Take Me If You Dare by Candace Havens

idea. He was an awful dog to everyone but the family. He was my grand protector. When people came over I had to keep him in the backyard or he’d sit and growl at them the whole time. He never bit anyone but he’d bark and make this low guttural sound, and basically scare the heck out of them.”
    Jackson enjoyed listening to her talk. He could imagine a mean old dog determined to protect her. Hell, he’d known her less than a day, and he wanted to take care of her, even though she seemed perfectly capable of doing that for herself.
    “My mom and dad traveled a lot when I was little, and Terry was my best friend.” She snorted. “Now, that sounds pathetic—a dog as a best friend. Bring out the violins. Did you have pets?” she asked as she poured syrup on her pancakes.
    Jackson considered his answer. There was the one time that he had tried to hide a kitten. When his mom’s boyfriend found it he’d gone ballistic, and had beaten Jackson for ten minutes with a belt. Screaming that the last thing they needed was another mouth to feed.
    The next day Jackson rode the bus two hours to the shelter and then begged the woman at the desk to promise she’d find a good home for the kitten.
    A week later he went back to check to make sure theanimal had been adopted and not killed. The woman at the desk had taken pity on him and explained that a nice family had taken in the animal and named him Hal. She promised that the family loved the kitten very much. She even showed him the file with a picture of the family with the kitten so he could see she told the truth.
    Sitting on the back of the bus, he cried all the way home. He was seven, and after that he made it a point to never care too much about anything. “No. I never had pets. We moved too much.”
    He never liked discussing himself, especially anything to do with the past, and decided to steer the conversation in a new direction.
    “How long have you had your investigative agency?” Jackson knew the answer, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.
    “Wow. Um, it’s been about eighteen months, I guess.” Her voice faltered for an instant. “My mom was killed in a plane crash, and she willed the place to me. They do a lot of good work there, from finding missing children to consulting with law enforcement agencies around the world. They make a difference, and I planned to be a part of it some day. I never expected it to happen so soon.”
    “That must have been rough on you with your mom. I’m sorry.”
    She sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be up to her standards. She was incredible at what she did. People tell me her instincts were legendary. I didn’t spend much time with her when I was a kid, but in my teen years. Well, she made sure I could protect myself, and mademe take martial arts even if I’d rather be practicing with makeup. I’m grateful now. But at the time, all we did was fight. When I went away to college most of our communication was through my dad. It’s always been easier for me to connect with him. I’d always planned on getting to know my mom better, and then the crash.”
    She adjusted the ponytail on top of her head, and rolled her shoulders as if to loosen tension that had built there. “Can I tell you a secret?”
    Jackson was intrigued. “Of course, you can tell me anything.”
    Staring down at the table, she twisted the napkin in her hand. He had a hard time reading her face and was more curious than ever.
    “Whatever it is, Mar, really,” he encouraged her.
    “This case, in Bangkok, was my first one. Well, technically, that is. I solved one in Texas, but that was a complete accident. Something I happened to walk in on, but this was my first one to actually take on and solve.” She pointed at him. “With your help, of course. I really don’t think I could have done it without you.”
    His assumption from his earlier reading was correct. While she seemed to have some of the basics down, that she’d missed the tail