“The abandoned warehouse over by the waterfall?” I exclaimed, incredulous. “You must be joking. I’m not meeting a drug dealer I don’t know at some deserted old warehouse. I know how that movie ends!”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “She isn’t a drug dealer. Not like you’re thinking. She isn’t part of some cartel or gang. She has a job, a kid. She’s smart. She just deals a little to make a bit of extra money. Like I did. Like you’re doing.”

I tried not to let my disdain show, but Gabe saw it. “You can look down your nose all you want, but you’re just the same as us now.”

I wanted to scream.

But she still had the rest of my money. “Fine, I’ll meet her. But you have to come too. And then I’ll organize a time when you can meet Josh. Lunch or something.”

Gabe shrugged. “Sure.”

I pushed one of the cheap cell phones I’d bought across the table to Gabe. “I have one just like it. I’ve put my number on this one and downloaded WhatsApp. Only contact me using that.”

He seemed exasperated by my caution.

“I have a lot to lose here, Gabe. I’m trusting you. Josh is trusting you. We can’t have anybody find out.”

“Whatever you want, sweetheart.” He slipped the phone into his jeans pocket.

“And don’t call me sweetheart.”

I grabbed the black backpack and the canvas bag and stood, coming around to Gabe’s side of the table. I leaned close to whisper in his ear, “By the way, that ham-and-cheese croissant was here when I sat down.”

I straightened, pleased at the look of horror that crossed his face.

“See you tonight,” I called over my shoulder as I strode briskly away.

CHAPTER 12

“YOU SHOULD GO HOME. Get some rest,” I told Nate that night. “Charlie needs to be fed and let out.”

He’d come straight from work to the hospital, not even bothering to go home and shower. He had a distracted, faraway look in his eye.

I felt a twinge of resentment pull in my chest. He wanted this promotion to help Josh, but if Josh died, the promotion would mean nothing. He was working for something in a future that might not even matter. Knowing his mind was on unraveling the tangle of a stranger’s death rather than fighting for our son’s life made me furious.

“I thought you said Jennifer was going to do it?”

“We still need to make sure he’s okay.”

Nate hesitated. “I don’t know.…”

He looked tired, physically and mentally, dark circles under his eyes, his skin gray. He wasn’t sleeping well either. But still, he looked at me and smiled, drawing me close, and as he did I softened, melting against him.