He cocked his head, listened to the music, and pulled a face. “Well, at least she’s out of the boy-band stage. And it could be worse. Bryce went through heavy metal, then rap, then hip-hop, and at each phase I swore the next one couldn’t be any worse, but he always found something—” Kristof stopped and waved a hand in front of my eyes.

“Come on, Eve,” he said. “Savannah’s taste may be questionable, but she doesn’t require musical supervision.”

“Shhh. Can you hear anything?”

He arched his brows. “Besides a badly tuned bass guitar and vocals worthy of a castrated stray cat?”

“She has a boy up there.”

Another frown, deeper this time. “What kind of boy?”

“Human.”

“I meant what ‘sort’ of boy. This isn’t the same one—” He closed his mouth with an audible click of his teeth, then launched into a voice I knew only too well, one I heard in my head when he wasn’t around. “All right. Savannah has a boy in her room. She’s fifteen. We both know they aren’t up there on a study date. As for exactly what they’re doing…is that really any of your business?”

“I’m not worried about sex, Kris. She’s a smart girl. If she’s ready—and I don’t think she is—she’ll take precautions. But what if he’s ready? I barely know this guy. He could—”

“Force her to do something she doesn’t want?” His laugh boomed through the foyer. “When’s the last time anyone forced you to do something against your will? She’s your daughter, Eve. First guy who puts a hand where she doesn’t want it will be lucky if he doesn’t lose it.”

“I know, but—”

“What if they do turn that music down? Do you really want to hear what’s going on?”

“Of course not. That’s why I’m staying down here. I’m just making sure—”

“You can’t make sure of anything. You’re dead. That boy could pull a gun on her and there’s not a damn thing you could do about it.”

“I’m working on that!”

He sighed. “You’ve been working on it for three years. And you’re no better off than when you started.” He hesitated, then plowed forward. “You need to step back from it for a while. Take a break.”

“And do what?”

“Well, funny you should ask. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I happen to have a temp job lined up for you. Full of adventure, mystery, maybe even a little danger…”

“Just a little?”

He grinned. “Depends on how you play it.”

I paused, then glanced up the stairs. “We’ll talk about it later.”