Then he looked at Tripp. “We need you to go in.”

Tripp’s brows knitted and his head tipped to the side. “Go in?”

“Undercover, Pal, I need you to work this case for Rocky and me.”

Tripp’s brows slowly separated, his face went blank then he smiled huge and bounced once on his stool. “Oh yeah!” he shouted. “I can do that.”

“Tripp,” Layne said low, “You gotta be cool about this. This is not a gung ho mission. This requires finesse, Pal.”

Tripp nodded and his voice was quieter when he repeated, “I can do that.”

Jasper came to the island stating, “I can too and Keira would be all over it.”

Layne looked at Jasper. “I’d be open to you doin’ it, Bud, but Keira, absolutely not.”

“Why not?” Jasper returned. “She’s up for anything and she’s a girl, that guy at the Youth Group, he likes girls.”

At this, Rocky’s hand came up, her fingers curling around Layne’s forearm so tight they almost hurt.

“No to Keira, Jas,” Layne replied.

“She’s a nut but she’s smart,” Jasper returned, defending his girl.

Layne gave him the honesty. “You wanna keep her safe you keep her far away from this guy. Do you get what I’m sayin’ to you?”

Jasper stared at him, the blood running from his face, a muscle ticked in his cheek and he nodded.

Layne looked to Tripp. “Do you get it, Tripp?”

“He’s a bad guy,” Tripp whispered, the excitement now out of his eyes and those eyes were wide.

“I don’t know but I’ve learned to listen to my gut and, on this, my gut is tellin’ me whatever is happening there is not good. And I don’t know what he’s doin’ but my gut tells me he likes doin’ it, he’s got a sweet gig goin’ and he’s not gonna want anyone to make him stop, not anyone, not a cop and not a high school kid. That means you gotta go in there and be smart. You feel somethin’s not right for you, you get the f**k out. You feel safe, you listen, you watch and you got two missions to start with. One, you get close to the girl Rocky tells you to get close to, you make friends with her and you do it in a way that, when this is done, you’re still friends with her. You get her to talk to you and you do that smart too. You wanna know about Youth Group, you wanna get involved, you wanna be a part of it all, you wanna be her friend but you find out everything you can about what they do and where they’re doin’ it, what you see, what they’ll let you get involved in but, mostly, what they won’t. The other part is you get me something he’s touched. A can of pop, a pen, I don’t give a f**k what it is. You do your best not to touch it too much and I’ll give you a bag to put it in. I want to pull his prints off it and run them. We gotta know who this guy is and who we’re goin’ up against. He’s in the system, this goes quick. He’s not, we gotta find another way. You think you can you do that?”

Tripp nodded.

“Good,” Layne told him and then he gave Rocky another squeeze, dipped his head and said close to her ear, “Who’d you pick for Tripp, baby?”

She nodded too and Layne lifted his head as she said, “You have three choices, Tripp. Giselle Speakmon, Sabrina Tilley or Darcy Cassini.”

“Giselle Speakmon,” Jasper said immediately.

“Why?” Devin entered the conversation on a bark that made Jasper, Tripp and Rocky jump.

“’Cause she’s hot,” Jasper replied.

“She’s out,” Devin shot back. “Next.”

“She’s hot and she’s shy. Freakin’ shy, like, it’s painful. She’s a freshman too, like Tripp,” Jasper continued, his eyes steady on Devin. “Sabrina is nice and she’s okay lookin’, at a push, but she’s a junior and Tripp would be outta her league if she wasn’t just okay lookin’ and, like I said, that’s at a push, so, actually, she’s outta his league. Darcy’s nice too but she’s a sophomore and she’s big as a boat. It’d look funny, he got friendly with either of them. He wouldn’t have any reason to do that. This guy’s a predator like you think he is then he’ll cotton onto Tripp’s game, he gets close to one of those chicks. Everyone knows who Tripp is and everyone knows what Dad does.” Jasper’s eyes went to his old man. “No one would question Tripp gettin’ friendly with Giselle. She’s hot and girls like Tripp, think he’s cute. Tripp would have to work it ‘cause she’s so shy but, if anyone could get Giselle talkin’, it’d be Tripp and Tripp could play it like he’s there just to get Giselle to talk to him. That’s the way I’d play it. And he’ll be cool. He’ll work it, no one will know why he’s there and he’ll get what you need.”

In that moment, there was a lot happening at that island for Tanner Layne, so much it was too much for Layne to process. The first part of it being the fact that he’d gone beyond vastly underestimating Jasper. The second part was that Devin was staring at his oldest son with blatant respect, something Devin very rarely did. The third part of it being the fact that Raquel Merrick was standing, unresisting, in his arms with her fingers curled tight, holding onto him. The last part of it was Tripp looking at his brother with unashamed love shining from his eyes and Layne had seen a lot of things in his life, the woman he held in his arms being the most beautiful, or she was until Layne saw Tripp look at his brother like that.

“Then it’s Giselle,” Layne declared, heard his voice was gruff and he knew Rocky heard it too because her fingers gave his arm a squeeze. Layne cleared his throat and went on. “Youth Group meets tomorrow night, Tripp, seven thirty. You start then.”

Tripp nodded at Layne again.

“I’ll take him and go with him the first night,” Jasper offered.

“That works but no Keira,” Layne replied.

“No Keira,” Jasper agreed.

“How do you know he likes girls?” Rocky put in and Jasper looked at her when she continued. “Have you seen this man?”

“Yeah, he’s everywhere, at the games, at Reggie’s after games, at the Senior Follies last year around about the time he first got to town. He’s a good-lookin’ guy and there’s always a bunch of girls around him. He acts all holy and sometimes even carries a Bible but I think that’s so parents won’t freak. There’s boys in that Youth Group but there’s only about ten of them. They go to be around the girls but they stay because they say this guy is the shit. They say he’s funny as all get out, makes religion cool.”