I spent a night with a man I didn’t like, much less desire, and my body had betrayed me utterly, responding against my will, greedy for a kind of release I hadn’t known I needed. I hated him for it. I hated myself more.

Greg Hewitt gave me Roland Ballencoa’s address in Oak Knoll. I fired him the next day.

Chapter 35

35

“Uncle Tony! Uncle Tony!”

Mendez grinned as the Leone children came running for him. He bent down and caught Haley first, sweeping her up out of harm’s way as little Antony barreled into him like a battering ram.

“Hey, guys!”

“I’m not a guy!” Haley protested. “I’m a girl!”

“You’re not a girl,” Mendez said. “You’re a princess!”

Haley beamed.

Antony jumped up in the air and did his best ninja kick. “I’m all boy!”

Mendez ruffled his godson’s dark curls. “You sure are, sport.”

“Uncle Tony, we went to the zoo in Santa Barbara!” Haley said excitedly. “I got a giraffe and Antony got a gorilla. Not real ones, stuffed ones.”

Antony immediately began to hop around the entry hall making ape sounds.

“That’s cool!” Mendez said. “What else did you see?”

“We saw zebras and leopards, and I got to help Daddy feed a giraffe and it licked me! It was so gross!”

Mendez laughed. Haley Leone was as adorable and bubbly as a child could be—a far cry from how she had been the first time he’d seen her. At four years old she had been the only witness to her mother’s brutal stabbing death and mutilation. The perpetrator had choked Haley unconscious and left her for dead as well. When Mendez had first seen her in the hospital, she had just come out of a coma, screaming in terror. Only Anne had been able to quiet and calm her.

Anne Leone came into the hall now, smiling and wiping her hands on a bright yellow kitchen towel.

“You’re just in time,” she said, rising up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “They’re fresh from their naps.”

“I don’t nap, Mommy,” Haley corrected her. “Naps are for babies like Antony.”

“I’m not a baby, I’m a lion!” Antony announced. He made a fierce roar and clawed the air with his imaginary paws.

“You’re staying for dinner,” Anne said. “Vince is grilling.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mendez said, setting Haley down. “Where is the boss anyway?”

“Out by the pool. Come on. I’ll get you a drink.”

She preceded him down the hall, herding her youngest ahead of her, calling a warning to him as Antony began to give chase to a striped tabby cat that darted ahead of them with its tail straight up in the air.