I agreed not to say anything to anyone or blow his cover—yet.
My instincts had been screaming that something was off about Corey, but for the first time since arriving in Georgia, I was convinced those instincts had been pointing at the wrong thing.
More importantly, nothing I’d learned today connected him to the robbery. If anything, he’d helped move the investigation forward.
The good news—we had one person to cross off the list of suspects. The bad news—we still had a suspect on the loose.
“Susan saidyou’re looking for a real estate agent,” Frank said in my ear.
I had called him to go over my suspicions and also ask about Donald. I’d learned yesterday in casual conversation that Frank had actually arrested Donald years ago when he was still a bounty hunter. This new discovery obviously created a whirlwind of questions in my mind. Now, however, we had deviated to another topic.
“I don’t need an agent for an apartment,” I replied. “I just told her I was trying to find some apartment complexes that were near you guys.”
“So, you’re really gonna move here, yeah?”
Frank hadn’t known this, but I had been toying with the idea of moving for a few years now. My friends were all in Texas, but I’d debated moving to be closer to my family or maybe even someplace different. I hadn’t looked anywhere specifically because I hadn’t made up my mind. But the urge to move was higher than ever now, and I knew Tammy was a large part of that.
“You moving for Tammy or other reasons?” he asked, ever the blunt one.
“Is both an option?”
He didn’t reply right away, and the silence stretching out to the point where I thought I might have dropped the call.
“I swear to God, if you hurt her?—” Frank said, but I cut him off.
“I can’t guarantee that, but I’d never hurt Tammy on purpose. Look, we’re both pretty stubborn, but that’s what I enjoy most. I love that she doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit and gives as good as she gets. My goal is to give this a go and see if we can make this work, so you don’t need to threaten to kill me.”
“If you let me finish,” Frank chided. “I was going to say, if you hurt her,she’llkill you, but I won’t stop her. Hell, I might even be her alibi.”
Frank chuckled into the phone, and I just shook my head.
“I’ll do my best not to put either of you in that position,” I teased back before saying goodbye and hanging up.
I was walking up to the Watering Hole when I saw Stella coming over with a bright-pink box in her hands.
Yesterday I had swung by her store in the morning to get some of Tammy’s favorites. I knew she had likely thought and overthought about the fact that I didn’t take her to bed after our date Friday night.
I’d done it because I wanted her to know I wasn’t just in this for sex any longer. I wanted her to know I was interested in more. She’d seemed tense Saturday morning though, so I’d thought I’d grab some of her favorites from the bakery and bring them home for lunch. The only problem was, Stella had been out of what I’d wanted by the time I’d gotten there. In fact, she’d been out of three of Tammy’s favorites, thanks to a woman who came in and bought a bunch of stuff for a last-minute get-together with her family.
Stella had told me to swing by later that afternoon before they closed, and she would save me some from her next batch. Unfortunately, I’d gotten a call from Vince and Frank that afternoon for an emergency meeting about a plan they’dcome up with for Sunday night—the same night all the other burglaries had taken place.
That meeting had taken too long, though, and the bakery had been closed by the time I returned.
“I saved these for you, but since you never made it back, I figured I’d bring them here,” Stella said, holding out the box for me with a smile.
“Thank you, and sorry for not making it over there sooner. By the time I got back you were closed.”
She shrugged. “No worries. My hunky fiancé is working tonight anyway, so I figured this kills two birds with one stone.”
I smiled, holding the door open for her with my free hand while balancing the pink box in the other.
We both walked up to the bar, and I watched Tammy animatedly talking to Ruthie and Ellie. Her gaze briefly scanned to us, and she immediately stopped talking to them and fully turned to me.
“Is that what I think it is?” she said loudly, pointing to the pink box.
I smiled at her and then handed the box over. She snatched that thing up so quickly it was a wonder the box didn’t go flying.
“What kind are they?” I asked.
