“And that’s necessary because we spend so much time there,” she said with all the snark she was notorious for. Katie tended to hide behind angst. He’d gotten used to it and found it endearing, but it didn’t have that effect on most people.

“Hey. When we aren’t on a stakeout, we might as well enjoy our surroundings.”

“Whatever makes you happy,” she said.

He did his best to keep his mind on the task at hand and not how he needed to apologize to Shannon.

Or how he wanted to kiss her.

And not just once.

And not only on the lips.

Shannon had been driving him crazy for months. And while she always politely declined his advances, she continued to passively flirt—if there was such a thing. She’d give him a slight smile with a wave, and if he looked close enough, he could see a mischievous twinkle in her eye. A few times, when the temperatures rose above fifty, regardless of the season, they shared in-depth conversations about topics in the news. She had to be one of the most insightful women he’d ever met. Every morning, he checked the weather, hoping it was warm enough so he might be able to catch her hanging outside, sipping her coffee. He couldn’t imagine a better way to start his day.

Katie thumbed through the file they had compiled this morning. “According to our client, Miss Belinda Montgomery should be in the bank.”

“But she’s not.” Jackson pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket with the license plate of the sedan that had been parked by his house and set it on the dashboard. “Don’t you think it’s weird that someone hired us to find this girl yesterday evening, and then this morning, my neighbor asked me to check in on her?”

“What did you tell the pretty doctor?”

“Nothing, just that I’d check up on her friend.”

“No such thing as coincidences.” Katie tilted her head. “Is Belinda Dr. Brendel’s patient?”

“She didn’t say. But I’d say that’s