Agent Daddy

She added, “Please, call me Faith.”

“Faith,” he repeated. It was a good name for her. “I’m Luke Tripper, but everyone calls me Trip. Now, tell me more about Noelle.”

She opened a folder with Noelle’s name on it and started handing him papers. He examined all the drawings and the handwriting samples of the child’s ABCs and listened to how bright Noelle was and how they wanted to test her and maybe put her in an accelerated program. During all this, he wondered what his sister would have done, what she would have wanted. This kind of thought played in his head on a daily basis, as he transitioned from glorified nanny to daddy. He was it. He was all these kids had. The only question was—would he be enough?

He came back into the moment when she dropped her voice. Colin had fallen asleep and she held him close, as though by second nature.

“My own mother died when I was about six, so I can identify with Noelle,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done without my dad and my big brother, Zac. Anyway, I know pretty well what Noelle is going through.” She met his eyes. “So, if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for her, I would love to help. In or out of school, whenever. This is the first time I’ve lived outside of Westerly, away from my family, you know, so I have plenty of free time….” Her voice petered out and she shook her head again. “Listen to me go on and on.”

“It’s a very kind offer,” he said—and meant it. “Right now, though—”

He stopped when his cell phone rang. He had it out of his pocket and had checked the ID number before he realized he should have just let it ring. Years of always being on call had formed habits he was finding hard to break. Smiling apologetically at Faith, he said, “It’s my house. I think I’d better take it. I’m sorry—”

“Go ahead,” she urged.

“Trip here,” he said, and listened as Mrs. Murphy, his housekeeper, identified herself.

“Everything okay? This isn’t a good time—”

“No, everything’s not okay, and that’s a fact. Here I am at the house alone and you off with the wee ones,” the older woman said and proceeded to elaborate, her Irish brogue growing more pronounced the more agitated she became. He felt his own blood pressure rise as she spoke. A minute or two later, he clicked off the phone with the assurance he would take care of things.

Faith was staring at him, and the serious set of her very attractive mouth announced his own tension hadn’t been lost on her. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.

“I’m not sure.”

Her fingers brushed her scarred cheek and disappeared into her hair as she said, “I don’t mean to pry, it’s just that you look so concerned.”

“You’re not prying, Faith. That was my housekeeper. She got home from her dentist appointment to find the police out at the ranch. They told her they discovered our babysitter’s car abandoned by a minimart, with the keys in the ignition.”

“That sounds odd, doesn’t it?”

“Yes and no. Gina’s car is one busted fan belt away from the junkyard. She often parks on inclines, in case the engine won’t start. She says she hopes someone will steal it so she can collect the insurance.”

“Which doesn’t explain why you look the way you do.”

“No,” he said. It was one thing to leave your keys in the ignition out at the ranch, another on a city street. Face it, his gut was telling him something was wrong and obviously the police felt the same way.

How long would it take Neil Roberts to get to Shay, Washington? Less than a day. He’d had the time, maybe, though not knowing more of the details made assessing things like time difficult. But even if Roberts had gotten here, how or why would he connect Gina Cooke with Luke Tripper?

“I have to go,” he said, getting to his feet. “I need to talk to the police.” He pulled his hat on his head, grabbed his jacket, then looked down at the still-seated Faith, who had both arms wrapped around his slumbering nephew. Pausing, he took a deep breath. “Damn, I actually forgot about the kids for a moment.”

“Leave them with me,” she said, picking up a pen and quickly scribbling a number on a paper. “This is my cell. Call me when you get done doing whatever you have to do. I’ll take care of Noelle and Colin.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask me.”

“I’ll call Mrs. Murphy to come get them.”

“In this weather? Just leave Colin’s car seat in the front office.”

“You don’t know what you’re in for with that car seat,” he warned her. He dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “The second number reaches my cell phone. Call me if you need me. Meanwhile, tell me where you live and I’ll come get them in, say, an hour?”

“Well, actually, I have a few things I need to do. Just call my cell and we’ll meet. The kids won’t be in the way, don’t worry.”

Something was odd here, but he had the overriding feeling time was of the essence for Gina, so he let it go. “Thank you.” Before he left the room, he turned. Faith had gotten to her feet, the slumbering baby draped across her shoulder. She stood silhouetted against the gray skies visible through the windows at her back, her golden hair reflecting the indoor light. She looked at him expectantly, and all he could do was stare.

He had the oddest feeling about her.

“Is there something else?” she asked.

He shook his head and left.

Chapter Two

Half an hour later, Faith found out what she was getting into with Colin’s car seat. The sedan seemed to reverberate with the baby’s outraged protest.

“Noelle, honey, could you give Colin a toy or a cracker or something?” Faith asked, voice raised to be heard.

Noelle, strapped into the back next to her brother, said, “It won’t work, Ms. Bishop. Nothing works in the car.”

“I thought babies liked to go for rides,” Faith said, thinking of her nieces who always seemed to quiet down once the engine started.

“Not Colin,” Noelle yelled with what sounded like a hint of pride.

The weather hadn’t changed, except that the skies were darker than ever. Faith tried to think of somewhere besides her apartment where she could take small children and could think of nothing. Shay didn’t have a mall or an indoor playground, and she hadn’t had a chance to make any friends outside the school.

“Where are we going?” Noelle asked, her voice smaller now, unsure, barely audible over her brother’s tirade.

“I don’t know,” Faith mumbled. And then, because there really wasn’t another choice, she added, “My place.”

After a few moments, Colin’s cries grew a little less raucous, and as Faith negotiated the wet streets, she thought back to her meeting with Luke Tripper.

As she’d confessed to him, she’d heard about him first from the teacher she replaced, and then around the school. The bus story had intrigued her from the moment she heard it, maybe because she’d brushed against evil last spring, barely surviving a malicious attack. To hear about a man who ran back and forth to an overturned bus risking his life to save others reassured her in some odd way that people were still good. The look in his eyes when he admitted he hadn’t saved everyone had touched her deeply.

So she’d wondered what he would be like—and had built a mental image of a hero: strong, fearless, able to leap tall buildings. Luke Tripper looked as though he was all those things.

He was as tall as her brother, Zac, but not as lanky, more muscular, broad-shouldered, body trim and fit, thick, dark hair cut short. And those eyes. Smoldering, yes, but also focused and intense. She’d found herself struggling not to tell him her deepest, darkest secrets.

Add to that a sophisticated air at odds with boots and jeans and a hat that looked as though it had been around the block a time or two. That inconsistency was due, no doubt, to the fact he’d only been a rancher for four or five months. Before that he’d been an FBI agent, rumored to have done covert work. The veneer left over from that career no doubt explained her desire to confide in him. Only her pledge to herself that she would solve her own problems kept her mouth shut.

Besides, Trip had enough troubles of his own.

Faith fought against a stab of pure, unadulterated self-pity. Sure, she missed Puget Sound, old friends and family, but she was in debt up to her eyeballs with medical bills and Shay was the only place she could find a decent job.

There was another reason for her decision to move, too, and it had to do with her father and brother. Last May, Zac had married Olivia, Faith’s best friend, and had adopted her four little girls. He was sheriff in Westerly, his life was busy and full, and he was happier than Faith had ever seen him.

Meanwhile, after twenty years of being a widower, her father had discovered love right in his own backyard with Olivia’s mother, Juliet Hart. The two were getting married in Hawaii over the holidays. Faith had told them she was too busy with her new job to travel to explain why she wouldn’t be at the ceremony. She hadn’t wanted to admit the truth: she couldn’t afford the trip. She hadn’t confided in either her father or her brother that her insurance hadn’t begun to cover expenses.