Buried in Secrets (Carly Moore #4) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,47

toward the exit.

Marco watched him for a few seconds before turning his attention to me. “You okay?” he asked in a whisper.

I nodded. “You still have that meeting you need to attend?”

He tilted his head toward the door. “That was my appointment.”

My eyes widened. “Your appointment was to arrest somebody?”

“Something like that. You want to head to lunch? There’s a café you haven’t tried yet. They have great fried pickles.”

I cast a glance at the counter, where the deputy was watching us like we were his afternoon entertainment. “Yeah. I thought I needed to give someone a ride, but I guess not.” I smiled up at Marco. “Let’s get you your fried pickles.”

“How about we get them to go?” he asked, sounding breezy, but I could feel the tension thrumming through his body. “We could have a picnic at Louis Park.”

Which meant he wanted to talk about something he didn’t want anyone else to overhear. Was it about why I was here, or something else? “I like that idea. It’s a beautiful day.”

“It is now that you’re here.” He placed a soft kiss on my cheek, then straightened. “I’m starving. Let’s go.”

I stared at him for a moment. Show or not, I couldn’t ignore the butterflies in my stomach…or the urge to lift onto my toes and kiss him for real.

He dropped his arm and snagged my hand, lacing our fingers together as we headed out to the parking lot. His eagle gaze quickly zeroed in on my car. “I’d suggest we ride together, but I’m on duty and I don’t want you to leave your car here. Follow me.”

My stomach churned. I’d screwed up by coming here. “Okay.”

He cupped my cheek and turned my face up so that I could see his warm eyes, which looked more blue than green today. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

I only hoped he was right.

Chapter Fourteen

I followed him about a mile to the café. I’d lost my appetite, but I knew Marco was probably hungry. His appetite had a mind of its own and seemed to be unaffected by pesky things like stress and worry. There were several empty spaces when we pulled into the café’s parking lot, and Marco parked in a space, leaving me to pull in next to him.

He was already out of his deputy SUV and headed around the back of his vehicle by the time I opened door, but he held up a hand. “Stay put. I called in an order. It’ll be ready in a few minutes. Let’s sit in your car while we wait.”

“Okay.” I got back in and unlocked the passenger door so he could join me.

“What really happened at the courthouse?” he asked as he got in my car, his voice full of worry. “You weren’t trying to see Pam Crimshaw, were you?”

“No,” I assured him. “It was just like I said.” I told him about how it had all gone down, then leaned my head back against the seat. “I should have never gone in there.”

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Maybe not, but Deputy Taggert sure seemed suspicious of me.” I swiveled my head to face him. “Do you trust him?”

“No,” he said, then at my sharp intake of breath, he added, “But I don’t have reason to distrust him either. He was friends with some of the old guard. But he always seemed a little distant from them, so he might have been friendly out of self-preservation.”

“Can you talk to him and find out?”

He snorted. “He might not take it well if I ask him if he was as corrupt as his buddies.”

“Okay, you have a point, but the state police are looking into the corruption within the department. You might be able to use that as a segue to find out where he stands.”

“Maybe, but I’m not doing anything to bring more attention to what just happened or to you. For now, we presume he’s the enemy until proven otherwise.”

“An enemy who can now tie me to Pam.”

“Your cover might still work,” he said, “but he’s going to keep an eye out.”

“Which means he’s a bad guy.”

“Maybe not. Maybe he’s trying to piece this all together and tie it back to Bart too.”

“Do you think that’s likely?”

“No.”

We were silent for a moment, then I said, “The deputy at the desk said Ashlynn never checked in to see her mother.”

“Really? What do you think happened to her?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I confess that I