“I did.”

“Can I ask you why?”

“No.”

“You’re going to have to give me some kind of explanation.”

Alicia shifted in her seat. “Why should you care?”

“It’s the way I work.”

She sighed. “All right. Maybe I’m just tired. I may be a doctor, but I don’t make a lot of money. I could be making more in private practice, but the Center is what I want to do. Whatever I’ve managed to save after living expenses and paying back my education loans,—and believe me, I’ve got six figures worth of those—went to retainers for the investigator and the lawyer. I’m just about tapped out, Jack. I don’t want to start all over again with a new lawyer. And frankly, I’m a little scared. I just want this over with.”

Scared? Jack had a hard time buying this woman as scared. He had a feeling she didn’t run from anything.

“But the solution to all your financial problems can be solved by a simple telephone call to your brother.”

“Half brother. But I don’t want to sell to Thomas. And he’s preventing me from selling to anyone else.”

Jack was baffled. “But if, as you say, you don’t want the house and don’t care about it, why not sell it to him?”

Alicia’s eyes were suddenly ablaze as she spoke through her teeth.

“Because… he… wants it!”

And just as suddenly the fire was gone.

“And you don’t get any explanation for that,” she said evenly.

Jack leaned back and studied her. Where did he go from here? His instincts told him that here was a lady with a few buttons missing from her remote control, that he should make a beeline for the door and not look back.

Good advice. She’d already told him she was almost tapped out, so no way she could pay his fee. That meant there was nothing in this for him but trouble.

Easy to get out of it. Just tell her arson wasn’t his thing—the truth—and that would be that.

So why wasn’t he saying it? Why hadn’t he said it when she’d first mentioned torching her dead father’s house?

Because…

Truth was, he didn’t have a good because, other than the fact that he was intrigued by Alicia and fascinated with the scenario she’d laid out. This lady was turning down a fortune to keep a house that had belonged to a man she wouldn’t call “father” out of the hands of a half brother she hated. What was it with the place? Had something happened to her there?

Things were slow and Jack’s curiosity was piqued.

“Okay. Here’s what I can do. I can’t promise you anything now. The best I can do is tell you I’ll think about it. I’ll have to check out a few things before I decide.”

“What’s to decide?” she said, a note of irritation creeping into her voice. “Either you will or you won’t. You didn’t have to check out anything with the toys.”