“No, ma’am, a private investigator. Like I told you, we’re trying to locate Ms. Scanlon’s father.”

Dottie snorted indelicately. “Good luck.”

Delia broke her silence. “You knew him?”

“No one knew him.”

“Are you certain?”

“As certain as I am that I’m standing here wasting my time. He was a selfish pig. What do you want to know about him for?”

“Just for…me,” Delia said. “Thank you for your help.” Her voice was steady. Totally in control.

Cade knew a lot about hiding feelings. When Lisa and Tommy had first died, he’d hidden everything, not just from others, but from himself. All sadness, all grief, all fury at the injustice of it, everything. It had nearly destroyed him. Before he’d realized it, he was dead inside. A bad thing for an attorney, and a high-powered one at that. He’d walked away from his cases, had turned away from his family and friends. He’d not been satisfied until nothing of his former life remained. Now, years later, he didn’t bother to hide his feelings anymore. He didn’t have to. He hardly had any.

Or he hadn’t, until Delia. Beautiful stoic hurting Delia. So cool, so calm. He wondered how long she could sustain it. She’d been doing this for what…over twenty years now? When did she allow herself to break? To need someone?

Dammit, she was just a case to him. Nothing more.

As soon as he was done here, he was leaving, going back to his unfeeling self. He’d start with New York. He needed the big city, needed to get lost in it. He had another case with a lead that led there, so he would enjoy himself and take his time.

After that, he thought Florida might suit him.

He’d have to check on Constance’s inheritance and the ranch, but he could do that by phone, as well as any follow-up required.

As soon as this business was finished. “On the phone,” he said, “you hinted you might be able to give us some insight as to Delia’s father’s whereabouts.”

“Did I?” Dottie straightened away from the door and eyed their clothing with disdain. “Seems anyone that dresses as fancy as you two should be able to pay for whatever they want.”

Cade wasn’t wearing anything other than casual khaki pants and a tucked-in polo shirt, but he was clean and neat and, he supposed, far cleaner and neater than Dottie. Combined with Delia’s unmistakable presence, which she would have exuded even in a potato sack, he could see why Dottie felt they’d come from a different world.

With an outward smile and an inward sigh, he pulled out his wallet.

Dottie brightened considerably. “That’s right,” she said, rubbing her palms on her thighs, nearly drooling in the process. “Make me an offer.”

“Cade…”

Cade shook his head at Delia and offered Dottie several bills. She stuffed them down her top and smiled warmly. “What exactly was it you wanted to know?”

“For starters, his name,” Cade said. “Delia’s birth certificate doesn’t list him.”

“A name doesn’t mean anything.”

“It would be a start,” Cade said patiently.

“I’m not certain I can remember.” Dottie smiled, crossed her arms.

Cade stared at her, then took out his wallet once more and handed her another bill.

“Cade…”

Again he shook his head, holding eye contact with Dottie. Unfortunately he knew the type. Only money, and maybe intimidation, could reach her.

“I think it was…Eddie,” she said. “Eddie something. Eddie Kitze?”

She spelled it for him, and Cade wrote it down. “He said he was a cop. With which department?”

“Never said.”

“Never?”

“Just said so, didn’t I?”

“Tell us about him.”

Dottie rolled her eyes, popped her gum. “Delia’s mother was only staying here with friends on and off-she didn’t live here. She had a rich daddy, but he was real strict, always kept her on a short leash that she was forever tugging at, you know?”

“You mean she’d run away?”

“No, she wasn’t stupid. She snuck out. She enjoyed slumming around.”

“Slumming?” Delia repeated, her voice still perfectly even, so much so that Cade narrowed his eyes at her.

It wasn’t natural to hide all that emotion.

“Slumming,” Dottie said again. “She liked fast cars and faster men. This Eddie, he’d led her to believe he was a real somebody, but when she got herself knocked up, he took off. Never saw him again.”

From inside the apartment, a rough male voice called out Dottie’s name.

She rolled her eyes again. “Gotta go.”

“Wait.” Delia took a step toward Dottie, one hand raised in entreaty.

Dottie stepped back. “That’s it, sweetcakes. I’ve gotta run.”

The door shut in their faces.

Delia stared at it, not moving, her hand still raised.

Cade’s heart twisted. “Delia-”

“Don’t,” she whispered, dropping her hand and turning away. “Just…don’t.”

She walked back through the building, down the steps and into the car, all in a terrible heavy silence. When Cade climbed in next to her, she was looking out the window, studying the building.

“Just drop me off at the car-rental place,” she said. “I’ll need my own car to go see Jacob. And you’ll need to get going, I imagine.”

Yes, he needed to get going. Wanted to get going. Couldn’t wait to get going.

“Delia-”

“Just drive, Cade.”

“We have a name now,” he said, not starting the car, needing to make her feel better somehow. He didn’t understand it, this urge he had to make her happy. “With it I can start an effective trace.”

She lifted a shoulder as if she didn’t care what he did. “The name probably wasn’t real.”

“I’ll find something,” he promised rashly, anything to break through that wall she’d erected. “You never know, it could lead us right to-”

“Don’t say it,” she said in a surprisingly harsh voice. “We’ve got exactly what we had before you spent two hundred dollars on a junkie. Nothing.”

“I don’t get it. You were so hot to resolve this thing. How the hell can you just give up?” he demanded, satisfied when hot sparks shot from her eyes.

“I’m not giving up. I never give up.”

“Then where’s your excitement? Your hope?” Ruthlessly he pushed her, needing to punish her for being so…so everything he wanted and wouldn’t let himself have. “We’ve just been given a good solid lead that could open the door on your past, a past you’ve wondered about your entire life, and you’re sitting there as if it doesn’t matter.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then tell me.”

He was practically shouting at her, but dammit, he had this bone-deep need to break through, just for once, and see the real Delia.

“Why should I? You’ve made it clear we don’t mean anything to each other.”

“I’ve made it clear…” He gaped at her, because it was true and he had no idea what to say. He’d never purposely hurt anyone, especially Delia, but she was right in a way. He didn’t want them to mean anything to each other. And yet it was too late. He let out a long breath. “I’m sorry. It’s just that this sizzling attraction between us… Damn, Delia, when I kiss you, I could…”

“You could…?”

He could see his future in her warm loving arms. Told himself he could live happily ever after just being with her, watching her smile, hearing her talk. “Nothing,” he said shortly. “Forget it.”

“All right, I will.”

Great. Jamming the car in drive, he took them out of the seedy neighborhood, letting the road occupy his mind. When they arrived back at the car-rental place, they got out in silence.

“Thank you,” she said stiffly, looking cool and elegant. Untouchable. Her hair was in perfect order, the glorious strands shining like spun gold.

The heat was getting to him, he decided. But there was no denying she was a Southern Californian at heart. He wondered if she knew how at home she looked here.

“Let me know what you find out about Eddie Kitze,” she said, as if they were discussing dinner plans, instead of her life.