The Departed

don’t I ask something that is. To what do I owe this pleasure, Taylor? Not that I mind the company or anything. But you’ve never been overly social.”
    Taylor glanced at her. Dez smiled at Joshua, still not sure where to go with this. “I thought you said you weren’t friends in school.”
    “We weren’t.” Taylor shrugged, laying a hand on her thigh and stroking absently. “Joshua is a couple years older. But we still knew each other.”
    “Town this small, almost everybody knows each other.” The mayor grimaced. “At least it used to be that way. We’re growing, bit by bit. And you two haven’t answered me.” His eyes narrowed on her face, scrutinizing.
    Sharp, this one. Yeah, she could see the arrogance, but he wasn’t stupid with it. Okay, so how to proceed? He wasn’t going to buy some ditzy Oh, I just love your house…
    Staring into those dark blue eyes, she leaned forward, her hands laced together. Dez opened her mouth—closed it. Shit, Jones, help me out here…
    Still staring at Moore, she opened her mouth again.
    He lifted a brow at her. “Yes?”
    And then, without even realizing what she was going to say, she heard the words coming out of her mouth. “It’s your son.”
    “My…my son. Brendan?” He frowned and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Shoving up out of his chair, he moved over to the fireplace. “What about him?”
    “Brendan. I…well. I don’t know what all he’s been through, but I did hear that he’s close to Beau. I saw him earlier, and I was just worried about him.”
    Joshua braced an arm on the mantel, staring down at the brick flooring in front of the fireplace. “You and me both.” He shot her a look over his shoulder, his eyes dark and stark in his face. For that moment, he didn’t look like anything other than a worried father. Tired, stressed, and angry. “He didn’t—shit, he didn’t do anything I need to apologize for, did he? He’s had some trouble before, but I thought we were past all of that.”
    “He hasn’t done anything to me.” She shook her head. “He…he just seems so angry.”
    Caution flickered in his eyes and a guarded expression fell across his face. “Like I’ve said, he’s had a rough time lately. He’s going to be angry. Besides, he’s a seventeen-year-old boy. How many of them aren’t angry at some point or another?”
    “Of course.” She settled back on the couch and hoped she hadn’t just blown this, hoped she hadn’t just screwed this entire thing up. “It’s just he’s had a really rough time of it. Beau. Mark. And I heard he lost another friend not that long ago.”
    His shoulders rose and fell as a harsh sigh escaped. “Tristan. Yeah. That was…rough. On the whole damn town, but especially on his folks, and those boys. They were tight, you know? Close. Especially him and Mark. Brendan was pretty beat up over it—I wanted him to talk to somebody but he kept telling me he’d be okay. He didn’t want to talk. Maybe I should have made him, but…well. Anyway.” He raked a hand through his hair and moved back to drop down on the couch, sighing. “Look, Ms. Lincoln—is it Ms.? Do I call you Special Agent?”
    “How about Dez?” She shrugged. She wasn’t about to lie to him—she wasn’t an agent anymore.
    “Dez.” He had that politician mask firmly in place once more. “I appreciate the concern about my son, and I can assure you I’ll talk with him. But you really didn’t need to come out here for this. I can’t imagine how much work you two have to do.”
    Taylor smiled. “Not so much work. We’re not yet here in an official capacity.”
    Biting back a smile, Dez looked over at him. Not yet official —damn, he was good. He’d managed to make it sound like they could get official at the drop of a hat.
    Something flickered in the depths of the mayor’s eyes and Dez once more felt something brush against her shields—damn it, she was tired of this. She wanted her gift to go back to behaving the way it was supposed to behave—she liked speaking with just ghosts, thanks. She didn’t like feeling all the extra, all the time. It was exhausting. Too much emotion coming and it strained her to the very edge of her resources just to keep up with it.
    “Not here officially, huh?” Joshua leaned back, those shrewd eyes of his locked on Taylor’s face, measuring, calculating. “I’m curious, then, why you two seem to be everywhere there’s trouble. Why you were there the night my