Page 18 of Hawkeye

Tamsin put down her knife and pulled me toward the nearest table. “Sit. Talk. If you stand there looking polite, these two will put you to work.”

Dot set a plate in front of me before I finished pulling in the chair.

Tamsin dropped onto the seat across from me. “I heard you do appraisals and restoration? That’s impressive.”

Mara snorted. “Says the woman who blows stuff up for a living.”

“Only because I grew up around fireworks,” Tamsin murmured.

I flashed her a smile. “Then we have something in common because that’s how I got into antiques.”

After I told them about my grandfather’s clocks and my mom’s shop, Dot asked, “What’s your favorite part?”

“This might sound weird, but I enjoy how objects carry a small piece of the person who lived with them.” I shrugged, my cheeks filling with heat. “Each imperfection has a story behind it, so I really love projects where the client wants me to fix the structure but keep the small flaws.”

Dot pointed her spoon at Mara. “Told you the Black Crowns are following in our men’s lead and falling for the smart ones.”

“Did you hear me arguing?” Mara rolled her eyes. “No, because I’m too astute for that. Which is why I’m a shining example of the kind of woman who makes a great old lady.”

“Humble too,” Dot teased.

Jacqueline grinned as she turned to look at me. “And that right there is why you shouldn’t be shy about telling us how amazing you are at your job.”

I told them about one of my favorite projects while I ate, my hands moving as my explanation grew more animated.

Tamsin’s gaze flicked past my shoulder. Calder stood in the doorway with his lips tipped up at the edges.

Smoke noticed it too. “She’s got you smiling now?”

Calder looked at him. “I was capable of smiling before she arrived. I just had fewer reasons to waste one on you.”

I giggled at his answer, and he crossed to the table and set his hand on the back of my chair. As I tilted my head back to look up at him, he murmured, “Source files from the estate company landed at Black Castle. We need to go look at them.”

He had me off the chair and heading outside when Wrangler caught us in the hallway. “Need a second set of eyes on the San Marcos setup before the next rotation.”

Calder took the tablet he held out, looked at the information, and tapped his finger against the screen. “This van sits too close to the pharmacy’s camera across the street. Pull it twenty yards west. You still see the gate without getting caught on video.”

“On it.”

Wrangler was gone as fast as he’d arrived, but I enjoyed the snapshot of Calder in his role as the club’s VP. Black Crowns didn’t give respect without a reason, and it said a lot about him that he’d earned it wholeheartedly.

His hand found my back again. “Now we go look at those files.”

The drive back to Black Castle took the same twenty minutes, but it felt like so much longer because my head was already on what we might find in the files. We headed straight to his office when we arrived and sat side by side at his desk as we went over everything.

“Contracts and work orders look clean,” I murmured.

He nodded. “Agreed.”

It wasn’t until we’d looked through batches of photos from several unrelated estates that I realized what had caused the niggle in the back of my brain.

“They’re too similar.”

Calder’s brows drew together. “What do you mean?”

I put three photos in a row and tapped my finger against each one. “The folding worktable has the same chipped edge in all of these.”

“Good catch.” Calder leaned forward. “Same with the paint drip on the wall.”