“I didn’t realize you needed to know.”
“He always needs to know,” Walker St.Brown said from the couch.Damien hadn’t noticed the hulking man there.“Marcus called me when he couldn’t get Mont or Zeke.I didn’t know anything about it, but Marcus said he didn’t think there was a reason to call them.”
“There wasn’t.”
“You were almost arrested.Could have been shot,” Montgomery said.“Are you all right?”
Damien nodded.“I’m fine.Marcus handled it.”
“He’s going to speak to his officers today.He apologized and said it never should have happened.I agree with him.It never should have happened.”
“Thanks,” Damien said.
“How’s the woman?”Montgomery asked.
“Shaken up.She’s not sure who she can trust or what is going on.”
“She clearly trusts you.Marcus said you offered to stay with her, and judging by your clothes, you did.”Montgomery missed even less than the rest of them.
“I did.I wanted to get here and do some research on Grant Pickens.”
Montgomery and Walker shared a look of interest.
“What are you researching about Grant Pickens?”Montgomery asked.
“Just following a hunch.”
“What does that hunch tell you?”Montgomery sat on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms.To an outsider, he looked casual.
Damien was not an outsider and knew it was a stance of warning.His boss wasn’t happy to hear the direction of Damien’s thoughts.“The break-in doesn’t add up.With Harmony in the middle of it, I want to make sure she’s okay.”
“And you have reason to believe it has something to do with Grant Pickens?”Walker asked.
Damien shrugged.“I don’t know.The press conference was strange.She looked like she was afraid of him.When I asked her, she said he was odd but didn’t elaborate.”
“Then why are you pushing?”
“Is it pushing to do a little digging?”Damien defended his position, widening his feet and crossing his arms.
Montgomery and Walker both noticed.Montgomery’s brows went up, and he slid a look to Walker, who smothered a grin.
“Point taken,” Montgomery said.“Will you come to me if you find anything?I don’t want you pulling a Lance and skipping town without telling anyone where you’re going.”
Damien nodded.He was one of the team assigned to help when Lance brought his now-girlfriend back to Niagara Falls after chasing her to Kansas when she was kidnapped.Damien hadn’t understood the desire to skirt their boss before, and he wasn’t about to push that line now.
“For the record, I hope you’re wrong and don’t find anything,” Montgomery said.“But if you do, we need to make sure we loop Marcus in before we do anything.Grant Pickens is a town hero.Taking him down could run us out of business if it ends up feeling like a fight.”
“Understood.”Damien didn’t like it, but he got it.It didn’t mean he’d hide, though.
Montgomery’s phone rang, and Damien headed for the door as Montgomery answered it.He was almost out of the office when Montgomery stopped him.“Damien’s right here,” Montgomery said into the phone.
Damien turned and found his boss staring at him.
“Are you sure?”
Damien glanced at Walker, but he was watching Montgomery.
“He’ll be there in fifteen minutes.Thanks, Marcus.”
