here.”
“With Tippy?” Kemp fished.
Grier didn’t fly at him, as he’d expected. The older man frowned slightly. “She’s not what she seems,” he replied quietly. “I’ve misjudged her badly. I don’t know that she’d be willing to take me on, once she’s back on her feet and able to work again. In any case, I can’t let her far out of my sight right now. Not until that third kidnapper is in custody,” he added coldly. “If he turns up in Jacobsville and makes a try for her, he’d better carry life insurance.”
“It would take a stupid criminal to do that.”
“I’ve locked up a lot of guys who aren’t rocket scientists,” Grier said drolly, with a speaking glance at Kemp.
Kemp chuckled. “I’ve defended a fair number who weren’t, too,” he had to agree. “Which reminds me, if you want me to defend your patrol officers at the hearing, I’ll do it pro bono.”
“Thanks,” Grier told him. “But I’ve got a big surprise for the city council when they meet for that hearing.”
“I forgot. You’re related to the Hart boys, aren’t you?”
Grier grinned. “They’re my cousins.”
“And Simon Hart is our state attorney general,” he added, laughing. “Then I don’t need to offer my services. I won’t try to guess who you’re bringing with you.”
“You won’t need to guess,” Grier said. He stretched lazily. “I need a few days off. Once the election is over and the disciplinary hearing is decided, I’m going to take some time off. Tippy’s little brother is coming down here soon. He likes to fish. Maybe he and I can stake out a riverbank for a few hours and take some fresh fish home to Tippy for dinner.”
“Can she cook?” Kemp asked, surprised.
“Indeed she can,” he replied. “You’d be amazed at how domestic she is.” His eyes were soft. “She looks right at home in a kitchen. I could get used to seeing her across a table for the rest of my life.”
Kemp felt uneasy. Grier, an older and lonelier man than himself, was apparently thinking solemnly about a stable and shared future with a woman. Kemp thought of marriage and it made him uncomfortable.
“I’m not in the market for a wife,” Kemp said aloud. “I like my own space, my own company.”
Grier gave him a grin. “I used to be that way, too. There’s always the one woman who can change your mind.”
Kemp shrugged. “Not for me. I’ve been that route once. I never want to go over the same ground again.”
“Nothing wrong with being a loner,” Grier said. “Until recent days, I felt that way, too.”
“Tippy’s a beauty.”
“She’s got a good brain, and she’s a quick hand in an emergency,” Grier told him. “It’s not about looks.”
“Sorry,” Kemp said belatedly. “I was thinking out loud.”
“I hear your new secretary quit,” Grier mused.
“She couldn’t spell,” Kemp muttered. “It’s no loss.”
“What are you going to do, have Libby and Mabel double up on work again?”
“Violet might come back.”
Grier pursed his lips. “I thought she was keen on having you for a barbecue as the entrée.”
Kemp shrugged. “We’re speaking again.” He tried not to let it show that they were doing a lot more than that.
“If you say so.”
“I can get another secretary whenever I need one,” Kemp added doggedly.
“Does the employment agency know this?”
Kemp gave him a glare. “Just because they hung up on me doesn’t mean they don’t want my business.”
“I’m sure.”
“Anyway, if Violet comes back, all my problems will be solved,” he said. “And now that I’ve got Riddle Collins’s secret stash in that suitcase, Libby and Curt Collins will be out of debt and back in their own home again.”
“That won’t suit Julie Merrill,” Grier murmured coolly. “She’s hot after Jordan Powell’s money. Poor Libby.”
“Poor Julie, if you can get her where we all want her,” Kemp said.
“I’m working on that,” Grier assured him. “One way or another, I’m going to put the last of the drug cartel out of business in Jacobsville.”
“With my blessing,” Kemp replied, smiling.
Kemp came into his office early the next morning with Riddle’s stash and showed it to Libby, who’d come in early for the occasion. She was ecstatic as they went over the proof of her father’s love for her and Curt.
A few minutes later, Kemp started out for the courthouse to file the revised will Riddle had left. When he walked into the outer office, the first thing he saw was Violet, sitting at her desk.
His expression was enough to feed Violet’s hungry heart. She smiled, flushed and beamed up at him.
“You said I could come back,” she reminded him brightly.
“Yes, I did,” he replied, smiling. “Are you staying?”
She nodded.
“How about making a fresh pot of coffee?” he asked.
“Regular?”
“Half and half,” he replied, averting his eyes. “Too much caffeine isn’t good for me.”
He went out the door, leaving Violet with her jaw dropping.
“I told you he missed you!” Libby whispered mischievously as she followed the boss onto the sidewalk.
As the day went on, Kemp found himself looking for excuses to go to the front of his office. He went through two pots of coffee, because that was the best excuse he had. Violet was wearing a sassy blue dress that emphasized her nice, rounded figure. It was fairly low cut in front, and with her frosted dark hair and her improved use of makeup, she was enough to turn any man’s head.
Libby and Mabel noticed his sudden interest in the coffeepot with subdued humor. They didn’t want to embarrass Violet, who flushed every time the boss came close.
It was almost inevitable that Violet stayed just a few minutes longer than Mabel and Libby at the end of the day.
She tidied up her desk and slowly gathered her purse and sweater. Blake came out to the front office and stood, openly staring at her, with his hands in his pockets and an odd, intent look in the blue eyes behind his trendy spectacles.
“Are you in a rush to get home? Can you phone your mother and tell her you’ll be a few minutes late?” he added.
“Of…of course,” she stammered. The way he was looking at her made her tingle from head to toe. She fumbled the phone to her ear and dialed, her eyes eating her handsome boss all the while.
She told her mother she’d be a few minutes late, trying not to react obviously to her parent’s amusement.
Blake held out his hand. Violet dropped her purse and sweater on her chair and went to him, letting him lead her back to his office.
He closed the door and pulled her hungrily into his arms. She sighed with pure delight as his hard mouth found her lips and he lifted her into an even more intimate embrace.
“I’ve missed you,” he ground out against her responsive lips.
“I’ve missed you…too,” she whispered back.
“Come