collection of tribal wolf masks off the wall, crushing each of them with deliberation. Someone knew what they meant to him as far as heritage.
“Well?” Atcliff prompted when Max met him at the open door.
“If they were after something, they didn’t find it. From what I can see, nothing’s been taken. Must have been scared off when your men responded to the silent alarm.”
Atcliff accepted that rationale without comment. “After you clean things up, let me know if you’re missing anything.”
“That’ll have to wait for my assistant’s return. She knows where everything belongs. I just sit behind the desk.”
A thin smile. “When you have time, stop in to make an official report. Paperwork, you know.”
“Yes, I do.”
Giles had ridden along with Marissa, leaving him the car. He left the lot and steered away from where he needed to go for answers. No sense letting Atcliff tag along the path of his suspicions. Instead, he made a single call on his mobile, going right to the source of the mystery by leaving a single question as his message.
“Carmen, who’d want to steal your file from my office?”
He’d barely hung up when his wife’s number popped on the screen.
“Is Marissa all right?”
Only he would pick up the fear in her voice. The depth of her caring melted his frayed edginess. With a deep breath, he focused that fierce energy outward.
“A lot better than those who thought they could get away with slapping her around. I’m on my way to the hospital. I’ll tell her you were asking after her.”
“What were they looking for?”
“I’d say they got what they wanted and made a hurried effort to cover it up. Manny’ll give me a long list of those who’d profit over what I kept in his file.”
A snort. “I’d put him on top of the list.”
“We think alike there, sha.”
“Who else you thinking? Brady?”
He chuckled. “That’s a conversation you’ll have to have with your Dutch uncle. Does he make it a habit of personally visiting the scene?”
“Atcliff was there?”
“When it involves me? Absolutely. He’d never miss an opportunity for his men to poke about in my business.”
A long silence. “You don’t think—”
“No. If he wanted to see what I kept in my drawers, he’d be more direct about it.”
“Why do I find that thought creepy on so many levels?”
A big laugh relieved the tightness in his chest. “Have a good day, Wife.”
“Keep me posted, Husband.”
– – –
Cee Cee was still smiling when her text chimed through. “Hey, M.K. More wedding plans in the works?”
“Not yet. Not until I take care of some unfinished business. Can we meet at the Towers?”
Cee Cee agreed to take an early lunch as much to relieve her frustration with her case as to explore the undercurrent whispering through her friend’s tone. Unfinished business?
She hated to admit that since wrapping her heart around Max Savoie, much about her friend’s life had gone unnoticed. Huge changes, potentially fatal events, monumental decisions, and she’d been totally clueless. Some detective she was. Some friend.
That needed to change.
Though the old plantation house was their anchor, where what had simmered between her and Max for years took flame on a dark front porch late at night with his rumbling question of who she wore on the high heel of her boot from the previous crime scene, the city remained the life’s blood of their careers, it’s streets her obligation, its waterfront the home of his clan.
The view from their penthouse always took her breath, that and the image scored upon her dreams, of Max Savoie, his long black raincoat billowing out like dark wings as he toed the girder of the then-unfinished floor, staring out over the kingdom he’d never wanted to claim. He’d stopped her world at that moment, and she’d been spiraling wildly, caught in his gravitational pull ever since.
Crossing to that floor-to-ceiling wall of glass, Cee Cee looked down upon the wide river. Rimmed with bustling docks, non-stop commerce moved along its waters while she’d been standing still, afraid to move on, to return to what she’d known if it meant letting go of what lay ahead.
Sighing heavily, she palmed the curve of her abdomen. Inevitable change. They’d never return to who they’d been when desire and unprecedented trust had swept them off their feet in that other lifetime. But a whole new future beckoned. A restless flutter beneath her hand mimicked the prowl of her emotions, eager for the future but forced to keep a pre-set pace.