If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

she’d heard. Something weird was going down and he needed to be ready for it.
    So instead of slowing down to chat, he just nodded and kept on walking.
    Of course, by the time he got outside, Nia was already pulling out of the parking lot.
    Later that night, Nia told herself she wasn’t going to the Grill just to look for him. At least not
just
to look for him. She needed to eat dinner, right? And if she decided to go to the Grill rather than out for fast food, so what?
    He wasn’t there, though.
    She did bump into a city cop who seemed vaguely familiar—
very
vaguely. He kept his hair clipped short, so close to his skull she could see the scalp. He had nice eyes, eyes that briefly flicked over her body with an appreciative glance as she settled onto a stool at the bar.
    She’d thought about leaving, but if she left, how would she know if Law came in or not? So she didn’t leave.
    “Hey.”
    She smiled at the cop with half a mind to dismiss him, but then she realized that maybe she could work him a little, get some information out of him that she hadn’t been able to get from King earlier that day.
    Not entirely likely, but possible.
    “Hi.” She gave him a less forced smile before signaling to the bartender—a Diet Coke, this time; after the beers she’d put away last time, she didn’t need anything else.
    “You’re Nia Hollister.”
    She suppressed her wince—barely. Giving him a wry smile, she said, “Hell, I guess the stuff I’ve heard about small-town grapevines is all true, huh?”
    “Yeah, pretty much.” He smiled. “Kent Jennings.”
    “Another Jennings …” She shook the hand he offered.
    He grinned at her. “You know, there’s really not as many of us as it would appear. It just seems that way.”
    “Uh-huh.” She lifted a hand and ticked off her fingers as she counted. “So far, I’ve met a deputy by the name of Jennings … family?”
    “That’s Keith.” He grinned. “Third cousins, maybe fourth. I don’t keep track.”
    “Okay. The mayor’s a Jennings. I saw that in the paper. There’s also a DA Jennings.” She ticked off two more fingers.
    “Yep. Brothers. That’s Hank and Remy. We’re also cousins. I’m a fairly watered-down Jennings, to be honest.” Kent shrugged and said, “You get used to it, growing up around it. Remy and Hank, they’re kind of the center, if that makes sense.”
    The power base
, she supposed. Every dynasty had one. From all she’d been able to tell over the past week, the Jennings family had their own little miniature dynasty going here. A friendly one, but still. At least on the surface.
    “I heard you been spending some time going through police reports and other public-type documents,” Kent said.
    Nia slid him a narrow look. “So just how does this small-town grapevine work? Word of mouth? Telephone? E-mail?”
    “All of the above. It makes that grapevine even more efficient.” He winked at her. “That’s how I was able tokeep up with everything, even working a few extra shifts. I’ve heard about your interest in our town’s arrests and all, I’ve heard about your bike, I know what hotel you’re staying at …” He flashed her a smile. “Other things, but my mom might smack me if I mentioned one or two of the details.”
    Nia didn’t blush. She didn’t give a damn if people were talking about the fact that she’d all but crawled all over a good-looking guy. She did wonder if it might bother Law, though. Wondered if it was going to cause him problems with Hope. Yeah, he’d said she wasn’t his girlfriend, but she was something to him—Nia had seen that.
    Smiling at the cop, she asked, “You always listen to gossip?”
    “So it’s gossip then?”
    In the middle of lifting her drink to her mouth, she paused, thought about it. Shit. Blowing out a breath, she said, “No.”
    “Didn’t think so.” Then he sighed. “Reilly’s good people. Not from around here, but he’s good people. So. How come you’re here then?”
    “Because I am,” she replied edgily. Geez, what was with these people, so fucking nosy.
    Kent slid her a look, flashed her a smile that was so easy, so charming, it was hard to stay irritated. “Sorry, don’t mean anything by it. I’m just curious. If you’re looking for him, not likely to find him here. He doesn’t come into town much on the weekend—we don’t get too rowdy around here, but when we do … well, it happens on the weekend.”
    She flushed, shrugged. Was she that