Carefully, I unwound my arms from her shoulders. “I’ll be right over here until you tell me it’s safe to turn around.” I strode toward the door, my back to her—as much privacy as this small room allowed.
A few seconds later, the sound of shifting cloth hit my ears, and I forced myself to tune it out, to not let myself imagine the sight of the most stunning woman I had ever seen stripping naked behind me. No way in hell was I sexualizing this angel after what she’d been through. Instead, I turned my thoughts toward Beau and how the fuck he’d gotten away with his crimes. How much his privilege and power must have played into it. Had no one besides the Millers questioned him? Or had they tried and been silenced? A nurse at the hospital, or a mortuary assistant, maybe. All I knew was that half the goddamn town found Beau’s behavior suspicious, and that was from the outside looking in. It seemed impossible to me that someone closer to the events hadn’t thought so, too.
I shook my head. Laws existed to protect people, but Beau had found a way to weaponize them instead, using his authority as Emma’s power of attorney to do exactly what he wanted and fuck everyone else. It made me furious. It made me sick to think he’d almost gotten away with it. If Emma hadn’t woken up, if I hadn’t stayed so late ...
Don’t think like that,I told myself. She was here, she was alive, right behind me, pulling the shower curtain open from the sound of it.
“You’re good,” she hollered a few seconds later.
I was just turning back around when shemoaned. Low, needy, the sound a woman makes when she’s about to—
“Your water pressure is incredible,” she said.
“Oh, uh. Thanks.”
“What kind of showerhead is this?”
I told her the brand, and where I’d purchased it, then leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes, trying to force my thoughts away from the noise she’d made, the one I would absolutely be hearing in my dreams.
“Did you and Beau have life insurance policies for each other?” I asked.
“No. We had a joint one, and then Beau had a separate policy for himself. I’m not worth anything, so there was no need to get one for me.”
“Not worth anything,” I repeated.
“Yeah, that’s what Beau said.”
“Emma, darlin’, you’re worth ten of him.”
She fell quiet. I cursed myself for saying too much, for making it awkward. Steam started to fill the bathroom, and between the heat of it and my embarrassment, I felt like I was about to break into a sweat again.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“No, don’t be. I ... I think I needed to hear that.”
I released the breath I’d been holding. “Did you see anything that looked like a life insurance policy when you were searching through his desk?”
“I didn’t, but I was looking for love letters or compromising photographs. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts, and you start to notice patterns after a while. There’s a small percentage of men who both cheat and rack up debt that decide the best way out of their self-inflicted problems is to take out huge lifeinsurance policies on their partners and then kill them. These men are usually controlling, obsessed with appearances, and don’t believe in divorce. Sound familiar?”
Emma swore and yanked the curtain back just enough to peer at me around it, her furious expression only slightly undercut by the shampoo bubbles dripping from her hair. “I’m seriously going to kill him, Noah.”
I held my hands up. “Trust me, I understand the urge. But then you go to jail. Wouldn’t it be better to put him behind bars instead?”
“No,” she grumbled, disappearing back into the shower.
I could hear her muttering in there to herself, and despite the situation, I grinned. Heaven help Beau the next time they saw each other.
“Emma,” I said, my voice low and cajoling.
“Fine. Iwon’tmurder him,” she fired back in the most insincere tone I had ever heard. “What’s the plan, then? We break into my house while Beau’s gone and see if we can find proof of life insurance fraud? Because I damn well never signed a policy.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“If we tried to do it the right way and tell the cops, Ben would give his brother a heads-up, and then good luck finding any evidence.” She sounded like she was still trying to convince me.
“No, I agree with you. It’s a good plan.”
