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Lucia asked.
    “Dogs are pack animals. I love them and they sense that. They want to be friends and please me,” he said.
    He made it sound easy. Her respect for him increased.
    They waited a few minutes before leaving the yard the same way they’d come.
    “How did you know Hammer would call someone?” Lucia asked.
    “He was sweating when we were talking to him. We rattled him and he’d need to vent about it. He’s not a leader. He’s a follower. He needs someone to tell him what to do. That’s why he was easy for Anderson to use, knowingly or unknowingly, in the con and for Young to use as a scapegoat,” Cash said.
    “We can’t use anything we overheard as evidence,” she said.
    “Doesn’t matter. We have something more to go on,” Cash said. “Hammer knows something but he’s being instructed to shut his mouth. Someone is dangling the woman he loves, Kinsley, in front of him like a prize if he does.”
    It shouldn’t be hard to find out more about Kinsley from employment records at Holmes and White. Getting a warrant for those records could prove challenging, given that Lucia couldn’t explain how and why they wanted Kinsley’s records. “Do you think that he would lie about what he knows for a woman? He’s taking all the heat.”
    “Haven’t you ever been in love?” Cash asked.
    She’d once thought she was and had been terribly wrong. “No.”
    Cash frowned. “Then as a man who has, I’ll tell you. When a woman wins a man’s heart, deserved or not, he will do anything to be with her and to make her happy.”
    How would it feel to be on the receiving end of Cash’s devotion? Exploring those thoughts felt too intimate and were, at best, inappropriate. She brushed them away. She’d been a fool for love before and it had ended badly. “We have to build a strong case. Not prop it up with flimsy evidence and theories.”
    Cash leaned closer. “I’m not asking you to do it my way. But don’t ask me to do it yours. I never did learn how to color inside the lines.”
    * * *
    Cash walked a step behind Lucia, giving her space to think. Even though it hadn’t been Cash’s call to work with Lucia, she’d been annoyed to be assigned the Young and Hammer interviews with him and hadn’t hidden it.
    Cash’s plan to win her over at the first opportunity wasn’t going well. She was prickly, standoffish and immune to his charm. When he thought he’d made headway, she backed off and shut down.
    His one remaining ray of hope was in her words. Lucia had said clearly she
wouldn’t
help him, not that she
couldn’t
. If he could convince Lucia he had good intentions and planned to serve his time, but that being close to Adrian was crucial, perhaps she would change her mind and pull the strings he knew she held.
    “Hey, man.”
    It was a voice from the past that Cash recognized immediately. He considered pretending it was a case of mistaken identity, but he had to face his new reality. Hiding and lying were habits he’d left in prison. In this life, if he wanted to live with Adrian as a family, he had to be completely honest. One sniff of a lie, and Lucia would never trust him. Trust was the key to winning her over.
    “Hey,” Cash said, turning around, extending his arm and clasping his former associate’s hand.
    “I heard you got sprung,” Boots said. Boots was a petty criminal with more brawn than brains. But he had good connections and knew how to keep his mouth shut.
    “I’m a free man,” Cash said. It was the story the FBI had told him to use if he encountered anyone from his criminal past. If the FBI had any chance of using him to locate Clifton Anderson, he couldn’t broadcast he was working for the Feds to every member of the criminal underworld. He’d be shunned and mark himself for a hit.
    “Who’s your lady?” Boots asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
    “This is my friend Lucy.”
    “Are you working?” Boots asked, looking between the two of them.
    Lucia’s eyes widened