Criminal Intent (MIRA) by Laurie Breton Read Free Book Online

past year, Jessie had come out of her shell, had blossomed and thrived.
    The credit for that belonged exclusively to Ty and Faith. It couldn’t have been easy for them, starting out married life witha teenage foster daughter. Especially when neither of them had a clue about raising kids. But they’d taken Jessie Logan to their collective bosom as though she’d been their own. Exposed to their special brand of love and discipline and nurturing, Jessie had flowered, and for that, he would be eternally grateful.
    Not that he had any right to be grateful. He had no rights to Jessie at all. Chelsea had made that abundantly clear, had reminded him as often as possible that he wasn’t the man who’d fathered her daughter. It had been the biggest bone of contention between them. With her customary tunnel vision, Chels had failed to see how much it hurt him to be reminded that another man had sired Jessie. Or maybe she’d seen, and simply hadn’t cared. Chelsea Logan had been a self-centered woman. He’d loved her in spite of it.
    But biology be damned. In every way that mattered, Jessie was his kid. Over the course of the past sixteen years, he hadn’t yet noticed any other guy stepping forward to take responsibility for her existence on this planet. After Chelsea died, he would have taken Jessie, kept her with him, if Chels hadn’t made her wishes known long before the will was even written. If anything ever happened to her, she’d told him time and again, she wanted Faith to have Jessie. End of discussion.
    “Did you have to deal with a lot of idiots today?” Jessie said now.
    It took him a minute to regroup. “Idiots?”
    She stood there in his kitchen, her long, dark hair flying every which way, and studied him with an indulgent little smile that was more adult than adolescent. “Ty’s always complaining about the idiots he has to deal with.”
    “Oh. Those idiots. Yeah, I saw a lot of those today.” Darkly, he added, “Several of ’em right in my own department.”
    Jessie’s eyes widened, and then she giggled, a sound that reduced her instantly to the barefoot ten-year-old she’d been justa day or two ago. “That I want to hear about. Supper will be ready in ten minutes. I just need to set the table. You have time to change if you want to. Then you can tell me about the idiots.”
    Supper was a low-key affair. He entertained her with stories about his day—the ones he could repeat to her—and she talked about her summer job renting videos at the Twilight. “I talked to Faith today,” she said.
    He paused, fork held aloft. “She doing okay?”
    “She’s already going stir-crazy. She said, and I quote, daytime TV is a garbage receptacle catering to nonproductive, nonthinking invertebrates. End of quote.”
    He grinned. He could imagine Faith saying something like that. What he couldn’t imagine was her spending the next six weeks flat on her back. “I take it she’s already made the acquaintance of Jerry Springer and Judge Judy.”
    “She says she’s overdosing on reruns of Unsolved Mysteries. But she’s following doctor’s orders and staying off her feet. She knows Ty will strangle her if she doesn’t.”
    He helped himself to a second slice of roast beef. “Everything okay with the babies?”
    “According to her obstetrician, everything’s fine. He just wants to play it safe.”
    After supper, Jessie cleared away the dishes, gave him a peck on the cheek, and left. It was her night off, and she and her best friend, Becca McLaughlin, were taking in the latest Harry Potter movie. Jessie was an amazing kid, a good kid. The best. She’d only been gone for ten minutes, but already the place felt cold and empty without her vibrancy to warm it. Even Buddy felt the loss. The dog lay in front of the couch, his head on his paws, sad brown eyes watching Davy’s every move.
    “She’ll be back in a few hours,” he told the dog. “I miss her already, too.” He felt foolish for talking to the