Price grabbed her a bowl and started to fill it.
“Not to be dramatic, but I think I’d rather go hungry than chance Corrie’s cooking,” he said. “Remember when she tried to get the coffee shop to eat that weird turkey dinner thing she made for Thanksgiving?” He pretended to shiver. “I’ll take no-snacks Abagail’s house over that any day.”
Winnie agreed and took the bowl with a low bow and several thanks.
Price returned the gesture with a laugh and then started on the second of three bowls he’d planned on making.
“Did you at least get some sleep?” he asked over his shoulder.
Winnie said she did around a mouthful of food.
“We watched a few movies and I fell asleep toward the end of the second one. She might not have snacks, but her bed is super comfy. It also helped that her little brother was staying over at his friend’s house too. He wasn’t around to annoy us like usual.”
Price paused, spatula in midair for a moment.
Less than eight hours ago, Price had learned everything there was to know about JJ Shaw.
Lydia Ortiz.
She had gone from the quiet, unassuming part-timer trying her hand at a slower pace of life…to a woman living a double life, hell-bent on scorching the earth to find her little brother.
“So it was you who I fought in Josiah’s house that morning,” Price had asked once her story had finished.
JJ had looked apologetic at that.
“Josiah fit the description, age and circumstances to possibly be my brother. I was keeping an eye on him, trying to figure out how to go about finding proof that he was when I heard about his call to the department about the suspicious hole. I thought the department brushed him off and, when he rushed off to work, I decided to go head and check it out. That’s when you showed up. To be fair, I tried to leave without fighting you. You were just, well, in the way.”
She’d given him a little smile at that.
Price had remembered her moves then. Not only had she hurt him, she’d been faster than him too.
“After that, though, I decided to lie low,” she’d added. “Then I found Josiah.”
They assumed Lawson, for whatever reason, had one of his men come in after her. It had only been a coincidence that she had seen him walking through the field.
“You were casing Jamie Bell’s house after you heard he was leaving town for a few months,” Price had guessed next.
JJ had nodded.
“I’m assuming Lawson heard the same news I did and, well, we decided to act sooner rather than later.”
It had made sense then. What she had been doing to the door.
“Let me guess. One of your sneaky skills is lock picking,” he’d said.
JJ didn’t even try to hide it.
She’d put three fingers in the air.
“Scouts honor I only use it for good, not bad.”
After that, she had promised that her behind-the-scenes sleuthing hadn’t included any other questionable activities. She had also been adamant that no one else knew about her existence and she hoped to keep it that way.
“I’m only here to find my brother and then figure out a way to keep him out of all of this long enough to find Dad’s evidence, or at least figure out a way to take Lawson and his group down permanently.”
Price had fixed her then with a searching look.
“If you find him, he might not want to stay out of it,” he’d pointed out.
