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lawyers.”
    Bo studied her. “You know this Ian?”
    She nodded. “We worked together a lot when I did some P.I. jobs for my uncle. He’s very loyal to Kendall. And Kendall was no doubt sending another message by having him represent the man who was probably sent here to kill me.”
    “You’re a P.I.?” Bo questioned.
    “I was. Am,” she corrected, since she still had her license. “Much to the disgust of my family. The Colliers aren’t big on family members with careers in law enforcement.” That was a massive understatement.
    “Yet your uncle hired you.”
    “He did. After my parents died in a car accident five years ago, Kendall sort of took me under his wing. He hired me to do background checks on potential business associates. When I learned one of those associates was an illegal arms dealer, I told Kendall, but he didn’t believe me. That’s when I contacted the authorities.”
    “A Collier with a conscience.” And it was obvious he didn’t bother to tone down the sarcasm.
    Mattie couldn’t blame him for his attitude. He was right. Her parents had owned several investment businesses that were barely legal. She had known from an early age that they had questionable ethics, but only after she’d become a P.I. and had dug into their backgrounds had she realized just how corrupt they were.
    “As you know, I testified against Kendall,” she continued, “but he was acquitted.”
    “Because the FBI didn’t have the proper search warrant when they found the incriminating documents.”
    She nodded, swallowed hard. “And I think because of that, Holly’s father, my fiancé, was gunned down when I was six weeks pregnant. The police weren’t able to find any proof of who killed him.”
    Bo blinked, probably because that had struck a still-raw nerve. He’d lost Nadine, the love of his life, and Mattie had lost Brody, the love of hers.
    Sometimes, life just plain sucked.
    “After someone tried to kidnap me,” she continued, “I was placed in so-called Witness Protection. Turns out I didn’t get much protection there.”
    Mattie took a deep breath to regain her composure, and she glanced toward the nursery. “Look, I know you have questions, but honestly they should wait.”
    The glare turned sharp again. “For what? For you to try to tell me again that Holly is your daughter?”
    Obviously, Bo wasn’t going to take her word on that, and she didn’t blame him. She had walked into his ideal family life and had essentially ripped it apart.
    Mattie reached into her shoulder bag. Bo reached, too, lightning fast, and he snagged her wrist.
    “You already have my gun,” she reminded him. Mattie waited until his grip eased a little, and she extracted the two DNA swabs that she’d bought online.
    She saw the argument she and Bo were about to have, but his phone rang, cutting off the angry words that he was no doubt about to fire at her.
    Bo let go of her wrist, but he stayed close, still violating her personal space. Normally, Mattie would have put some distance between them, but she wanted to hear his phone conversation, especially when she glanced at the caller ID screen and noticed that it was Sergeant O’Malley again.
    “Mattie Collier,” she heard the sergeant say. “She’s in Witness Protection, but someone hacked into her file. Her identity was compromised.”
    That didn’t soften Bo’s glare. “Someone tried to kill her?”
    “Well, at minimum someone tried to kidnap her several times, and it’s highly likely the culprit had intentions to murder her. The FBI thinks the attempts are connected to her uncle, Kendall Collier. And that brings me to the computer in the coffee shop. You wanted to know what other searches Kendall made…”
    Mattie automatically moved closer, so close that her cheek brushed against the back of Bo’s hand. He jerked away from her and went to the center of the room where she couldn’t hear a word the sergeant was saying.
    “Yeah,” Bo said to the sergeant a