Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            He sighed. “Maybe I’m curious. Maybe I just like knowing about your day. And maybe I feel bad for the guy. You said the Bureau visit sent him into hiding.”

            “He thought they were ICE,” she said, scowling. “He has a green card, but some entitled bitch wasn’t satisfied with the tattoo he did, even though she signed off on the design. She threatened him. Even got some guys who claimed to be ICE to harass him.”

            It was his turn to scowl now. “That’s wrong.”

            She chuckled, leaning sideways to kiss his biceps. “You are really cute, you know that? Such a Dudley Do-Right.”

            “Will you stop calling me that?”

            She tilted her head. “Does it really bother you?”

            He sighed again. “No, not really. It’s fair enough.”

            “Well, I’ll stop anyway. You are very earnest, though.” She sobered. “It is wrong, and he’s scared to death. It wouldn’t be the first time someone got deported on made-up charges.”

            “I’ll make some calls,” he promised. “Let me see what I can do.”

            “Thank you.”

            “So . . . where did you go?”

            She laughed so loudly that Pebbles ran in circles, barking. “Oh my God. Okay.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “Monterey. If Sergio says it’s okay, you can come with me next time.”

            “I’ll still make the calls.”

            “Because you are sincerely earnest. Nothing about you is an act.” She smiled at him and he thought he’d never get tired of the sight. “You’re a good man.”

            “Thank you. So how did you find him?”

            “Instagram and Facebook. It wasn’t hard. Any one of you Feds could have done it standing on your heads. Why didn’t you?”

            That was a damn good question. “Raeburn didn’t think it was a lead worth pursuing. It wasn’t like that person had been to Eden and could tell us where to find it.”

            “Well, he’s not wrong about part of it. William Holly—a.k.a. Boaz Travis—can’t lead you to Eden. He was only eleven years old when his mother got him out.”

            Tom hesitated. “He’s also dead.”

            She gaped, shocked. “How do you know that?”

            “We talked to DJ’s relatives—his aunt and uncle. They owned the house where Pastor’s wife and kids were living when Boaz Travis went to get the Eden tattoo. The aunt and uncle didn’t know who Pastor’s wife and kids were, but said that the elder Belmonts had grown fond of them while they rented. They said that ‘William’ committed suicide.”

            Liza sighed sadly. “Sergio said he knew that he was an unhappy young man.” She sighed again. “Daisy and I were hoping that whoever we found could give us one of the more recent Eden sites. Amos said that they reused sites, so if we found other locations we might find Eden now.”

            Tom hid his wince. Liza and Daisy had gone to a lot of trouble because they hadn’t known that the Bureau already knew all of the old sites. That was on him. Or on Raeburn, because he’d forbidden any information sharing.

            He must not have hidden his wince well enough, though, because her eyes narrowed. “You know,” she whispered. “You already know the locations of all of the old Eden sites.”

            He sighed. “I can’t talk about it.”

            “How did you know?” she demanded, ignoring his reluctance.

            “Ephraim left some notebooks in his safe-deposit box.”

            She drew a breath and let it out slowly. “He mapped out the old sites, but you didn’t tell us.”

            “I’m not allowed to discuss the case with Gideon and Mercy,” he said regretfully.

            “I understand need-to-know. You’ll make sure I know what I need to know, right?”