I nodded. “No fun to be sick and have to catch up on work.”
“No kidding.”
I glanced in the direction Dillon had driven. “I may have overheard some of your conversation. Who’s Dillon’s brother? Is it Chad Bronski?”
Because a weird theory had just popped into my head. It was bizarre and totally far-fetched. But the truth was often pretty strange.
What if Dillon and Bronski had set me up? Planted those fake drugs, stolen my Seattle sweatshirt. And then Bronski pretended to receive an anonymous tip about me.
And the intruder in Piper’s garage. Bronski had shown up in response to Piper’s 911 call, conveniently the closest officer available. Then just happened to let the intruder get away.
I was sure Dillon had a thing for Piper. What if he’d planned to get rid of Danny and me in one fell swoop? Framing me for Danny’s murder?
Except Danny’s attacker had tried to frame Piper too. Hard to imagine Dillon being involved in that, unless he’d gone full crazed stalker.
Milo gave me a confused look. “No, Dillon and Chad are tight, but they’re friends. Dillon’s brother is Zach.”
“Zach?”
“Yeah, man. Zach Kirby. You remember him, right? He and Earl came with me to your place to meet you. Zach and Dillon remind me a little of you and Ashford, actually. They haven’t always gotten along. But I think Zach has been trying. He works on Dillon’s dirt bike here at cost.”
Zach. He and Earl had found the fake drugs.
Dillon hated me, and Zach was his brother.
“The Kirby family has been through some terrible things,” Milo went on, oblivious to where my mind had gone. “Not really my business, but just saying. Usually, Zach has been a solid worker. But he hasn’t shown up here for work in days. With me out sick as well, it’s been a clusterfuck. We’ve had to cancel appointments, and…”
Milo stopped, squinting at me.
“Grayden, you okay?”
“Not sure. Is Earl around? He working today?”
“Sure, he’s in the garage. Working his butt off to pick up slack. I really need to get in there and help him. Why?”
“This will probably seem odd. But I need to ask him a question.”
FIFTY-TWO
Piper
Most of the time,I loved being at Silver Linings. This place was such a part of me. I was one of those lucky people who’d turned her passion into her job.
But today? Ugh, why couldn’t we just close already? I wanted to go pick up Ollie from school. Grayden had made plans to meet us at O’Neal Martial Arts for Ollie’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class, which Ashford taught.
We were going to watch the class, then grab dinner with Ashford, Emma, and Maisie. Seriously. I could not wait.
“You keep checking the time on your phone,” Rina said. “If you want to meet your hot-ass man for sexy times, you can just go. Have fun and send photos.” She added a wolf whistle.
I glanced at the dining area, where a couple of people were enjoying afternoon coffees. A prim older woman pinched her lips at us in disapproval.
“I appreciate the enthusiasm, Rina,” I said. “Not sure that’s a work-appropriate subject, though.”
“Hey, you’re the boss. You would know.”
The news about Grayden’s and my relationship was out. There were also some lingering rumors about Grayden beingresponsible for Danny’s attack, despite Grayden having a clear alibi.
Then again, the townsfolk of Silver Ridge despised Danny, so that rumor probably scored Grayden a few points in their eyes.
