“If you want dinner, lick it off the floor!” My son-in-law mocked me after knocking my plate down, while making a toast at dinner. I stood up, adjusted my coat, and said three words that left him completely terrified!

I glanced toward the bookshelf behind him where a tiny camera sat hidden beside a ceramic dove.

“You always talk too much,” I replied.

His expression hardened.

“What did you say?”

I stood slowly and opened my coat.

Pinned inside was my federal consultant badge, renewed six weeks earlier through a financial crimes task force.

Victor stared at it.

I smiled faintly.

“You targeted the wrong woman.”

By sunset, the dining room was crowded again.

But not with guests.