“And so are you,” Red said, sidling up to Quincy and placing a hand on his back. “Are you going to introduce me to this beautiful young lady, honey?”

“Sorry, Red. This is my girl, Roni.” My girl hit him hard, and he loved the way it felt to say it. “Roni, this is Red Whiskey—Bullet, Bones, Bear, and Dixie’s mother.”

Red gave him a don’t be silly look. “If you’re going to list my children, you’d better add yourself, Tru, Jed, and half the other guys around here.” She turned a welcoming smile to Roni and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart. You’re the lucky lady whose friend won a date for you with this wonderful young man at the auction, aren’t you? The one I hear has kept him on the line for all these months.”

“Guilty as charged,” Roni said. “I don’t go out often.”

“Well, sweetheart, you’ve got yourself a winner here,” Red said. “Our Quincy has a heart of gold. He told me about your grandmother’s passing, and I’m very sorry for your loss. If you ever need to bend an ear, people say I’m a good listener.”

“Thank you,” Roni said, eyeing Quincy curiously.

“I also heard that you’re teaching our Kennedy some adorable moves down at Elisa’s studio,” Red said.

“Yes, that’s right. Kennedy is a doll, and she sure does love to dance,” Roni said. “How do you know Elisa?”

“I know of her. Knowing who the business owners are within Dark Knights territory is important so we can protect them. See that gnarly but insanely sexy old man with the cane and scraggly beard?” Red pointed to Biggs, talking with Jace and Bullet. Biggs was six five, his skin like leather from years of riding his motorcycle in the hot sun. He wore a long-sleeve black shirt under his black leather vest, which had the Dark Knights patches on the back. Biggs had suffered a stroke several years ago and was left with a slight drooping of the left side of his face, mostly hidden by his scruffy white beard and mustache, and a limp that required a cane. “That’s my husband, Biggs. His grandfather founded the Dark Knights. We’ve been protecting Peaceful Harbor for decades.”

“Okay, listen up, everyone!” Dixie announced through a megaphone, then waited for the crowd to quiet down. “Welcome, and thank you for supporting the Parkvale Women’s Shelter by joining this scavenger hunt. We’ll be starting in ten minutes. If you haven’t preregistered or picked up your scavenger hunt list, you can do so here at this table. You will have two hours to complete as many of the items on the list as you can. Every item is worth a certain number of points, as noted on the list, and you must take a picture with each one. The team who earns the most points will win a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar gift certificate from Silver-Stone Cycles’ online shop.”

Applause and cheers rang out, and Roni said, “She’s even more gorgeous than I remembered.”