.

They’d never known what mood they would find their mother and father in from day to day, or what imagined slight they might have done to them. On a good day, the yelling and hitting would be minimal, but on a bad day... He pushed away those memories, preferring to focus instead on how happy this child seemed to be to see his mother.

      She walked to the door and spoke a few words with a woman—Susan Campbell, no doubt—who handed her a booster seat and a bag. She walked the boy to the car. “Ramey, I’d like you to meet Mr. Cason. He’s a friend who’s helping me with something. Can you say hello?”

      The boy grinned up at Noah, again his face open and welcoming. “Hi, Mr. Cason.”

      Noah knelt and shook the boy’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ramey. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

      “Are you going to marry my mommy?”

      “Ramey!” Her face flushed and she shushed him. “Don’t ask things like that.”

      Noah found himself grinning at such an innocent exchange. “It’s okay. Your mom and I are friends, Ramey. That’s all.”

      The boy shrugged and accepted that, then crawled into the back seat of the car as Melinda set up his booster seat and buckled him in.

      “I’m sorry,” Melinda whispered once he was secured. “He shouldn’t be asking that. He’s just not used to seeing me with a man.”

      “No problem,” he assured her. He wasn’t insulted. In fact, he liked that she didn’t parade men in front of her son. He’d been captivated by her beauty from the moment she’d glanced up at him and he’d taken in her narrow face and delicate neck framed by her long, dark hair. But it was the smile that played on her face as she watched him that he’d noticed first. She was quick to smile, and he liked that. Now his opinion of her was growing just from this small exchange. She was a good mom, and that said a lot about her in his eyes.

      He stopped that line of thinking before it got out of hand. He couldn’t go down that road with Melinda. He’d been through too much, seen too much, to ever deserve a woman like her. What would anyone want with a washed-out Navy SEAL who’d gotten his teammates killed? He was glad Nikki had befriended her. They’d always dreamed of having a normal life, and it saddened him to know she never got that fairy-tale life she’d longed for. Instead, she’d married a man just like their father, and had paid the ultimate price for it.

      Noah had buried himself in work, first as a SEAL and now as an operator for the Security Operations Abroad, acting as covert security for CIA agents in the field. If he could remain busy, he could forget what a tragedy his home life had been, and the dreams of normalcy that never came true.

      Melinda met with Chief Peterson later that evening and answered as many questions as she could about finding the backpack containing the device beneath her desk. All she knew for certain was that it hadn’t been there before she’d gone to meet her friend Robin for lunch.

      “How certain are you that it wasn’t under your desk before you left?” he asked her for what seemed like the fifth time.

      “Very certain,” she reiterated. “I told you that I dropped a pen earlier in the day and it rolled under the desk. I had to crawl under there to retrieve it. The backpack wasn’t there.”

      He jotted a note on his notepad. “What time was that?”

      “I’d been at the office for about two hours, so around 11:00 a.m. I left at noon and when I returned, I noticed my door was closed, but the latch wasn’t pulled all the way shut. Dawn usually closes and locks it if she leaves the office and I’m not there. I assumed she’d just forgotten or had been in a rush.”

      “So, Dawn was still at the office when you left it?”

      “Yes.”

      “But she was gone when you returned?”

      “That’s right.”

      He made another note then looked up at her. “Did she know where you were going or when you would return?”

      “I told her before I left that I would be back by one.” She didn’t usually have Saturdays kid-free unless she was working, so she’d taken a rare opportunity to meet her friend for an extended girls’ lunch. In fact, Robin had been persistent that Melinda take the time to meet her. At first, she’d worried her friend had bad news to share, but their lunch had been about catching up.

      “When was the last time you spoke to your assistant?”

      She was about to say right after the bombing, then she realized she’d only left a message. “My phone was damaged in the explosion so I borrowed a phone and left her a voice mail telling her what had happened.”

      “But you haven’t spoken to her since you left the office at eleven?”

      “That’s right. I thought she might call me on my house phone, but I haven’t been there for much time since it happened.”

      “How did she seem when you left her? Was she nervous? Anxious? Oddly quiet?”

      She saw where this line of questioning was going, and she didn’t like it one bit. Dawn was a sweet young woman with a bright future ahead of her. Plus, she’d been a great assistant and a friend. Melinda trusted her with her most sensitive materials. “She was fine. Her normal self.”

      “How often do you make her work on the weekends?”

      “When we have a big case coming up. The city won’t pay for extra help, but Dawn likes the overtime and they will approve that. Are you suggesting she was the one who placed the bomb in my office?”

      “Do you believe she’s capable of something like that?”

      “Absolutely not. Why would she do something that might put her out of a job?” She couldn’t believe they were trying to pin this on Dawn when there was a more likely suspect out there. “Why on earth would you suspect her?”

      “Calm down, Melinda. We’re not accusing anyone yet, only asking questions. We’re also looking at other suspects, such as people you’ve sent to prison. I have someone tracking down everyone you’ve prosecuted who was recently released. Do you have any enemies that you know of?”

      She shifted in her chair, but hesitated in mentioning Sean. Everyone in town didn’t need to know her business. Besides, he was dead and had been for years. “None that I can think of,” she stated.

      “What about from before you came to Daytonville? Any old boyfriends who might have a grudge against you?”

      She shook her head. There had been no one since Sean. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t, subject her heart to falling in love again. She’d done so with Sean and had been burned by his abuse and betrayal. Instead of being happy when she’d discovered she was pregnant, he’d been furious and demanded she end the pregnancy. His insistence had forced her to make a choice, and she’d chosen to give her child life. In response, Sean had tried to murder them both. How could she ever trust another man again after that?

      The chief closed his notebook and stood, indicating the interview was over. “It’s a blessing no one was injured or killed, but this is still a very serious crime. If you think of anyone who comes to mind, let us know right away and we’ll look into him or her. In the meantime, we’ll pull the security tapes and continue canvassing the area.”

      “Thank you, Chief.” Melinda walked out of the interview room with a weary feeling growing inside her. Her entire world had been turned upside down today and she didn’t know which direction to turn. She’d known her job could have its dangers, but she’d never witnessed anything more than angry words hurled at her before today.

      She stepped into the waiting area and found Noah keeping Ramey occupied with a game of thumb wrestling. She watched Noah let the boy win and smiled as Ramey whooped with laughter.

      “Are you done?” Noah asked her, standing to greet her.

      “For