Maya Banks - Sweet Surrender

He nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”

Unable to stop herself, she continued on. “When a man isn’t willing to accept responsibility, a woman has no choice but to step up to the plate. Many times she has children to think about. Herself. Her family. As a result, women have figured out that they are not only capable, but oftentimes more adept at running the household than a man.”

“You make it sound like men as a species have dropped the ball entirely,” Gray said dryly.

“Women have done their fair share of fucking up,” Faith muttered.

God, she needed to just shut up before Gray tucked tail and ran as fast and as far away as he could. She sounded like a starchy man hater. Nothing could be further from the truth. But she was only just now sorting out her feelings when it came to relationships. She was on the cusp of a strange new world where she was trying to reach out and grab what she wanted. She felt edgy and impatient, and worse, she felt doomed to failure.

“I’m making a mess of this,” she muttered. “I should have just kept my mouth shut. I sound like a preachy, man-hating piranha, when in fact what I really want—” She broke off, mortified that she’d almost blurted out just what it was she did want.

He gave her a probing look. “What do you want, Faith?”

“Hey, you two!”

Both Faith and Gray whirled around to see Micah heading across the bar toward them. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she heard Gray utter a curse under his breath.

Micah dropped a kiss on Faith’s cheek then stood between her and Gray as he motioned to the bartender for a drink.

“What are you doing here?” Faith asked. “I thought you had a hot date.”

Micah grinned. “I do. Later, though. We’re meeting somewhere.”

“Sounds positively mysterious,” Faith said.

Gray cleared his throat. “I was just about to ask Faith if she wanted something to eat. You want to join us, or are you eating later?”

Faith checked her watch and grimaced. “Sorry, but I have a hair appointment I have to get to.” She’d leave off the fact that she was getting waxed and pampered for her Friday appointment. “I should be going if I want to to make it on time.”

Gray caught her hand as she stood. She looked over at him and was surprised to see something that looked like regret simmering in his eyes.

“I’d like a rain check on this conversation,” he said.

She blushed and caught Micah’s curious stare out of the corner of her eye.

“Sure. Some other time maybe.”

She reluctantly pulled her hand from his then flashed a smile in Micah’s direction before shoving past him to walk out of the bar.

“Got those surveillance cameras set up?” Pop asked from behind Gray.

Gray stood from his crouched position and turned to face the other man. “Yeah, just got the last one operational. I’ll give Connor a call right quick and make sure they’re all online.”

Pop nodded and put his own cell phone to his ear to make a call.

Gray punched in Connor’s number. “Everything’s set up on my end,” he said when Connor answered. “See if you get a visual from each one.”

Connor was upstairs in the surveillance room where the computerized system for monitoring all the cameras had been installed. He was the computer expert. A real geek when it came to technology. Gray was more of a grunt worker. He understood enough to install cameras and bugs, but the more sophisticated measures he left to those who understood all that shit.

“Yeah, looks like I’ve got a clear bead from all corners. Though it looks like camera B needs to be angled up maybe an inch. If you did that, I’d not only get a clear shot of the hallway, but I’d be able to monitor the doorway at the end.”

“Will do,” Gray said.

“Tell Pop I’m going to be a while up here, so I’ll catch up to y’all later,” Connor said.

Gray agreed and rang off. Shoving the phone back into his pocket, he strode out of the room and across the building to where camera B was installed. After adjusting the angle, he gave Connor another call back to confirm the position. Then he went in search of Pop.

“I’m all done,” he said as he walked back to where Pop stood. “Connor said he’d be a while with the computer system and not to wait on him.”

Pop nodded. “Let’s grab some lunch then.”

Twenty minutes later, the two sat in a small diner drinking coffee while they waited for their food. Gray wanted to ask about Faith and her relationship with her mom, but he didn’t know how to lead into such an unlikely topic without arousing Pop’s suspicions.

Pop may be outgoing and generous but Connor didn’t get his closemouthed ways by chance. Still, Gray needed to find out as much about Celia Martin and any potential connection to Faith as he could.

“Do you like the job so far?” Pop asked, breaking the silence.

