Flood Zone. Dana Mentink

she messaged both Dallas and Mia. How coincidental was it that her house burned down and she lost her life on the very same night Mia spotted some mystery woman fleeing the scene? Very coincidental, and Dallas Black did not believe in coincidence any more than he believed that Elvis still strolled planet Earth.

      He walked Mia to her front door and waited while she stepped into the tiny front room.

      Four-year-old Gracie came flying down the hall, short bob of hair bouncing around her, eyes alight with pleasure at the sight of him. They’d encountered each other many times at Cora’s house while he was on the roof and she was digging holes around the property. When rain interrupted the roofing, they built card houses together, impressed with their creations until Juno knocked them over with a jerk of his tail.

      “Did you come to play?” She took in his appearance and laughed. “You need a shower, Mr. Dallas.”

      He laughed, too, and Mia tried to draw Gracie away.

      “Can he come in for a snack?” the child asked. “I’ve got Goldfish.”

      Dallas got down on one knee. “You eat goldfish? Don’t the fins get stuck in your teeth?”

      She giggled. “They’re cracker fish. Juno will like them.”

      “Juno can’t have Goldfish tonight, but we’ll come another time.”

      She frowned. “Okay, but what if I don’t have Goldfish then? Mommy eats them sometimes when I’m asleep and she’s off her diet.”

      Mia’s face flushed, and Dallas hid a grin.

      “Tell you what, Goldfish girl. Next time I come with Juno, I’ll bring some Goldfish along. How’s that?”

      She nodded, finally trotting off into the kitchen.

      “You don’t have to make good on that promise,” Mia whispered as she let Dallas out. “As a matter of fact, I’d rather you didn’t promise her things at all. I know you’d never mean to disappoint, but Gracie’s been let down in a big way by her father.”

      “No sweat,” he said. Something flickered in her face, something thoughtful. “You’re not planning to go to the clinic, right?”

      Mia jerked. “How did you know I was thinking about that?”

      “Call it a knack. Don’t go there by yourself, just in case whatever she was looking into has something to do with the fire.”

      She stayed silent.

      “If you do have to go, I’ll go with you.”

      She offered a courteous smile. “Thanks, Dallas. I appreciate it.”

      But you’ll never allow it. He understood. He recognized the shadows that danced in her eyes for what they were. Fear. A desperate, ponderous weight of fear that she did not want to expose to anyone. Who would? He’d known that, tasted that when he was being beaten within an inch of his life during his gang days. That fear was hideous and bred on itself, multiplying exponentially the longer it was kept in the dark, like a poisonous fungus. He wished he could tell her. There is only one antidote, One who could defeat that fear. Instead, he remained silent until he heard the sound of the lock turning.

      Juno and Dallas made one more stop on the way home, purchasing a bone for Juno and a handful of hot peppers for himself. With some help from the store clerk, he also secured five bags of Goldfish crackers, which he stowed in the back of his truck. Who knew Goldfish came in so many flavors? Dallas smiled to himself. Gracie knew, and that was enough.

      TWO

      The parking lot was empty, quiet, save for the patter of a cold rain and the scuff of Mia’s shoes as she made her way to the darkened clinic hours later. She was grateful that Tina offered to stay late. It was almost eight by the time Mia embarked on her mission. She knew she should have called Dallas, but the only thing that scared her more than what had happened to Cora was the thought of losing herself to another man who would betray her and Gracie. She realized her hands were in her pockets, hidden away, a habit she’d developed after she’d stabbed her husband.

      The horror lapped at her afresh. Her own hands had lashed out with that knife, powered by terror that Hector would kill her and take Gracie away into his corrupt world. She would never have done it, but she believed, heart and soul, that Hector meant to end her life. After Mia’s arrest, she’d endured six months of jail time, knowing Gracie was with Hector, near people both ruthless and greed-driven, the worst being her own husband. After her release, she’d fled with Gracie, unaware that Hector would soon concoct a plot to outwit his enemies that involved kidnapping her sister, Antonia. While her sister fought for her life on a hurricane-ravaged island, Mia hid out like a frightened rabbit.

      Sometimes her mind told her it was a dream, a nightmare, but she still remembered the feel of that knife in her hand and how her life had almost ended because she trusted the wrong man in spite of her father’s warnings, Antonia’s pleadings. In spite of her own troubled intuition.

      Never again. Better to go it alone. A quick stop at the clinic. See if by chance Cora had left anything there that might be of help. In and out. Something wheeled along by her feet, and she gasped. Just a leaf, torn loose by the storm.

      She bit back a wave of self-disgust at finding herself scuttling along, cringing at every leaf. She was an office clerk at the Spanish Canyon Clinic after all, and Cora was, had been, a volunteer. All perfectly aboveboard. But why had Cora originally insisted they wait until long after closing time to meet?

      Her throat ached when she thought of her friend. Had she suffered? Had she known her house was burning around her?

      Quickening her pace she sought shelter from the spring rain under the awning, keys ready in her hand, heart beating a little too hard, too erratically. Cora’s nightmarish death came on a date that already held terrible memories, her wedding anniversary.

      An annual reminder of the worst mistake of her life. But Hector had been so gentle when they’d first met, even professing to be a Christian, until he’d begun to worship another kind of God, the god of money, power and excitement, when he’d gotten involved in the drug trade. It was long over. Hector was jailed on new charges, the divorce finalized two years before, but Hector did not want to accept his losses, so she lived as anonymous a life as she could manage.

      With teeth gritted, she wondered—Had Hector found her again?

      His reach hadn’t extended to Spanish Canyon, Colorado. Not this time.

      Wind carried a cold spray of rain onto her face that trickled down the back of her neck. She wished there was someone else around, the janitor, a late working nurse, anyone. They might be parked in the underground garage, she thought hopefully. With a surge of relief she saw the lights on in the back of the building where she and Cora shared a desk.

      Jamming her key in the lock, she left the rain behind and headed down the silent corridor to the rear of the building. She did not know what she hoped to accomplish. Maybe it was all just a way to keep busy.

      Cora’s desk was bare, save for a paperweight rock engraved with the words Be Still. An impossible task, it seemed, for the nearly eighty-year-old woman who had recently decided to learn Italian and tour Europe. Her eyes were drawn to her own desk. Shadows must be deceiving. Silhouetted in the lamplight was a vase full of long-stemmed roses. Trancelike, she moved closer and turned on her own work light. Yellow roses, which had once been her favorite. A gilt-edged card.

      I’m sorry. I love you and we can be a family again. Hector.

      Sweat beaded on her forehead. It was as if he was there, right there, standing in the shadows. Fear turned into hatred for the man who had stripped away her belief in herself.

      Hector didn’t strip it away. You handed it over, wrapped in a bow.

      The floor creaked, and she spun around with a scream.

      “I’m sorry,” Dr. Elias said with an apologetic smile.