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I opened the door wide, taking a look outside as I did.

There was my nosy neighbor, walking her dog.

Great.

This would be all over town come morning.

But the defeated air around Dempsey had me opening the door anyway and closing it behind her.

“What’s wrong?”

She collapsed onto a stool at my bar, taking a look around at the house.

It was severely outdated, but that was to be expected when you had a long-term renter that didn’t necessarily give a shit that it was outdated.

“I wanted to explain.”

My brows rose. “Explain what?”

She hugged her arms close to her chest and said, “My attitude.”

I waited.

She scrubbed at her face with her hands, then sat up straighter and leveled me with a look.

“I’ll have to start at the very beginning,” she murmured.

I walked to the kitchen and turned the coffee on.

What the hell was one more night of no sleep, anyway?

“I have a generational curse,” she said.

I looked over to her. “Which is?”

She sighed as if she really didn’t want to tell me her story.

But she and I both knew that she’d been stepping over the line when it came to Jessamy.

She needed to at least offer an explanation.

“I’m from a long line of criminals,” she explained. “On both sides.”

I pulled out two cups for the coffee and turned my back on the pot as I leveled her with a look.

“But for the sake of a shorter rather than longer story, we’ll talk about my mom’s side of the family.”

I waited.

She shifted nervously on the stool before she started in.

“My mother’s mother’s mother’s mother was a bank robber. But it wasn’t because she wanted the money. She was severely depressed. It took a lot for her to ‘feel anything.’ So she gave bank robbing a try. She was the woman that was involved in the Jackson Heist way back when in Wyoming.”

I’d heard of it.

“What happened again?” I asked. “I remember hearing about it in a documentary once, but I can’t pinpoint…”

“She got about a hundred grand in cash. Buried it in our backyard somewhere, then went on a high speed chase through the city to lead them away from her stash. When she got to her daughter’s work, she told her where it was buried. Then went down in a blaze of glory. She drove herself off a cliff.”