Tension suddenly thickened the air in the room. Noah’s muscles visibly tightened, and Jesse’s jaw clenched.
“Did his dad know that he called you that?” Noah asked.
“I’m not sure. A few people were around at the time, and it went into a police report.” She nibbled her lip before looking at Jesse. “Have you spoken to Burt? Surely his delivery driver would have a description of the person who took the pizza.”
Jesse leaned forward, suddenly looking more intense than ever. “I spoke to Pete, Burt’s nephew and delivery driver, this morning. He said less than a minute after you placed your order, he received a second call. This one from a man who claimed to be your partner. He knew your address. Your order. And he asked that Pete leave the pizza outside the apartment building door for contactless delivery. He went so far as to request he not buzz the apartment.”
Oh God, that meant—
“Someone was there,” she whispered. “Someone was in the parking lot when I made the call. They heard. They changed the delivery details.”
The room fell silent. But no one needed to speak. It was true. Someone had been watching her last night. And that someone had beenveryclose.
Zane circulated through the gym.He’d hated leaving Bonnie early that morning, but if he hadn’t come in, the place wouldn’t have opened. Today was one of their early openings. Before the sun came up. And they always did good business before work hours.
Half a dozen people filled the space. Some warming up with jump ropes. Two in the ring. A few at bags. One of them was Damien White, Dean White’s brother. Zane only knew that because of the intake form he’d filled out.
At first, he’d felt like throwing the guy’s ass out like he had his father. But unlike Carlos, Damien hadn’t done anything to Bonnie. As far as he knew, at least.
So he’d let him stay—for now.
Zane stopped beside the guy and Damien dropped his hands, shooting a nervous glance Zane’s way.
“Everything okay?” Damien asked, pulling an AirPod out of his ear.
“Just checking in. How are you doing?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
It was clear he hadn’t hit a bag much before. His technique was sloppy and inexperienced. He didn’t utilize the power in his body, and he was heaving for air after a dozen hits.
“Remember to hit with your whole body, not just your arms,” Zane said. “Rotate your hips. Push off your back foot.”
The guy nodded quickly. “I will. Thanks.”
“I haven’t seen your dad around town lately.”
There was a small flicker of unease in the other man’s eyes. “He, um, probably got scared by all the questioning after Bonnie was assaulted outside her apartment. I think he’s laying low.”
“And you don’t know who would have done that to Bonnie, do you?”
“No.” The answer came quickly. “I hate what happened to my brother. I hate that Bonnie left him at that party. But none of us would actually hurt her because of it.”
Zane studied the other man. Something he’d learned early in his life was that silence often broke a person faster than words. And right now, Damien was squirming.
The man cleared his throat. “Well, I should, uh, get back to my workout.”
Zane dipped his head before moving back. But only two steps before he continued to watch Damien hit the bag. He still wasn’t using his whole body. But maybe that was because he was nervous. Nervous at Zane watching? Or nervous because he had something to hide? Something that involved Bonnie?
The door to the gym opened, and Zane turned to see Ethan step around the partition.
Zane frowned before crossing the space between them. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to get out of Deep River. There was a town meeting last night and Ward was spewing shit about there being nothing further he could do to find the hiker. He pisses me off.”
“Well, it’s good to see you here.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “I have to tell you something. You’re not gonna be happy.”
