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“No problem, Jameson. I’m happy to help.” I started toward the door when she called out to me. “It’s not me Beck has a hard-on for, it’s the Ashby family. She offered to help me in exchange for dirt on them. Keep an eye on her. And watch out for your girl, Madison.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Savannah.” I didn’t spare a glance for my brother before exiting the office and then the building, wondering what in the hell I was missing about Mueller. I would keep digging until I found answers, no matter who it pissed off.
“Where have you been?” Beck pounced as soon as I walked into the precinct, an eager little pup nipping at my feet with an excited smile on her face.
“Checking out some leads. Why are you smiling? What did you find?”
“Not me. Marshall. Come on.” I followed her down the dark hall with the flickering light and into the room commandeered by the Feds. “A little bit of his old-fashioned gumshoe detective work and he uncovered video footage of Mueller and Sadie Ashby, having what looks to be a romantic dinner.” Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement and a fair bit of happiness.
I watched the footage with extreme focus. She was right, it did look like they were having a romantic dinner, but maybe that was just the setting: a nice Italian restaurant with dim lights and candles on the tables.
“It’s not that unheard of that they might do business together if he’s dirty, right?”
Beck deflated but only a little. “Of course not, but this gives us a good reason to question the woman. Maybe even search the manor.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Beck. No judge is going to approve a search warrant based on this footage,” Marshall warned, his tone even and certain, like a man who knew what he was talking about.
“I know, but if we just show up to question her, anything could happen.”
While Beck and Marshall bickered back and forth, I wondered if I should give Madison a heads up that the Feds were going to Ashby Manor and that they were going to wait until the sun went down to show up. Instead I opted to text an invite.
Jameson: Dinner tonight? I’m buying.
It took a couple minutes for Maddie to respond with a thumbs up and a smiling emoji.
Madison: You’re always feeding me.
Jameson: 8 pm my place.
Her response was an eyeroll emoji, and my shoulders relaxed because when we went to Ashby Manor, she’d be at my place. Safe and sound.
“What do you think, Ellison? Eight-fifteen we swoop in and get some answers.” Beck was positively giddy about getting inside the Ashby family home, and Savannah’s words replayed in my head.
Mueller wasn’t the only one who had secrets.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
I had no good reason to question Beck, but my instincts told me to dig deeper into the woman who could determine the trajectory of my career on the police force.
Chapter Fifteen
Madison
I knocked on Jameson’s door and waited. No answer. I rang the bell and still there was no answer. I shot off a quick text.
Madison: WYA?
His answer came a few minutes later.
Jameson: Running late. Spare key behind left shutter.
Madison: I was promised dinner.
I responded quickly, wondering what in the hell he was up to. It wasn’t like Jamie to be late, but I knew the job and the double murder had changed things.
Jameson: I’ll pick it up on my way home. Promise.
I rolled my eyes at the phone, found the key and went inside, ignoring the warning bells clanging in my head that this was a bad idea. I had no problem visiting when Jamie was home but using a key to get inside and having free reign of the place felt intimate. Too intimate for friends. Then again, I didn’t make a lot of time for friends, so maybe this was perfectly normal in male-female friendships.
It was that damn kiss. That was why I felt strange being here without him. That was why it felt too intimate. Friends didn’t kiss like that. That definitely wasn’t a normal part of friendship, kissing like hormonal teenagers in the back seat of a car and then replaying it over and over again in my head. No, that wasn’t normal—no matter how hot it was—to relive that kiss so often that I could still feel his lips on mine. Those thoughts definitely strayed far outside the line of friendship.
In fact, Jameson found me sometime later, dinner as promised in his hand, me staring off into space, body stretched out on one of his sofas, my mind replaying the kiss for at least the thousandth time, imagining what would have come next if I was brave enough to let it go there.
“Honey, I’m home!”
His loud, deep voice startled a gasp out of me and I sat up with a glare for him. “You scared me. Dick.”
