Come Hell or High Desire by Misty Dietz Page A

wife under the table. Tell them how it feels like there’s a hole the size of a meteor in your chest. How
     you want John back.
    Ann back .
    Her absence hadn’t started with the note this morning. They’d been close while John
     was alive, but that had all changed when the EMTs had pronounced him dead on arrival
     almost a year ago. Instead of their grief drawing them together, it had isolated them,
     as though they couldn’t stand seeing their own pain reflected in one another’s eyes.
     John would be devastated.
    And pissed.
    Zack rubbed his palms together, the emptiness inside him expanding until he was sure
     that if someone yelled in his ear it would echo in his chest cavity. Archie’s eyes
     narrowed.
    “Zack?” Twyla laid a hand on his arm, and he almost came out of the chair.
    Get a grip, Goldman. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’ve been super busy with the mall project. Two days to go until
     we’re done, and in some ways I still wish I hadn’t won the bid. The Benjamin Group’s
     a nightmare to work with, not to mention getting them to pay their bills on time.”
    “Things pretty tight?”
    Zack leaned back in the chair, willing his body to relax in spite of Archie’s eagle
     eyes. “Yeah. Ultimately, this project should help us pull out of it, though I need
     more jobs lined up. None of my people can afford to be laid off.”
    Another thing that kept him up at night.
    One of his foremen had a fifth child on the way. A supervisor’s wife had to have a
     third round of chemo and even though Samuel’s provided excellent medical coverage,
     the family’s bills were staggering, especially with two of their kids in college.
     And on it went with so many of his people.
    “I thought John always had good cash flow.”
    “He did. I don’t know what happened. Ross is going over the books to see where the
     holes are. He’s already found a few, so that’s promising.”
    “Someone siphoning?”
    “Ross seems to think so, but he doesn’t have any proof yet. If anyone can find it,
     he’s the man.” He has to. “I’m lucky he’s stayed with me since John—” He couldn’t get the words out. But they
     knew. Twyla reached over to squeeze his hand. When the ache in his throat eased, he
     pushed the plate away. “It’s my own fault for not taking a more active role in the
     back office.”
    Archie sat back. “What, you expect to run the whole business alone?”
    “It’d be nice.” How was he going to broach the topic of Ann’s disappearance? He looked
     into the eyes of each of his friends. If he couldn’t trust these three, everything
     he’d reconstructed his life on was a sham. “Ann’s gone.”
    “What do you mean gone?” Twyla asked.
    He told them about Ann’s disappearance and the note, leaving Sloane out of the picture.
     He wasn’t sure how to explain any of that. Nor his growing belief in something that
     he would have ridiculed only yesterday.
    Twyla rubbed her belly. “This is scary. Do you still have the note?”
    He pulled it from his pocket and laid it on the table. Archie picked it up, and Zack
     continued. “I talked to her last night, but she didn’t say anything about going out
     of town or being unavailable. Has she talked to any of you about anyone she’s been
     seeing lately?”
    Morgan shook her head and got up to get a pop from the fridge.
    “She hasn’t said anything to me,” Twyla said. “Guys ask her out, but she’s just so
     shy she usually says no. I tease her that she needs a higher power to intercede to
     make her bold. She always jokes back that it’d be her luck to fall in love with a
     pastor.”
    Archie put his elbows on the table. “Have you filed a report with the police?”
    “Yeah, right before I stopped at home.”
    “How were you received at the department?”
    Zack interlaced his fingers behind his head. Being around Archie was like living in
     a Petri dish. Couldn’t hide shit even if you grew fur. “Let me put it this way. Barnaba’s