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else when she was still trying to figure out how to live without the guilt she’d carried around for almost twenty years. It wasn’t going to be a fast process.
    Lissa dropped her keys and purse onto the retro phone table with its built-in seat. Despite this little blip, she was certain that Dory and Garrett would weather things just fine. Garrett was happy and, after all these years of watching over him, that made Lissa happy, too. There were only two years separating them in age, but he felt like her responsibility…always had.
    She lifted her mass of curly hair off her neck then let it drop as she stretched her arms over her head. Tomorrow was her first full day at the tattoo shop so she needed to eat something and then get to bed soon. She wouldn’t want to do any botched jobs just because she hadn’t gotten enough shut-eye. Every one of the appointments had been made by a repeat customer, which was gratifying—she was twenty miles away from her last location, yet her clients were willing to come to her. And then the official grand opening party was set for tomorrow night.
    This evening had been a disaster and then some, but that didn’t necessarily bode poorly for her whole venture. Still, she kept flashing to what had happened with Jackson’s tattoo and what it might mean for him…and for her and Garrett, too. She shook her head. Instead of thinking about him, she should be focusing on the new protection tattoo she was going to do for Garrett and how to make it work.
    Her heart jumped into her throat when she turned into her small efficiency kitchen. “What the hell are you doing here?”
    Jackson gave her a wry grin. He was leaning against the sink, arms crossed over his chest, ankles crossed, too. Dressed in camo pants and a tight black T-shirt, he looked like he should be out in a desert somewhere.
    “Nice to see you, too, Lissa.”
    “It is not nice to see you in my kitchen this late. Uninvited and smelling like a dumpster. How the hell did you get in, anyway? You almost gave me a heart attack, you jerk.” She flicked on the tap then shoved a teakettle under the streaming water. Here she was trying to banish him from her mind and he popped up like one of those unlucky pennies. She shook her head and slammed the tap off.
    Using her elbow, she moved him out of her way to put the kettle on the small three-burner stove. She cranked the gas knob too hard and it came off in her hand. Damn. With her back to him, she discreetly put it back on before starting the flames under the pot.
    His low chuckle told her the knob incident had not gone unnoticed. Well, he could go to hell.
    “So, midnight. Uninvited. To what do I owe this not-so-distinct pleasure? I thought you were pissed at me about the tattoo.”
    “My, my, we are in a mood this evening.” He hadn’t moved an inch. Lissa fought down the swift vision of him as a panther waiting to spring on unsuspecting prey. But she was suspecting and never prey.
    “Not until I came home and found an intruder. I’m just getting back from Garrett’s. Now, what are you doing here? And I mean it, how did you get in? I didn’t hear an alarm.”
    The half smile dropped from his face, and he resembled a man on the hunt even more than before. “I used a handy-dandy thing called a lock pick. Your place isn’t as secure as you seem to think. We can fix that later. For now, I searched the house where we found Garrett from top to bottom and there was nothing, no indication of why someone had taken him or of who they were.”
    “Did you think they were going to leave you a driver’s license and social security card? Maybe a utility bill?”
    “Of course not. Do you think I’m stupid?” He grabbed her arm when she turned away from his anger.
    She slammed her hand on the stove. “What do you want from me? You’re the cleanup guy. You and Garrett are the ones who figure things out. I’m just the one who ruined his life by tattooing him. And now I’ve done the same