Hope, a sweet-looking, dark-haired woman, looked at Stef, her eyes going wide.

“Sorry,” Stef said. Hope came from a really religious family.

Though she was only twenty-five, she somehow seemed younger than her years.

She smiled shyly. “It’s okay. I’m getting used to it. The sheriff curses all the time.”

Nate looked up from his paperwork. “I certainly do not curse all the time. And I don’t think that’s what he meant, Stef. I think he’s under the false impression that the US is still on the lookout for defectors. Laura was right. Smart woman. She caught the other guy’s tattoos when he came into the Stop’n’ Shop. It’s apparently code for these guys or something. I don’t know. I dealt with South Americans and homegrown assholes. The European mobster might be too much for my poor, backwoods sheriff brain.” Nate was far too calm. It was making Stef crazy.

Of course, Jennifer standing there and talking to the same man who had kidnapped her and worked for the man who planned to kill anyone in his way made him even crazier.

Stef had to turn away. He stared out the window where the snow was falling in thick waves, blanketing everything in a fine powder.

At least it was over. He forced himself to sit down.

“Look, I’ve already put in a call to the feds. They can’t get here until tomorrow night because of the snowstorm headed our way. If he is who he says he is, he could be important,” Nate said all too sensibly.

Stef couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “He’s a man who almost got your wife killed.”

After giving her brief statement, Zane had collected Callie and insisted she go home to rest. Nate had held her for a long time before allowing Zane to scoop her up and take her home. Stef hadn’t even had a chance to hug Jennifer. She’d been a little bee, buzzing around everywhere. She’d sat with Logan while he took her statement. She’d held Callie’s hand while she’d given hers. Now, she sat talking to the same fucking mobster who had gotten her into the situation in the first place. She’d briefly smiled at Stef and told him she was okay before rushing off to find someone else to comfort or thank.

“Callie is going to be fine. She’s strong. So is Jennifer. You’re the one I’m worried about. I thought you would be relieved this was over.”

“Is it? We don’t have the painting in hand, yet.” Nate’s eyes rolled. “Well, it couldn’t possibly be as easy as walking in and getting it. I blame Rachel. Apparently she preferred the blue painting. Nell said Holly sold the green painting, but she wasn’t sure who had bought it. Holly told her she was thrilled because it brought in enough money that it didn’t make sense to put it in the auction. Someone paid five hundred for the damn thing.” Stef winced. He didn’t agree with Jennifer’s insistence on giving away her work. It was worth much more than five hundred. “And Holly doesn’t remember who gave her five hundred dollars?”

“Holly left to pick up her kid. He’s coming into town. She wanted to get him before his dad changed his mind. You know how she is about that kid.”

Holly would drop everything for her teenage son. From what Stef understood, her ex-husband kept them apart as much as he could.

“Did someone check the receipts?”

Nate stared at him as though he’d grown a second head.

“Right.” Like anyone in Bliss was terribly concerned about receipts.

“Nell gave me the book. Whoever bought it paid cash and can’t write to save his or her life. I tried to make out the signature, but I apparently don’t read that language. Don’t worry about it, Stef. I’ll put out the word. We’ll find it.”

Nate sounded certain, but Stef wouldn’t be satisfied until that painting was out of their hair.

And then it would be over, and he would have to deal with the fact that he was going to lose her. Stef nodded to Nate and forced himself to sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting area.

Though he’d been the one to set in motion the plan that would separate them, Stef didn’t like to think about how fast it was all happening. He’d thought he had a bit of time with her. The wheels of the court system tended to grind slowly. He was certain he could get the charges against her dropped, but it would take time.

If what the Russian said was true, Finn Taylor could get the charges against her dropped by tomorrow morning.

“I did what you asked of me, Stefan. Are you sure about this?” His father sank down into the chair beside his. He watched as Jennifer laughed at something the criminal who had nearly killed her said.

