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Never say never.”

Chapter 4
    D ane was still at the office late that evening when the front buzzer rang, announcing a visitor. Setting aside the case file he’d been reviewing, Dane rose from his chair and took a moment to stretch the cramped muscles in his back before heading out of the room to answer the door.
    The reception area was empty and mostly dark, save for a softly burning lamp perched on the reception desk. The temp had gone home at six, Noah shortly afterward, citing a “hot date” with his wife. Dane chuckled to himself, shaking his head at the memory of his cousin abruptly ending a conversation with him, striding to his office to grab his briefcase and hightailing it out of there with a grin and a wave. Once upon a time, Noah had been a notorious workaholic, habitually pulling all-nighters to catch up on paperwork or carry out surveillance assignments. But that was before he’d married Riley Kane and discovered a reason to rush home every night. It wasn’t that he was any less committed to the detective agency and their clients; he’d simply realigned his priorities and come up with a better way to balance them, and he made no apologies for either.
    As Dane approached the front door, the buzzer sounded again. He knew who the late-night visitor was even before he unlocked the door and saw Crandall Thorne standing there. Wearing a silver-gray Stetson and an expensively tailored cashmere suit, Thorne was the epitome of the urbane, wealthy gentleman who’d graced countless magazine covers, including a recent issue of Black Enterprise that anointed him one of the most influential businessmen in America.
    Without a word, Dane stepped aside and opened the door wider to let in the old man, who entered the building the same way he did everywhere else—as if he owned the joint.
    Stopping in the center of the dimly-lit reception area, he swept an appraising glance around, taking in the rustic pine furniture, leafy potted plants and papaya-colored walls as if seeing the room for the first time, instead of just two days ago. At length his dark gaze came to rest on Dane.
    â€œBurning the midnight oil, Roarke?” he intoned dryly.
    â€œSomething like that.” Dane locked the door behind him. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here in the middle of the night. I could have stopped by the ranch first thing in the morning.”
    â€œNo need. I was in town visiting Caleb and Daniela, anyway.”
    â€œHow’re they doing?” Dane asked, moving around the room as he turned on more lights. He’d decided against inviting Crandall Thorne back to his office. If they stayed in the reception area, maybe Thorne would keep the visit short—although Dane knew the old man wouldn’t leave until he’d gotten the information he came there for.
    â€œThey’re doing well,” Crandall answered, settling on the turquoise sofa Daniela had insisted upon purchasing when she’d redecorated the reception area four years ago. The sofa, like the rest of the furnishings, complemented the Southwestern theme she’d worked so hard to create.
    â€œCaleb’s still happy at the university, and Daniela’s still complaining that she doesn’t look like a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy,” Crandall said with a low chuckle. There was no mistaking the way his voice softened whenever he spoke of his only son and daughter-in-law. His love for and devotion to Caleb had enabled him to embrace Daniela as if she were his own flesh and blood. No one was more excited than Crandall when the couple announced earlier in the summer that they were expecting their first child. It was the consensus that the old man was going to spoil his first grandchild rotten, although—as Crandall himself liked to point out—Caleb had had to work his butt off for everything he ever received from his father.
    â€œDaniela was complaining that she