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sharp,” Doc ordered Holly. “If you need more help, you speak up. Someone’s got to come out of there at some point, whoever it is Lofton is visiting. We’ll respect the hotel’s privacy as long as we can, but if you get the faintest whiff that there’s something illegal going on there or that those visits are more than chasing tail, we have to act.” He stared at Vince and JD in turn. “I understand how you feel, but…”
    JD nodded. “I know. But Sophie’s a good woman, Doc, and she’s had a tough road. I’d bet everything I own that nothing illegal is going on inside Hotel Serenity.”
    “Then how do you explain Lofton visiting every damn day?”
    “I don’t know. But I will.” JD frowned. The problem was how without breaking Sophie’s cherished confidentiality. He thought of everything Sophie had been through. Then he thought of Candy and her sister.
    No contest. And an excellent place to start was at the youngest MacAllister’s birthday party Saturday night, to which he was already invited. He didn’t like doing it, but if Sophie had any answers… If he could explain to Sophie, she would be sympathetic, but he couldn’t. Whether he liked being in this position couldn’t matter, not when women were dying.
    Doc didn’t seem happy, but he changed the topic. “So do we have any answers from Treasury?” he asked Bob, since money laundering fell in the U.S. Treasury’s purview. Money laundering was only one of the suspicions they had of Avery Lofton, but it was an angle they were vigorously pursuing.
    JD tried to focus on Bob’s answer, but in the back of his mind, he was strategizing how to approach Sophie and Lofton’s mysterious guest… .

CHAPTER THREE
    “Y OU ARE POSITIVE YOU ’ RE all right with this?” Sophie asked Violet a couple of days later. “I can cancel the party, or we could move it. Jenna would understand.”
    “Cancel your best friend’s birthday party? I don’t think so! Certainly not on my account.”
    “I wish you’d change your mind and attend. I promise everyone would respect your privacy. It’s only family, and they’re accustomed to dealing with the complications of Zane’s fame. They, of all people, understand the price of what you do.”
    “But I’d be an interloper,” Violet pointed out, even though she desperately wanted to say yes. Avery’s daily visits weren’t doing it for her anymore, and she had to face facts: she was a sociable person, accustomed to a great deal of human interaction every day and her haven was beginning to feel like a cage.
    “You know Zane and Roan. Plus, the MacAllisters have a loose definition of family. JD will be here, for example.” At Violet’s lifted eyebrows, Sophie explained. “JD Cameron used to work with Jesse, and he still works with Vince. He’s always invited to family events.”
    “Jesse is…Cade’s older brother.”
    “Half brother,” Sophie clarified. “Not that any of them differentiate. They share the same mother. Grace was widowed with two boys, Diego and Jesse, when she met Hal MacAllister.”
    “Zane’s dad. And Cade’s.”
    “And Jenna’s.”
    At Sophie’s nod, Violet cast back to see if she could recall others in the family. “But Vince is…?”
    “No blood relation, but the eldest brother, Diego, is married to Caroline, whose sister Chloe is married to Vince.” She smiled. “Your head spinning yet?”
    “Pretty much.” Violet rubbed her temple. “Okay, go ahead. So this JD person…”
    “Vince and JD are both police detectives. Jesse was an FBI agent, and his wife Delilah came from the Austin Police Department, just like Vince and JD.”
    “But Jesse is an artist now.” Violet seized on the one fact she was sure of. She’d seen Jesse’s stunning oil paintings and intended to own some of his work herself, once she’d bought a new house with no memories of ex-husbands in it.
    “He is. So are you straight on everyone?”
    Violet opened her mouth to say yes, then promptly