Genesis: A Harte's Peak Prequel Read Online Free Page A

anymore.”
    “Is she skipping school? Hanging out with a bad crowd?” He wouldn’t be surprised, since kids from single parent households were at a higher risk.
    Maggie’s green eyes widened. “No. I hope not. She’s had some problems at school, but I want to make sure things don’t get any worse. She just needs a little guidance.”
    Good idea, but what did it have to do with him? “There are some programs at the county level. I’m not sure, but I could look into it for you…”
    Maggie smiled with a longing in her eyes that made his chest tighten. “I hoped you would help personally. You’re our neighbor. We always taught Lexi to trust law enforcement. You could talk to her sometime, and tell her how important it is to stay on the straight and narrow.”
    Anything but that. He didn’t want to be around kids. They were too unpredictable. And tragic. “Thing is though, I’m uh—not great with kids.” Quite possibly the understatement of the year, buddy.
    “You’ve never had any of your own?”
    He shook his head. “Nope.”
    “I wouldn’t say Lexi is the easiest kid to get along with, but she really is a good kid once you get to know her.” Spoken from the mouth of a hopeful mother.
    “I’m sure she is.” He was not sure of any such thing.
    “Lexi needs a positive male role model in her life. She and her dad were so close.” Her eyes darkened.
    Nice. Another absentee father. “So there’s no one else—no uncle, grandfather?”
    At the mention of grandfather, he didn’t imagine it when she visibly tensed. Definitely something going on there.
    “Grandfather, yes, but he’s a busy attorney here in town.”
    “It sounds like he just needs to re-prioritize.” Attorneys often had that problem. Take Tim, for example.
    She stared at him. “Please. Just talk to her.”
    Every muscle in his body tensed. He wanted to help with clogged sinks, jump-starting cars, maybe even killing a spider or two. Why couldn’t she have asked him for anything but this? “But—”
    “I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. She’s not the girl she used to be. She talks back, skipped class once, cheated on a test at school, and she doesn’t ever want to go to church anymore.” Maggie wrung her hands.
    He couldn’t blame the kid about church. Who wanted to be dragged into a building every Sunday with all the other hypocrites? And as for the few sincere people, religion was just another crutch. Of course, he would put Maggie in that latter group, which only made him worry about her. Did she go around asking complete strangers for help? What if she ran into the wrong person?
    “I don’t know why you’re asking me. You don’t even know me.” There. He’d said it out loud, even if it felt like he’d just kicked a puppy.
    It didn’t seem to faze her. “My brother is a police officer in Colorado, and I have a good sense about people. There’s a little bit of good in everyone, and my instincts are dead on.”
    Jack cleared his throat. “What does your brother say about this instinct of yours?”
    Maggie shrugged. “Well, he doesn’t count. He’s a bit overprotective. Actually, he might yell at me if I asked anyone else, but I know he’d trust another police officer.”
    She’d picked the one person who couldn’t help her. Wearing a law enforcement uniform didn’t make him a good person. Yeah, sure, he tried and failed miserably every day, but he certainly didn’t want to tell her that.
    He stared at those green eyes, the trembling rosebud lips. Look away, Butler.
    But his lips moved as though independent of the brain that knew better. “Sure. I’ll have a talk with her sometime.”
    The sweat dripped down his back. A real excuse would mean explaining what had happened in Virginia, and that’s the last thing he wanted to do.
     
     
     
     

3
     
    Jack pulled into the Harte’s Peak YMCA parking lot in his long-bed pickup and hoped for once Ryan wouldn’t be late. They met on the basketball