“You seem very taken with her. I might not understand your relationship with her, but I can see plainly you care for her.” Stef felt like he always felt around his father, slightly restless. It was as though the minute he occupied the same space as the man, Stef’s skin became too tight. He shifted in his chair, wishing he could avoid all of this, but he needed his father’s help on several fronts.

They had talked about his plans early this morning before Stef had left. His father, apparently, worked fast. “I love her, Dad. I want what’s best for her.”

Just saying the words made him wish he could take them back, but he’d been compelled to spit them out. No one understood. Everyone thought he was being an ass when all he wanted was to do right by her. It was all he ever wanted.

“If you love her, why are you trying to send her away? I made the calls you asked me to. They’ll take her mid-semester. They’re counting her work with Renard as life experience. But, I don’t think she wants to go to Paris.”

Stef turned, and Jennifer was passing the man named Alexei Markov a glass of water. Every artist wanted to study at the Sorbonne.

Jennifer couldn’t be any different. She would be surrounded by art and culture, and he would see that she lived in style. She could study and live a bit, and then if she decided to come back to him, he could believe her.

Why couldn’t anyone see that he was sacrificing his happiness for her?

“She’ll love it once she gets there,” Stef insisted.

His father’s eyes tightened in suspicion. “Are you planning on drugging her, son? Because I think that’s what it’s going to take to get her on a plane to Europe.”

She would go. He would see to it. She would certainly see reason.

She couldn’t grow as an artist here. She couldn’t see the world.

His father leaned forward. The lines on his familiar face creased further as he frowned seriously. “Stefan, this is one of the reasons I came back. I want to talk to you about so many things, but this one in particular. You can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened between me and your mother.”

Stef shook his head. “What are you talking about? I don’t blame myself.”

Sebastian snorted lightly. “Fine, then I would like very much for you to stop blaming me.”

“This is not the place to have this conversation.” Stef kept his voice low. The last thing he needed was more gossip.

His father didn’t seem to have a problem with it. “Well, you don’t seem to think there is a place for this conversation, so I’ve decided to have it out here.”

“Fine. I don’t blame myself, and I don’t blame you. I lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of my mother. She’s the one who decided to leave us in order to pursue a career in acting. She’s the one who walked out.”

“She was very young. I knew that when I married her.”

“Then why did you?”

“I was in love with her. I married your mother when she was twenty-four years old. Back then, that wasn’t really so young. I was older, of course, but I knew I wanted her the minute I saw her.” Stef felt his whole soul drag. He knew that story. He’d wanted Jennifer. He’d known that first morning she’d walked into Stella’s looking for him that she was special. He’d been fighting the feeling ever since.

His father had a wistful smile on his face. “I judged a beauty pageant. She won.”

It should have been a clue. Sebastian Talbot had made a mistake that Stef didn’t intend to make. He’d seen trouble coming and walked headlong into it. “Did she talk about her dreams for the future then?”

“Oh, no,” Sebastian replied with a shake of his head. “She was very set on getting married and having a family. Your mother was a lovely, funny, bright woman, but she was always very mercurial. She changed her mind all the time. She was like a butterfly flitting around.

I should have known, but I was young, too. I thought I could make her happy, and then you came along. I was sure she would settle in.” It was hard to remember his mother. When he saw her in his head, it was always in still form, as though he was looking at a photograph.

She was beautiful and distant, always distant. She’d been that way even with his father.

“She needed more than marriage and a family could give her,” Stef said. “I think it’s like that for very talented women. They need room to grow. Tell me something, Dad, do you think it would have been different if you had met her at a different time? Say, when she was older?”

His father laughed, the sound amusing but with a sharp edge. “As your mother has gone through three husbands since me, I doubt it, son.”

Stef turned to his father, utterly startled at the announcement.

He’d known that she hadn’t had the career she’d planned. He’d googled her in the past, but he’d imagined her as happy and working.

“Three husbands?”

His father held his hand up, indicating the number four. “Don’t forget me. I was the first. Her current victim is a very nice retired lawyer.”

Stef felt the foundation of his world shift a bit. “How would you know? Are you telling me you kept tabs on her?”