Royal studied the door, then moved his gaze back to her. “I want to talk to Simmons first. It’s not that I don’t trust…your friend there. I just think we have to be more careful. Sometimes when a lot of people know something, even a lot of well-meaning cops, everything gets too complicated.”
“You trust Mr. Simmons?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m starting to.”
Franny chewed on her bottom lip, trying to work throughanyof this, but… He had to get to work. And she should probably try to get some work done too. She unlocked the door, opened it for him, and tried to force her mouth to curve upward. “Thanks again for last night.”
He nodded, moving for the door. But he stopped, reached out, but his big hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “It’s going to be okay, Franny.”
“Of course,” she said brightly.
But she figured they were both lying.
ROYAL GOTREADYin a rush. He tried not to think about how…down Franny had looked when he’d left. She had every right to be worriedanddown, and it wasn’t his job to cheer her up.
The fact he wanted to make it all right for her was completely and utterly foreign. He’d just never before believed he could make something awfulright. Better maybe. Put a stop to something terrible. But not actually make it right.
There had been too much awful all around him to ever make right.
But Franny hadn’t grown up like that, and he found himself…needing to fix this so she didn’t have to live with anybadhanging on her shoulders.
He shook his head as he let himself into his temporary apartment. That was a little ridiculous. He needed to…screw his head on straight today. Focus on the case. He couldn’t decide if this was an escalation of threat—sure, fire was worse than a piece of paper, but the piece of paper had been on her doorstep. The fire had been miles away.
Though it didn’t really matter whathethought, did it? It mattered what the person doing the threats thought. And he had the background to know that even if youthoughtyou understood a bad person, that understanding could change on a dime.
The fact it was a woman bothered him. And that so easily could be a coincidence, but… It just didn’t feel like one. He should call the sheriff. Hell, call Beckett. But Simmons worrying about leaks left Royal needing to be cautious.
He was probably being overly paranoid. But if there was anything his childhood had taught him it was to listen to all those loomingbadgut feelings. It usually meant something was wrong.
Simmons had said he’d get in touch once he had information on the picture of the woman. And if shewasa Fed, it’d besomething for Simmons to look into, not him. But what if she wasn’t? What was next?
Royal worked through that question as he did his Hope Town patrol duties.
It was nearing lunchtime when he saw Simmons was pushing a giant stroller down the sidewalk toward the bakery Royal had considered hitting up.
Maybe as an excuse to text Franny and ask her if she wanted anything.
So he was pretty glad for the distraction, because that would have been foolish and unnecessary. He’d spent the damn night on her couch. She was certainly fine for a few hours.
He thought back to her saying she slept so much better with him there, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what to do with the…sense of purpose and satisfaction that gave him.
Simmons offered a wave and started pushing the unwieldy stroller toward him, so Royal walked toward him instead of away. He couldn’t resist looking around to see if Daisy Delaney was going to appear.
“My wife isn’t here, if that’s who you’re looking for,” Simmons said somewhat irritably when they met on the sidewalk. “Lucy’s out of town, so I’m on kid duty and let’s just say we all needed some fresh air before we all started crying.”
Royal peered into the double stroller. A kid clutched a giant plastic dinosaur and was fast asleep. The baby—the one that had been crying the other day—was sitting there babbling to herself happily. She held a sock in one pudgy hand and was waving her bare foot around like she’d amazed herself at what she was capable of.
For a second, he was struck by the idea that Brooke would have one of these soon enough. It was kind of a nice thought. She’d have a baby to push around in a stroller and who wouldgrow up and run around that big ranch, happy and protected and loved. So unlike everything they’d been given.
But that was the future and this was the present.
“You got anything for me on the woman?”
“I’m still pulling a few old threads, but no one I know and trust at the FBI knows who she is. I can almost guarantee she’s not a Fed, but it worries me you thought she was one. When this all started, the sheriff seemed to think you’d have a good eye for that kind of thing.”
“Yeah.” Royal ignored the speculative look from Simmons, considered this new information. “What about other agencies? Maybe not FBI. Would ATF or someone be involved? You know what Albennie Ward is mixed up with better than I do.”
“Yes and no.” Simmons shook his head. “I don’t want to poke too hard, raise any suspicions, so it’spossibleshe could be with a random department, but…”
