LITMIR.BIZ

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you know.” Cassie delivered her implied threat with a smile.

      “Whoa.” Ted held up his hands. “Let the police handle the detective work.”

      “We tried that,” Cassie said.

      Ted braced his arms on the counter, looking far more serious and deadly than he had a second earlier. “If I find myself tripping over you two while we investigate, we’re going to have a problem. You think the locals are going to open up to you? All you can do is cause trouble.”

      A chill moved through the air. The warm and sunny island welcome was over. They had moved to the posturing portion of the program. Cal also noticed no one had bothered to explain why the police were talking about an investigation when they insisted Dan’s case was closed.

      But he had their attention, and that’s what he wanted. “Fair enough.”

      “I mean it.” Ted’s dark eyes gazed at Cassie. “Both of you.”

      Cal decided to agree for both of them. “We’ll go ahead and get out of your way.”

      He grabbed Cassie’s elbow and dragged her toward the door. She frowned at him but took the hint and kept her mouth shut…until they were out of earshot.

      “I told you that would be a waste of time,” she grumbled under her breath.

      “On the contrary. The conversation was pretty revealing.” He matched her volume by keeping his voice low and even. “Those two are hiding something. Something big.”

      Life sparked behind Cassie’s eyes. The hurt lingering there gave way to budding excitement. “I told you so.”

      Cal could not help but smile. “I thought you might say that.”

      Chapter Seven

      Josh watched Cal hustle Cassie out of the building. “Now there goes a bunch of trouble.”

      “Like we needed more.” Ted sighed. “She was tough to deal with on her own. Adding on this guy is bad news.”

      Josh leaned down on his elbows. “She can’t let it go.”

      “Would you?”

      “Hell, no.” Josh broke eye contact with Cassie’s butt for a second and glanced up. “It’s the never-ending questions and amateur sleuthing that’s the problem.”

      “She’s desperate for answers. Can’t say that I blame her.”

      The phone started ringing, but Ted didn’t move. After three rings, someone in the back office picked it up.

      “You’re in charge now, so you don’t answer phones?” Josh asked.

      “Not unless I have to.”

      Josh appreciated Ted’s comfort with his new title. The guy was solid. Dependable.

      “Either way, she’s not the same teary-eyed woman who first came to your office right after the crash. She’s gotten harder.” And the part Josh could see of her looked just fine.

      Ignoring the lady’s impressive backside, it was her potential for problems that worried him. Cassie Montgomery had a killer bod and a deep loyalty to her dead brother. The second she heard the news about the crash, she dropped everything and flew between the islands to be there for Dan. She had not gone back to her life since.

      Her mouth was the problem. It never stayed closed. She had spent a good portion of the past three weeks or so bad-mouthing the police and raising questions about Dan’s accident in the press. She morphed from shocked and crying to an angry vigilante in a matter of days.

      But Josh could handle all of that. The threat to his informal investigation was the problem.

      Ted stepped into Josh’s line of sight. “Hello?”

      “What are you doing?”

      “Focus.”

      Josh watched Cassie disappear from sight. “I was. Trust me.”

      “Seriously. What are we going to do?”

      We. Josh liked the sound of that. Kane was both the police chief and his best friend, but with him out of town Ted was a good temporary substitute. Kane could travel around with his new wife Annie. Josh and Ted had to concentrate on the mess swirling around them.

      “Josh?”

      “I’m thinking.” The sound of a ringing phone wasn’t helping with that. “I’m balancing a lot here.”

      Bucking his boss’s orders, conducting an undercover drug operation, and spearheading an informal and totally un-sanctioned investigation into Dan’s death. Yeah, a guy could get a bit pissed off with an agenda like that to worry about.

      “What about the shots,” Ted asked over the ringing phone.

      “A last-minute thing. Cassie walked right into the middle of my setup. Bobby Polk was within seconds of getting to the house.”

      Ted opened the door to the back office. “And Cal?”

      “Didn’t even know he was there. I was trying to get Cassie out of there before she ran into Polk. What was I supposed to do?”

      “Ever think of handling the situation without bullets?”

      “Uh, no.” Hadn’t even crossed his mind, actually.

      “Just a sec.” Ted shouted into the opened doorway. “Anyone going to get off their ass and answer the phone, or do we not care if someone needs our help?”

      The door fell shut on a few mumbled apologies, but Ted kept muttering under his breath.

      Josh could not help but be impressed. “That should win over your staff.”

      “Let’s focus on your problem. This Cal character brings the game to a whole new level. He’s smart enough to know something’s wrong. If nothing else, the shoot-out clued him in.”

      Josh tapped his pen against his lip. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

      “Can’t imagine that being the case.” Ted laughed. “I’m starting to think you wouldn’t know a good idea if it bit you in the ass.”

      “The goal was to protect Cassie.”

      “You gonna stick with that when this whole thing goes down and she decides to sue you?”

      That wasn’t Josh’s biggest concern. His boss told him to stay quiet about Dan and let the NTSB handle the investigation without providing any information. Josh balked and nearly got fired. Now he had to handle the situation on his own, without DEA resources or help.

      “Cassie will get the truth eventually. That’s all that will matter to her,” Josh said.

      “I’ll remember that when I lose my badge for helping you.” Ted shook his head. “I can’t believe I went along with this.”

      “Didn’t exactly give you a choice.”

      “No wonder Kane took a six-week vacation.”

      Ted was a decent man and damn good at his job, but Josh wanted Kane back at his desk. “I think that has more to do with Annie.”

      “She still hate you?”

      “She never hated me.” Josh smiled at the memory of his past sparring with Annie. “I saved her husband’s ass once or twice. She owes me.”

      “In the meantime, we have a mess on our hands. Drug-running. A dead pilot. And now an amateur detective team determined to blow the whole thing to hell.”

      “Yeah, this one isn’t exactly going according to plan.” Josh dragged his notepad out of his pocket and jotted down Cal’s name for a background check.

      “Any closer to figuring out your boss’s reluctance to talk with

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