“Isn’t he a little old for a job like that?”

“Yeah. But Rosie is close friends with his mom, so maybe he felt obligated to.” I shrug. “I don’t know, Bek. The only real suspects we have are Penny and Ryan. They are literally the only people I can think of who would have a motive to kill both Lena and Daniel.”

Bek chews on her thumbnail. “Did anyone see Daniel after he disappeared on the delivery run?”

“I have Mike looking into that. But if not, this investigation is so full of dead ends it’s unreal.”

Two quick knocks bang at Bek’s door.

“Yeah?” I call, craning my neck around to see who’s interrupting me.

Dean steps in. “Miss Noelle. Miss Bekah.”

“What’s up?” Hopefully not another dead body.

“I’ve been looking into Lena’s life like you asked, to see if she had any enemies.” He pauses, and after a moment, I nod for him to continue. The man has the manners of an angel. “It turns out she was married in her senior year of college.”

“She was married in college?” I frown, turning fully in the seat. “She didn’t stay in Houston long after her graduation. They must have been granted a quickie divorce, right?” I glance at Bek, and she shrugs.

“Well…” Dean coughs. “That’s the thing, Miss Noelle. She never was divorced.”

I put the phone down and sigh. No, the lady at the record office said. Unless I’m a police officer with a warrant, I have to wait for marriage records like everyone else and pay the rush fee that isn’t actually a rush fee.

More like a rip-off fee.

The thought makes me groan, and it sinks in that I may have to go to HWPD with this information. Dean only knows because he dug deeper than he normally does, which makes me think the police don’t know that Lena was married before. Which means I’m potentially in possession of case-altering information.

I drum my fingers against the table and stare at the park beyond my window. It’s as busy as you’d expect for midafternoon on a Saturday—dog-walkers, elderly couples, moms and dads with little kids, a few groups of teens.

I lift my phone back up and dial Marshall’s code.

“Yo,” he answers sharply.

“Can you see if there’s any record online of Lena Perkins being married when she was in Houston?”

“You askin’ me to hack?”

“No. I’m asking you to see if there’s an online record. It’s not my business how you do that.”

“’Kay.” He clicks off, and I shake his mood off.

The kid has had a stick up his backside all damn day, but he’s working desperately to recover the information we need, so I’m trying not to be mad. But still—he talks to me like trash again and he’s gonna know about it.

My phone rings, and instead of picking it up, I hit the speaker button. “Noelle Bond.”

Brody’s voice fills my office. “Drake is mad at you.”

“You say that like I should be surprised.” I laugh. “Drake is always mad at me.”

“Yeah, well, he found out you weren’t at Rosie’s for coffee this morning.”

“Really? He believed that?”

“No. He’s just real pissed you lied to him.”

I shrug a shoulder. “And it’s taken you…seven hours to call me and tell me he’s mad.”

“Yeah. I’m only tellin’ you because he’s on his way to your office.”

“What the hell for?”

“Presumably to threaten you yet again about ‘meddling’ in his investigation.”

I roll my eyes. “Noted. Thanks, Brodes. I’m ready for the bear when he shows up.”

“And by ‘I’m,’ you mean you and not your gun, right?”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

“Noelle!”

I grin and hang up before he can give me his inevitable warning. Oh, come on. I wouldn’t actually shoot Drake Nash.

Would I?

Well. Maybe.

Depends on the mood he catches me in. Luckily for him, I’m pretty amused right now.

My phone rings. Yet again.

“Noelle Bond,” I sigh.

“Heads-up: Drake’s cruiser is outside,” Bek says. “And he looks pissed. Hot but pissed.”

“Fifty bucks on him threatening to arrest me.”

“Fifty bucks on him actually doing it,” she retorts. “You’re on.”

“Have you not heard of appointments?” Grecia yells in the hall, and I put the phone down. “Or manners?”

“Is Ms. Bond here, Ms. Gonzalez? Yes or no.”

“Yes! But you must have an appointment to see her!”

My door slams open, my wall only saved from certain destruction by the handle by the angle it opens at. It bounces back immediately, and the only reason Grecia isn’t whacked in the face is because she steps back.

I look up straight at the powerhouse that is Detective Drake Nash. His hair is curled and falling across his forehead, and those glacier-blue eyes are so angrily intense that I can physically feel his emotion radiating from his body. The force is so strong that shivers cascade down my spine one after another, a cascade of mixing emotions that make absolutely no sense to me.

“Come on in, Detective Nash, by all means.”

“Camera. Off.” His words are sharp, nothing short of demands he expects to be obeyed as quick as a snap of a finger. “Now.”

“Me. Noelle. You. Rude.” I sit up straight and meet his eyes with the same steely determination he’s staring at me with.

His eyes flare as he storms to the corner of my office where my security camera is hanging. Within seconds, he’s reached up, turned it off, then spun it into the wall so there’s no way Marsh can see anything if it’s switched back on.

“Can I help you with anything, Detective? Possibly a lesson in speaking eloquent English?”

“Do not fuck with me, Noelle.” He slams his hands down on my desk and leans over it toward me. “What were you doing in Rosie’s this morning?”

“Why do you insult my intelligence by assuming I don’t know that you already know the answer, Drake?” I stand too, flattening my hands on the desk to mirror his. I kick my chair out behind me and shake my head to pull hair away from my eyes. “You knew what I was doing the second you walked in. Pulling the dumb card does nothing for you.”

“You knew we’d be in to question her. Why did you go?”

“Because I’m being paid a lot of money to find the person who killed Lena Jenkins. We’re doing the exact same job, and by the sounds of it, I’m leaps and bounds ahead of you despite the resources you have at your disposal. I am, for the most part, workin’ off my intuition. You’re apparently hoping for the killer to walk through the doors of Holly Woods Police Department and turn themselves in.”

“Do not—”

“Fuck with you? Sass you? Grab you by the balls and twist them?” I hiss, cutting off his low growl. “Too late.”

He inhales sharply through his nose, his nostrils flaring with the intensity of his breath. His eyes—Jesus, his eyes. They sear into mine, and the passion and determination glaring from them is almost suffocating. I want to cover his eyes with my hand just so I’m not smothered by the power of his gaze any longer. I want to close my eyes and look away and not be so totally overwhelmed with the sheer emotion he’s throwing my way with just a stare.

“Again, Detective,” I say slowly and quietly, pushing off the desk and walking around it. “I do not appreciate you bursting into my office and yelling at me like I’m a petulant schoolchild. I have no idea what kinda saps y’all work with at the police department or what kinda women y’all got that roll over like little dachshunds expectin’ themselves a belly rub when you call for ’em, but you ain’t gonna find one here. I’m conducting my own investigation whether you like it not, and not once have I stepped on your toes. In fact, I’ve been nothing but fucking cooperative to your rude ass.”

“Watch your damn mouth, Noelle Bond,” Drake says low, his tone full of threats and barely restrained anger. “My patience where you’re concerned is just about at the breakin’ point, and when it reaches it, you ain’t gonna like me very much.”