Janie Crouch - Major Crimes

And feed her, for God’s sake. Meal after meal until she finally put enough weight on to be considered thin . And exhaustion and fear didn’t blanket her every expression.

Cain scrubbed a hand over his face. He felt like he was missing some important piece of this puzzle. He could understand why Hayley was working at the Bluewater, and even the difficulty in getting a job. But why the hell was she working herself to the bone? The cost of living in Georgia wasn’t so high that she needed to work eighty hours a week to get by.

What the hell had happened to her? Had life in prison been that bad? Or adjusting back into society that difficult? Hayley was so damn smart. He’d halfway thought she would use her time incarcerated to plan a new business or get her college degree. Maybe the no-computers decree had disrupted whatever plans she’d made.

She obviously needed money in a pretty desperate way. Omega was willing to pay her a hefty consultant’s fee for her help in catching the mole.

Of course, Cain was also going to have to carefully watch where that money was being spent. There weren’t a lot of good reasons he could think of that would have her working herself into the ground, but there were a lot of bad ones.

Buying her way back into the den of hackers was the most obvious. Maybe she had to have a certain dollar amount by the time her computer restrictions were lifted on her parole.

Cain’s hands clenched into fists. He’d be damned if he was going to let her drop back into that life again.

So maybe this mission was going to serve more than one purpose: catch the mole inside Omega and save Hayley from herself.

But first she had to show up this morning. Even if it was only so Cain could feed her.

He got a cup of coffee and put in an order for a full breakfast for both of them about ten minutes before Hayley was scheduled to arrive. He wasn’t going to let not having enough time be an excuse not to eat. Although he was hoping to talk her out of going to work altogether. The consultant’s fee would be at least five times what she would make busing tables and washing dishes.

He saw her instantly as she entered the diner, long blond hair pulled back in a braid. She had a large canvas bag over one shoulder and was already in her Bluewater T-shirt and khaki pants. Damn restaurant didn’t even open for another four hours, so why the hell did she need to go in so early?

He knew the moment she saw him, tension shooting into her small frame like someone had fused a metal pipe to her spine. He stood as she got to their booth. She at least looked a little less tired than yesterday afternoon.

“I don’t have long. I have to clock in by seven,” she said by way of greeting.

“Good morning.” He ignored her abrupt words as she slid into the booth across from him.

“This isn’t a date, Cain. Not even a breakfast between friends. Tell me what it is you have to say.”

He slid into the seat across from her. “We’ll talk with breakfast.”

“I don’t have time for breakfast.”

“Tough. I already ordered for both of us.”

She glared at him, fire burning even higher in her eyes when the waitress brought their food less than a minute later.

“Presumptuous much?”

He just shrugged. “Everybody’s got to eat. You more than most.”

“What are you trying to say, Bennett?”

He definitely didn’t want to get into a fight with her and cause her to not eat just out of spite. “I’m saying you’re working a double today. So you need to eat.”

He dug in to his own food, relieved a few moments later when she did the same.

“You got what I liked. Thank you,” she said softly.

Fried eggs, hash browns with all the fixings, sausage, bacon. Nothing sweet. She’d always said sweet food made her coffee—which she took with a god-awful amount of cream and sugar—not taste sweet enough. He’d never forgotten, didn’t think he ever would.

He nodded and kept eating, waiting until she had a huge bite of food in her mouth before asking his next questions.

“Why are you working so hard, Hayley? At the Bluewater. Why so many double shifts?”

She looked like she was going to light into him. He expected it, actually, thus the timing of his question when she couldn’t easily answer.

“I know it’s partially because finding a job as an ex-felon isn’t easy and you took what you could get. But you shouldn’t have to be working so hard that you’re exhausted all the time. Timothy mentioned you work as many hours as you can every week.”

The man had also said it as though he’d been doing Hayley some great favor by allowing her to work that much.

She shrugged, finally finished chewing. “That’s what you have to do when you’re not even making minimum wage.”

Cain’s eyes narrowed. “Unless you’re waiting tables or something where you’re making tips, he’s required by law to pay you at least minimum wage.”

“You stay out of it. I will handle Timothy.” That pinched look was back in her eyes. Cain wasn’t trying to add to her stress.

“Even if he isn’t paying you quite minimum wage—” and Cain would be looking into that “—you still shouldn’t need to work eighty hours a week to get by here in Gainesville. It’s not like Georgia has some ridiculously high cost of living.”

“Is that what you brought me here for? To remind me that I have a crappy job and pretty crappy future ahead of me?”

“Hayley—”

“I already made my feelings about the arrest clear yesterday. As for every other part of my life, including when or how long I work, it’s none of your business.”

He held out a hand in surrender. He didn’t want this to get out of control. “Okay, fine. Just finish eating, okay?” If he had his way she would eat everything on that plate and then another whole one after that.

She took another bite and he relaxed a little. But he was running out of time.

And what did he expect, that she was just going to tell him everything going on in her life? Especially if it had to do with potentially illegal activities.

“I brought you here to offer you a job. With Omega Sector.”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What kind of job could you possibly want me for?”

“We need your computer skills to catch someone providing critical information to a specific criminal.”

“Doesn’t Omega Sector have its own computer crimes division?”

Cain nodded. “Yes. But we have a mole inside Omega. A good one. I need someone who’s even better, who’s not in law enforcement. That’s you.”

“I’m not the only great hacker.”

“You’re the only one I know I can trust.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you can even say that with a straight face.”

He set his coffee cup back down. “When it comes to this, I do trust you. Completely. You may have made some questionable decisions four years ago, for whatever reason, but I know you wouldn’t want to ever hurt anyone. The person we’re trying to find is a murderer, Hayley.”

He thought of Grace Parker’s face as Freihof’s knife slit her throat. Catching the mole inside Omega would be a direct link to putting him away for good.

“Yeah, I’m not a murderer at least.”

“Of course you’re not. I hope you know I never thought you would hurt somebody else. No matter what damage you might be able to do with a computer, you’ve always had too big a heart to hurt people.”

She stirred the last of her hash browns around on her plate.

“Look, Cain.” It was the most gentle tone he’d heard from her. “I don’t really have time for another job. The Bluewater keeps me pretty busy. Plus, I’m not allowed near computers as part of my parole agreement.”