Page 58 of Three Steps Behind

“What else do you want to ask me?” Brookes rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve got a thirty-minute lesson starting in ten.”

“All right.” Harper crossed her legs. “I hate to ask, but I need the answer to two very personal questions.”

Deck sat back, enjoying the pleasure of watching her work.

“All right.” Brookes straightened. “Shoot.”

“One, I’m asking this because it’s important in the big scheme of things. I—”

“We were not having an affair,” he said, cutting her off. “If that was what you were about to ask. We were just friends. Albeit good friends.”

“How’d you know I’d ask—”

“Because she told me it’s what her jerk of a husband claimed again when he picked yet another fight with her a couple of weeks ago.”

“Another fight?” Harper prodded.

Brookes raked a hand through his hair. “I’m only telling you this stuff because you were Tay’s good friend and I appreciate you looking into things if you think something is off. You’re FBI, for goodness’ sake. Who am I to question?”

“The fights?” she nudged.

“Right. Taylor and Nick were fighting more and more over the last month.”

“You said he ‘claimed again.’ When did he first accuse her? Do you know?”

“About a month back, roundabout.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Did he come to see you? Confront you?” she asked.

“Nah. Tay just confided in me. She’d finally confronted him about having an affair. He, of course, denied it and then threw our relationship in her face—claiming we were having an affair.”

“Your relationship?” Deck asked. Relationship held a deeper connotation than just casual friends.

He shrugged a lanky shoulder. “Like I said, we were friends.”

“But Nick didn’t believe that?” he asked.

“Nah, but I think he was just deflecting the spotlight away from him and his affair.”

Harper scooched forward on the love seat. “As in you or Taylor knew he was having an affair?”

“Tay had no concrete proof, but her concerns added up to me.”

“Do you know who she believed he was having the affair with?”

Brookes cleared his throat, glanced around, then fixed his gaze back on them. “You can’t say this came from me. She’s a member, and I could lose my job.”

“I promise.”

“Her doubles teammate Morgan.”

Time to talk to Morgan.

“Okay. Just one last question.”

“Okay.” Brookes checked the clock again, then set his gaze back on her. “Shoot.”

“Why did Taylor leave her money to you in her will?”