Gray nodded. “I do.” He did. Far more than he’d expected. “I was doubtful when Mick suggested the change of scenery, but in retrospect, getting away from Dallas has been a relief.”

“Mick’s your partner’s father, right?”

Again Gray nodded, swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat.

Pop made a sound of sympathy. “I know it has to be hard losing a partner. I was a cop myself a lifetime ago. Losing one of your own…Well, it’s like losing a brother.”

“He was my brother,” Gray said bleakly. “In every sense except actual blood.”

Flashes of his childhood raced through his mind. Alex laughing. Them racing down the street. Throwing a baseball. Nights over at Alex’s house and his mother’s home cooking. Wrestling matches with Mick in the backyard. All the things Gray never had with his own family. Alex and Mick were his family. His only family.

Pop nodded his understanding. “Sometimes blood’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Faith couldn’t be more of a daughter to me if she was my own flesh like Connor. I love them both just as deeply.”

Gray searched his memory for whether anyone had told him that Pop had adopted Faith. He’d learned it from Mick’s investigation, but it wasn’t knowledge he’d be expected to have.

Pop must have taken his silence for confusion, because he went on to explain.

“I adopted Faith. Three years ago.”

Gray raised a brow. “But she was an adult.”

“True. But I wanted her to have my name. I wanted her to have that love and acceptance she’d missed in her life.”

“It doesn’t sound like she had a great childhood,” Gray said in a low voice. One thing they seemed to have in common.

“I was married to her mother years ago.” Pop waved his hand in a dismissive gesture as if wiping away that part of his life.

“What happened to her mom?” Gray asked casually. “No one mentions her. I assumed she was dead.”

Pop’s face darkened, and a scowl pinched his eyebrows together. “Her mother is a leech plain and simple. She uses people, including her own daughter, and when she’s gotten what she wants, she’s on to someone else.”

“So Faith has nothing to do with her?” Gray asked.

“No, and that’s a damn good thing in my book. Faith is too kindhearted for her own good. She spent a lot of years taking care of Celia. Years she should have spent being a normal kid with a parent who looked after her, not the other way around.”

Anger boiled from Pop’s voice. He swallowed and took a long drink of his coffee.

“I married Celia when Faith was fourteen. She was such a sweet kid. Quiet. It took her a while to warm up to me. Connor had just gotten out of the service. It was obvious it wasn’t going to work out between me and Celia, but I wouldn’t end things because I was concerned for Faith. I wanted her to have a good home. But then her mother up and left in the middle of the night and took Faith with her. I went crazy trying to find her. It wasn’t until five years later that I got a call in the middle of the night. Celia had overdosed. Connor and I went to collect Faith. She’d spent the last years working her tail off to support herself as well as Celia. I brought her back home with me, and she’s been here ever since.”

“That’s tough,” Gray murmured.

“Yeah,” Pop muttered. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his graying hair. “I shouldn’t be boring you with all this. It’s just that I’ve been worried about Faith lately. I want her to be happy.”

“Would she tell you if something was bothering her?” Gray asked carefully.

Pop narrowed his eyes. “Of course she would. She tells me everything. It took a while to gain that little girl’s trust when Connor and I first brought her home, but she’s come a long way since then.”

“So her mom just disappeared after that and never contacted her? That seems pretty low.”

Gray found himself holding his breath. He hoped Faith had confided in Pop. Then it wouldn’t look so much like she was trying to hide something.

“Last time her mother called was over a year ago.” Pop leaned forward, fixing Gray with a hard stare. “Faith doesn’t know this, so don’t go telling her.”

It was on the tip of Gray’s tongue to ask why he was telling Gray, a veritable stranger, if he didn’t want Faith to know. But Pop seemed upset, and maybe it made him feel better to get it off his chest.

“When I learned Celia was calling Faith and bugging her for money, I tracked her down and paid her off. Told her not to come anywhere near Faith again.” Pop rubbed a hand wearily over his face. “Not my proudest moment, I’ll grant you, but I wasn’t about to let her step in and ruin Faith’s life after Faith finally started living for herself.”