Against the Law by Kat Martin Page A

“Hi, Bren, what’s up?”
    â€œJust checking in. Haven’t heard from you in a while. Thought I’d better find out what’s going on.”
    â€œAt the moment, I’m on my way to Tucson—well, a little town called Tubac to be precise, which is fifty miles south of there.” She smiled. “We found her, Bren. We found Heather’s little girl.”
    â€œOh, my God, that’s wonderful!”
    â€œHer name is Chrissy. Chrissy Weller. I saw the mother’s photo on the internet. She owns a candle shop in Tubac. She looks nice. We’re on our way to meet them.”
    â€œOh, Lark, that’s great news. Your sister must be lighting up heaven with her smile.”
    â€œMaybe. But I don’t think she’ll be happy until she knows for sure Chrissy is in a good home.”
    â€œYou’ll make certain she is.”
    Lark thought of Heather and nodded, felt a lump rising to her throat.
    â€œSo what did you decide about the condo?” Brenda asked.
    â€œI called the Realtor. She’s getting the paperwork together to put it on the market.”
    â€œLousy timing.”
    â€œI know.”
    Voices sounded in the background at the other end of the line. “Listen, the kids are arguing about something. I better run. Let me know what happens, will you?”
    â€œI will, I promise.” Lark ended the call, thinking how lucky she was to have Brenda for a friend. She opened her purse and this time shoved the phone into the pouch designed to hold it.
    â€œFriend?” Dev asked, flicking her a sideways glance.
    â€œSince we were in high school. Brenda’s divorced, raising two kids by herself. We’re totally different but it doesn’t seem to matter. We’re still great friends.”
    â€œBrenda lives in Phoenix?”
    Lark nodded. “Not too far from Heather’s condo. She’s been helping me clear it out, get it ready to sell.”
    â€œMarket’s bad right now.” He put on his turn signal, passed a slower car, and pulled back into the right hand lane. “You could just keep it, you know. Give you a place to stay when you’re in town.”
    There was something in his voice, something Lark couldn’t quite decipher. “I don’t get to Phoenix that often.”
    â€œYeah, I figured.”
    There it was again. It sounded almost like disappointment.
    Inwardly, she scoffed. Devlin Raines wasn’t the kind of man who tied himself down to a woman. Maybe he was hoping she’d spend a few days in town now and then and he could make an occasional booty call.
    She looked him over, admired his handsome, confident profile, noticed the tanned, capable hands wrapped around the steering wheel, and the notion didn’t sound all that bad.
    The freeway stretched in front of them, a wide black ribbon of pavement lined with sand and a variety of cactus. A few fluffy clouds floated overhead but the air was crystal-clear. She leaned back and continued to enjoy the ride.
    When they reached Tucson just under two hours later, Lark’s stomach grumbled. Dev must have been hungry, too. He pulled off the freeway into a Burger King and they went inside for sandwiches and a pit stop. After a lunch of hamburgers, fries and Cokes, they hit the road again, turning south from Tucson onto Highway 19.
    As they made their way toward the little town of Tubac, the route turned even more scenic, with craggy gray peaks rising up from a desert floor dotted with mesquite, and a sky the same fierce blue as Dev’s gorgeous eyes. Birds occupied the branches of spindly ocotillo and a coyote darted along the stones in a dry stream bed beside the road.
    Lark dug out the Arizona map she’d found in a pocket in the passenger-side door and stretched it open. She looked from the mountains in the distance to the tiny words printed on the map.
    â€œIt says those are the Santa Rita Mountains. Pretty amazing, aren’t