A Rare Chance by Carla Neggers

can be attributed to my background. But they don’t want it coming back to haunt them.”
    Cam touched the foliage of a cattleya, inadvertently brushing her fingers with his. “Tough to explain to those bankers you negotiate with that you served time in prison.”
    So he knew about that too. “It was just for a few weeks.”
    â€œYou and Scag got tossed in the slammer plenty of times for breaking the law.”
    She shrugged, wishing she felt as nonchalant as she was trying to look. “Rarely more than for a night or two, until we could get things straightened out.”
    â€œYou’d been working in finance here in Boston, showing no inclination to go traipsing off with your loony father. What changed your mind?”
    â€œMy mother’s death.”
    He nodded, his sea-blue eyes softening. “That’ll do it.”
    â€œI’d made some good investments—lucky ones, actually—right after I earned my MBA. So I could afford to succumb to the fantasies I had of Scag’s life. I’d always considered it too nomadic for me, unstable, even irresponsible. My mother never bad-mouthed him or sugar-coated what he was, just let me figure it out on my own. After she died—” She breathed out, remembering. “Scag had gotten this grant, and I had this money, and somehow life suddenly just seemed too short. So off we went.”
    â€œNo regrets?”
    â€œI learned a great deal during those two years. I’m better at what I do because of them. I might be a little more unorthodox than in the past, but it works.”
    â€œSweetheart, if you’re like your old man, ‘unorthodox’ is an understatement. He’s been arrested dozens of times for trespassing, harassment, being a general pain in the ass. He’s been kicked out of countries and thrown into jails all over the world, fined right into bankruptcy. And for two years, you with him.”
    â€œI’m not bankrupt,” she said lightly.
    But he didn’t smile. She could feel his eyes on her, feel their intensity. She couldn’t let his natural irreverence lull her into thinking he wasn’t alert, thorough, absolutely tenacious. A former police detective. A man clearly determined to get to the bottom of his friend’s decision to go to work for Joshua Reading, no matter what it cost.
    She sighed. “My father’s uncompromising when it comes to protecting orchid habitats and stopping orchid poachers.”
    â€œPoachers?”
    â€œPeople who would steal endangered orchids and sell them abroad. It’s illegal, but that doesn’t stop someone truly determined to get his hands on a particular species. Some orchid aficionados have to have every wild species in their possession, no matter how endangered. Most of the orchids the average person would recognize—the ones I have here—are produced from seed or by division, which can be tricky, or through cross-breeding and cloning. They’re not wild.”
    Cam drew back, eyeing her. “I’ll bet Scag’s tough on poachers.”
    She licked her lips, remembering to whom she was speaking. Cops, Scag liked to say, were pretty much the same the world over. “He never hurt anyone or seriously damaged any property.”
    â€œSo what’s he doing here?”
    â€œHe fell. He injured his knee. A friend of mine brought him back here. She’s often rescued him in the past. Me too, for that matter. From afar, anyway. Lizzie doesn’t like slipping her neck into the noose.”
    â€œUnlike Tony Scagliotti and daughter.”
    She gave him a mock bow, refusing to apologize for who she was—or who her father was.
    â€œHaving your old man back in town’s not like having a dead body under the sofa, but I can see it might keep the Reading boys awake nights if they knew. Weird having to explain to the press about having someone on the payroll who nearly got herself shot in the behind