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“Sure thing, Nancy Drew.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Let me walk you through. This side involves people directly involved in the business. We’ve got Gagnon employees here.”
I walked closely, reading all the names and marveling at how she had worked so quickly. Names, addresses, jobs, length of employment—she hadn’t missed a single detail.
“And on this side are persons of interest who are not in the business.”
I scanned the details. The Maine Marauders. That made sense. Although I didn’t know much about them, everyone knew the local motorcycle club was mixed up with the drugs running through the rural areas.
“Chief Souza?”
She shrugged. “I always look at local law enforcement. If things have been happening under their noses for years, you’ve gotta ask why.”
I nodded, feeling uneasy. The chief had been a trusted friend of my dad’s, but Parker was right. We had to follow every lead. And I had to hand it to her. She certainly was doing that.
“And the back”—she turned the board around to reveal more names, photos, and Post-its—“is everyone I’ve eliminated so far.”
I tugged on my hair and let out the breath I’d been holding. Seeing everything laid out like this, it was too much for me to process. Was it possible there were this many people on earth who could have wanted to harm my dad? After his death, I had put everything into a neat box in my mind and sealed it shut while working nonstop to save the business and provide for my family.
And now it had been ripped wide open, and all kinds of feelings were taking over. “This is a shit show.”
She bumped my hip. “It’s my process. It’s chaotic and messy, but you don’t have to like it.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What does this even mean?” I pressed a finger to a receipt, then plucked another item from the board. “Is that a candy wrapper?”
“It’s evidence, asshole. Who in their right mind even eats these things? Adele found the wrapper in the shop up at camp after the accident. I’m being thorough.” She nudged me out of the way with one shoulder and yanked it out of my hand. It was a bag of Maynard’s wine gums. How random. She then secured it back onto the board with a small magnet. “Respect the process.”
I seized up. She was close. Too close.
And she smelled sweet and a little spicy.
I wasn’t prepared for her to invade my personal space. Especially since she was half-naked and had just been bouncing around my house braless.
The pretending, the deviation from my routine, was getting to me. All the uncertainty and doubt and fear were enough to send me over the edge. And now I was trapped in my own home with a sexy woman driving me absolutely insane.
And the feelings swirling around in my brain were out of control. She was clearly digging, and doing a good job, but the chaos of it all, the unknowns and the risks, overpowered my thinking brain.
So I did what I always did when backed into a corner. I lashed out.
“What is this shit?” I said, waving wildly at a bra hanging from the closet doorknob. “A bra?”
“You’re a genius!” The sarcasm dripped from her voice. “Not that it’s any of your business, but that’s what I do when I come home after a long day. I take off my bra.”
My brain short-circuited, and I couldn’t keep my eyes from falling to her breasts. Round and bouncy and taunting me. Free from their underwire confines.
“Eyes up here, Gagnon.”
My face heated as I lifted my chin and scowled at her.
“You’re not entitled to a free show just because I took off my bra.”
My eye twitched as I racked my brain for a pithy response. When all I came up with was nonsense, I snapped. “Wear a fucking bra, then. It’s not a big deal.”
She crossed her arms, drawing even more attention to the breasts that would be my undoing. “You ever wear a bra?”
What a preposterous question. “Can’t say that I have.”
“Then reserve your fucking judgment, Gagnon. Because if I want to free my boobs from lingerie prison, then it’s my goddamn right.”
