Yes, he did.

He kissed her again, briefly and then walked her to the door.

Zod barked at their approach, and Carter heard Gwen call the animal back.

“I’ll call you in the morning.”

“You don’t have to do that, Carter.”

“It’s not about have to.”

She smiled, obviously pleased. Just like the kissing of her hand, the little things he did brought the biggest smiles to her lips.

He’d have to remember that.

****

“We have a problem,” Dean tossed an old newspaper on Jim’s desk and waited for Jim to pick it up.

“What am I looking at?”

“The entertainment and celebrity section of the Hollywood Tribune. Check out page five.”

The Harrison wedding party snagged the center portion of the page with Eliza standing beside the bride.

“Okay…so, we saw this a few weeks ago. This paper is old. Why is it a problem now?”

Dean leaned against the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “I took the liberty of checking on little Ricky. As you know they moved him to San Quentin last year.” Neither of them had been happy to find Ricardo back in California.

“Old news.”

“Guess who his bunk mate is.”

Jim tapped his fingers against the newspaper and attempted to think up an answer to Dean’s riddle. “No clue.”

“Does the name Harris Elliot mean anything to you?”

For a split second Jim’s confusion filled his face. Then his jaw dropped.

His eyes pitched back to the photograph.

“Samantha Elliot Harrison’s father.”

“Bingo.”

“Christ.”

“According to the guards on the block, Harry offers stock tips to the cops who bring him pictures or newspaper clippings about his daughters. How much you wanna bet there’s a picture like this one somewhere in Harry’s cell?”

“Fuck.”

Chapter Fourteen

Eliza sat across from Karen’s desk and regarded the blonde bombshell with hope. Karen ran Moonlight Assisted Living and happened to be one of Alliance’s clients. Well, hopeful clients.

“So what’s this meeting about? Did you find a husband for me?” Karen was stunning, intelligent, and completely capable of finding a rich man on her own, but she’d chosen Alliance to search out a rich husband so she could spend time making a difference in other peoples’ lives.

Unfortunately, Karen’s beauty intimidated several men who were eligible. “The only one I have right now who meets your cash requirements is a very mature man who simply wants to spite his children.”

Karen narrowed her ice blue eyes. “How mature?”

“Seventy-six.”

“Ouch.”

Eliza shrugged. “I know. He’s a very nice guy. I think he wants to scare his children into submission. What he really needs is a plump, old Italian woman to mother him and hit the kids with her wooden spatula.”

Karen tossed back her head and laughed. “Sound like my Aunt Edie.”

“She’s Italian?”

“Kinda. My late Uncle Joe was full blood Italian, so you might say she had regular injections of Italian. She talks with an accent and everything. They lived in New York for years before they found out Joe had emphysema. Then they moved here for the nice weather. Aunt Edie has been a widow for ten years now.”

Eliza found herself tapping her foot. “Any chance Edie would like to be set up on a blind date?”

“With your rich guy?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” Karen said. “She’s happy with her bingo on Wednesdays and Bunco on Fridays.”

Eliza leaned forward. “How about this. I set you up to meet Stanly, and you can talk to him. If you don’t agree that he needs the firm hand of an older woman then I’ll continue to find him a young one such as yourself.”

“I hate to sound greedy, but what’s in it for me?”

“If your Aunt Edie and Stanly Sedgwick hook up, I’ll ask Sedgwick to donate funds to the boys and girls club. You volunteer there, right?”

Eliza could see Karen contemplating her options. Although Karen might seem shallow for wanting to snag a rich man for his money, deep inside she wanted to help many of the broken systems set up for the youth of the country.

“Would you set this guy up with your aunt?”

“I don’t have an aunt, but I would if I did.”

“Okay…I’ll meet him.”

For the first time Eliza felt the part of cupid. She liked the thought of finding Stanly the right wife and not a stand-in young one he could flaunt around his kids and grandkids.

****

Eliza handed Gwen a set of earmuffs to mute out the sound of gunfire.

“Is this truly necessary?” Gwen asked as she gingerly placed the ear protection on over her perfectly coiffed hair.

“I have guns, Gwen. They’re more dangerous to you if you don’t know how to use them.”

“That’s absurd. If I don’t handle them, how can they harm me?” Gwen glanced at the two handguns Eliza owned sitting on the bench and scowled.

“Outside of someone pointing them at you and squeezing the trigger, I guess they can’t. However, you’re the one who insisted on moving in.” Eliza lowered her voice and glanced around to see if anyone had entered the indoor shooting range behind them. They were early and had the place to themselves. “So you’re going to have to have a couple of lessons on firearm safety.”

Gwen looked like she was about to argue so Eliza fired her final manipulating blow. “I’d be devastated if something happened to you because of my past. The least I can do is show you how to defend yourself with a gun.”

Gwen tilted her head to the side. “I insisted on moving in.” Her voice was too loud due to the earmuffs.

“And I insist on this.”

“Oh, all right.” She twisted toward the counter and placed one small hand on the larger 357 revolver.

Eliza moved beside her and began her lesson. “My guns are always loaded. You should assume any gun you pick up is.”

Gwen pulled her hand back as if burned.

“It won’t jump out and bite.” Eliza picked up the weapon and opened the chamber. After a brief explanations of how to check to see if the gun was loaded and how to hold it, she fired off a couple of rounds. Even with the ear protection, the sound vibrated through her skull. The paper target hung less than ten yards away, and Eliza’s aim was spot on. As it should have been, she’d been shooting since she was ten.