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Silence.

Grace finally broke it, saying, “Let’s make the call.”

It went exactly as Cooper predicted it would. The only new piece of information Sam Vela added was that Tigris was the name of a highly classified military operation before adding that he couldn’t say anything more about it.

Grace teared up when Sam asked kindly if she needed him to come out to Montana and take care of whoever was harassing her, and she told him that a group of good people were looking out for her. Sam made her promise to call him back if things got worse and if the good people around her needed a Special Operator’s particular skill set.

The call ended, and Reno held out a handkerchief to her that he pulled out of his shirt pocket. She looked at it in surprise but did take it and dab at her eyes. He noted that she clung to it tightly while he, Wheeler, and Cooper sorted out the logistics of bakery, preschool, and cottage surveillance for the next several days.

When the meeting broke up, Grace excused herself to go to the ladies’ room and splash some water on her face.

As soon as she left, Cooper turned to Reno, saying seriously, "I want to ask you something and I want you to think about it before you answer."

Reno nodded.

"You used to do this for a living, didn’t you?"

He didn’t have to think about how to answer that. "I did the civil side of this for a living."

“Meaning what?”

Reno did have to stop and think about how to answer that. He exhaled hard and said, “I’m an attorney. I specialized in going after high-powered corporate criminals and prosecuting them.”

“State or federal prosecutor?”

“Private, actually. Big corporations hired me to take down criminals inside their companies before the government could get involved. Saved them a lot of fines and public embarrassment to handle it in house.”

“So you have a lot of experience with criminal investigations. Our little sheriff’s department is stretched thin covering whatever’s going on with Grace, and we could sure use the help of a guy with your background. You interested in helping out?”

The question hung between them.

Reno thought about Grace. He thought about Lily. He thought about Dillon telling him he was allowed to walk through doors in front of him.” I'm in."

Cooper held out a hand, and Reno shook it.

“One thing, Coop. Only a few people in town know about my background, and I’d like to keep it that way. I have no plans to hang out a shingle and go back into law, and I don’t want to be inundated with people looking for legal help.”

Cooper grinned. “Fair enough. My brother, Gray, was complaining to me just the other day that he never should’ve told anyone around here about his background in animal genetics. Every rancher in the valley is asking him to help them upgrade their herds, not to mention the kooks who bother him with questions about growing bigger tomatoes or crossing weird species of squashes. Your secret’s safe with me.”

Reno nodded his thanks. He’d known Cooper long enough on the rodeo circuit to know the man’s word was his bond.

He drove Grace to the bakery and then headed back to the cottage. He walked a circuit around the outside of the house and didn’t see anything out of place. Curious, he strolled down the lakefront and walked out on Grace’s dock. It was solidly built but nails were starting to poke up out of the wood slats here and there. Lily couldn’t walk on this barefoot with it like this.

He headed for the garage and was pleasantly surprised by the big, well-stocked workbench along one wall. He found a hammer and headed back to the dock. His knee brace made it impossible to kneel properly, so he ended up sitting down and scooching along the dock from nail to nail in need of pounding in. As he did so, it became clear that the dock was far too rough and splinter prone for tender little feet, as well.

He took the hammer back to the garage and rummaged in the drawers of a big, steel drawer cabinet until he found a package of round sandpaper meant to attach to a drill. He’d already seen the drill in another drawer and pulled it out, too. Several long extension cords were coiled on a wall hook, and he spent the next several minutes uncoiling them and laying them across the back yard and down to the dock.

He went to work sanding the boards, sitting down with his legs stretched out in front of him.

Lily and Grace came home when he was about three fourths done with the top of the deck, and they came out to see what he was doing.

“You didn’t have to do this!” Grace exclaimed.

“It gave me something to do, and it’s a beautiful day,” he replied easily. “I should finish this in the next hour or so.”

Grace nodded, looking a bit overwhelmed. “I’ll, umm, go start supper. Unfortunately, I live on baker’s time, which means we eat at about five o’clock so I can be in bed by nine.”

“No need to apologize. That works for me. Can I help with supper?”