Sworn to Be His ( The Archer Family 3)

"Good as that sounds, I'll have to pass." He crossed the room quickly and grabbed his lunch out of the fridge before settling at one of the round wooden tables in front of the half-stocked vending machines.

Jade was slower, carefully reading the instructions on the back of the box and following them to the letter despite the fact that she brought nearly the same thing every day.

"So, how did your interview go?" He asked between bites, and when she clicked the microwave door shut, she shot him a skeptical glance.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Beat you to it." He swigged his iced tea and Jade leaned back against the soda machine. "I got a young woman. She was...less than helpful."

"Not so unusual."

"No, but once people feel like they're safe and can help, they tend to, you know, help."

"So what was it? Bad information?" He furrowed his brow, willing her not to answer with what he already knew she'd say.

"She was tight lipped, but she seemed like she actually did want to help. It was almost like..." Jade glanced at the microwave, then tapped her fingers against the ugly green countertop. "It was like someone threatened her."

And there it was. His own suspicions put on the table in front of him.

"Mine too." He rubbed his chin then said, "So, we've got a couple options. Maybe these ladies coincidentally acted odd on the same day in regard to the same crime."

"Which is about as likely as you getting and keeping a girlfriend." Jade cocked an eyebrow.

"What would I need a girlfriend for?" he shot back, then shook his head. "Beside the point. Anyway, so either they were living in bizarro world today or Scaglietti's guys tracked them down and told them not to talk."

"So what do we do? We can't risk their lives."

"No, we can't." Derrick took another bite of his sandwich and willed his mind to work harder. "If they knew these two were coming in, it's likely that they got everyone who witnessed it."

"How is that even possible? They'd have to have access to the security cameras and some serious face recognition software."

"Which they don't have because they short circuited the electric, including the security cameras before they set foot in the restaurant itself." Derrick sighed.

The microwave beeped and Jade slid into the seat opposite him. "It doesn't make sense."

"No. It doesn't. But if we think about this, we can probably figure it out. Okay, how else would they know who all the witnesses were."

"They could have threatened them at the time of the crime."

"The average person would know they couldn't keep their word like that. No, these ladies seemed like there was a very serious threat of follow through." Derrick sipped his iced tea again, but when he looked at Jade he found that her blue eyes had glassed over, her jaw slack.

He followed her gaze to find Zac Flynn entering the room.

"Hey guys." He smiled. "Hell of a case you've got going for this Scaglietti guy. They weren't kidding when they said it would take me all week. How long you been working on it?"

"Better part of two years," Derrick answered since Jade seemed so clearly incapable of doing so.

"Damn, that's a lot of work." Flynn shook his head, then crossed the room, opened the fridge, and grabbed a yogurt.

Strawberry.

It would be strawberry.

"Word around the unit is that you were some big shot in the Army," Flynn said.

"I did my part," Derrick said. "You Navy?"

Flynn nodded.