He gave her a knowing smile. “He got into a bit of trouble for punching me yesterday and won’t be at work for a while.”
“Oh, of course. I’m sure they’d frown on that. He okay?” She feigned casualness.
“He’ll be fine. He’s working things on the side. We’re going to find this guy, Maggie, I promise. It appears the cat’s out of the bag on you IDing him, which really pisses me off. Mostly because that means someone inside the PD ratted you out. Could be an innocent mistake or something more malicious, but until we figure that part out, I don’t want you talking to anyone, even in the PD, other than Mitch or me about what you saw, okay?”
“I haven’t told a soul. Well, except Jenny, but she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“That’s fine. I told her, too. I’m sure she’s not the leak.”
Tony reappeared and announced that it didn’t look like anything had been touched in the back. “You might want to check to be sure, but everything seemed in order.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll go now.” She peeled herself away from Adam to go take a look as he started drawing up paperwork.
By the time Adam and his new partner left, Stephanie and Jackie had arrived. Maggie and her employees tried to right everything as quickly as possible. Maggie swept up the glass and called about getting a new door installed later that afternoon. They cleared the aisles first and decided to stay open for business. With the four of them working hard, it wouldn’t take too long to get things back to normal. She had Stephanie keep a running list of everything that would need to be reordered as soon as possible.
Around lunchtime, her stomach let out a loud reminder that she hadn’t eaten breakfast. She was starving. Pizza won the what-to-have-for-lunch vote, so she called for delivery. A few minutes later, her heart skipped a beat when a tall, blond god came strutting through her broken door. Her body reacted immediately.
“Hey, Maggie. How’s it going? Adam told me what happened.” Mitch’s smile faded when he saw the writing on the wall. He took two long steps over to her and leaned close so only she could hear. “Those bastards will pay for this. I promise you that.”
Having him so close was like a sugar rush. She closed her eyes for a second to breathe him in. He smelled like testosterone and fabric softener. For an instant, she wondered who took care of him. She hoped he had a cleaning lady or kept up on his own laundry.
Since he wasn’t working the case, she wondered why he’d shown up.
“Looks like you’ve been working hard. Can I take you to lunch?” His smile was panty-dropping.
“I just ordered a couple of pizzas. They should be here any minute. You’re welcome to stay.”
“I was hoping to talk to you. Alone.”
She swallowed hard. It took a second for her to come to her senses. God, this man twisted her up into a mindless mess. As nice as it would be to think he wanted to take her out, he must have an ulterior motive. It took her a minute, but she figured it out.
“You just want to make sure I’m still willing to be a witness if I have to. Well, don’t worry. I’m fine,” she whispered.
He looked into her eyes for a long second and then wrapped his big, strong arms around her, pulling her in close. “You don’t look fine.” He hugged her tight, and a few tears slid down her cheek.
He was right. Shewasscared. But if push came to shove, she would not let this jerkwad get away with robbing the bank and certainly not for murdering her uncle-in-law.
“Maybe not right this second, but I will be,” she stammered and swiped at her eyes. “I’m still mad at you for punching Adam.”
His smile faded, and he dropped his arms. She immediately wished she could take it back and put the smile back on his face.
“Yeah, I know. I’m a dick. Sometimes I do impulsive, stupid shit, and I almost always regret it later.” He seemed remorseful, which was better than blowing it off.
“He says he forgives you, so I guess I can, too,” she said.
“He said that?” Mitch was skeptical.
“Yeah. He said you were protecting Jenny and that he would have done the same thing. He just can’t believe he didn’t see it coming.”
Mitch choked out a laugh and shook his head. “That guy.”
“He’s not half bad, you know?”
“I’m slowly figuring that out. So, hey, what about lunch? Wanna go grab something?”
She glanced up to answer and noticed Stephanie waving her arms toward the door and mouthing “go” over and over.Maggie rolled her eyes and laughed. “Sure, let’s go.”
Even if he did have other motives, staring into those intense, sexy green eyes for twenty minutes over a sandwich would be worth it. A girl could only be so strong.
