Page 178 of Renard's Deliverance

“Nope. But a girl can dream.”

38

Alec Malone answered his phone, frowning as he saw it was Jake. “That bastard better still be behind bars.”

“Course he is,” Jake replied, knowing who he was talking about. “He got Judge Barfoot. You know how badly he takes any abuse against women or children in his county.”

Not all of the judges in this county were like Barfoot. But Jerry Barfoot had been raised by a single mother, had a wife he adored, seven daughters and fifteen granddaughters at last count.

“Good. What are you calling me about then?”

Jake sighed. “We’ve got a situation.”

“If one of my brothers is locked up in your jail?—”

“It’s not that,” Jake interrupted. “I just got a heads up from Duncan that his brothers are on their way here to talk to me.”

Alec Malone tensed.

Duncan Jones had a lot of brothers, but there were only two who he thought would be coming to speak to Jake. And if it was those two brothers, then something bad was headed their way.

And the fact that Jake was telling him this meant that it somehow affected his family.

“Who?” he demanded. “Who is it about?”

“Opal.”

Jake sounded exhausted. Alec got it. He’d aged several years after they’d learned that Opal had been kidnapped.

“How can her kidnapping be a federal issue?” Alec demanded

“I don’t know. Apparently, his brothers didn’t tell him much.”

“Assholes. When are they arriving?”

“Should be here in a few hours.”

“I appreciate the head’s up. Have you called Renard? He’s Opal’s guardian now.”

“I know. I also know that he’s got a temper and any threat to Opal is not going to be met well.”

“There’s a threat to Opal?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. And if I tell him that the FBI wants to talk to her . . . well, it could go a couple of ways, couldn’t it?”

“If you don’t tell him, it’s definitely going to go bad.”

“Figured I’d hear what they were here for first, then make that decision,” Jake said tiredly.

“I want to be there.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. Can you get here in the next hour?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

Alec arrivedbefore Duncan’s brothers. They didn’t look at all happy to see him when they walked in.

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