It was supposed to be simple. All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick a man up, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he says he is ... and they both know it. Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful. But they have something in common. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on. And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side.

The Low Between

“Then don’t leave me hanging in the wind so I end up getting beaten up and left for dead, too.”


The air felt like it had been sucked out of the room. Joe might have been annoyed before, but now he was icy and coiled, his gaze piercing Carlo to the core. “Too?”


The lone word was barely above a whisper, but all the hair rose on the back of Carlo’s neck. He hadn’t meant to say that, hadn’t meant to let loose any hints that he might know about Joe’s past, but his temper had got the best of him, his frustration a trapped animal straining for release. It was still there, pacing back and forth behind the fence his lapse had temporarily thrown up, and he had to swallow hard to keep from saying something even worse.


“I just feel useless here,” he tried, but Joe’s demeanor didn’t relax. “Let me help somehow.”


“Then tell me what you meant by too.”


He couldn’t escape the truth. Joe wouldn’t let him. “I know you were a cop.”


Chapter 17