Page 147 of Rescued by the Single Dad

“Sergeant Fox,” Clint greeted, his jaw tightening.

“Where’s Brooke?”

“She just left with her assistant, why?”

“Was a false confession. The guy who says he pushed Brooke off the yacht only confessed because he’s being blackmailed. His kid has nude photos out there, and someone is sextorting them. Said if our guy didn’t confess, the photos would get leaked to kiddie porn sites and shit. But he broke down and told the truth.”

“Did he say who was blackmailing him?”

“No. No name, hidden voice. Can’t even get a bead on the IP address.”

“Fuck.”

“She’s probably safe with her assistant, though. If she’s headed home and they’re getting security in place there.”

But Clint didn’t think the Sergeant was right. Something was off about Inez.

“What do you know about Inez? Brooke’s assistant?” he asked, jerking his chin at Jagger and telling him to watch the kids. He ran to his truck and hopped in.

“We did a full background check on her since she worked so closely with Brooke. But she wasn’t even on the yacht. Why?”

Clint turned on his truck and peeled out of the driveway. The gate took way too fucking long to open. Then he drove way too fucking fast down the laneway.

“When she came here last week, her eye color was different than it was today. Her hair was blonder today, too. She was also set to star as Brooke in a biopic about her life when Brooke was dead. Now that she’s not ...”

“This is a lot of conjecture, Mr. McEvoy ...”

“And people have been found guilty when hunches have been formed on less.”

“True ...”

“I’ve just got a weird feeling about her, okay? Like Brooke isn’t safe with her.”

She was safe with him. In his arms. In his house. In his bed.

“Look, Brooke said that a few actors—females—either ended up in accidents or died. They looked a lot like Brooke, and their roles were then handed to Brooke. Does that not seem fishy to you?”

“Seems like Brooke would be the one to benefit from that.”

“So would her assistant. And maybe Inez has sights on her own stardom ...” He reached the T in the road where nearly two dozen signs pointed to various island attractions. He should have gone right to the ferry, but something in his gut told him to go left. And when he looked left, he saw the glint of a chrome bumper flash in the sunlight.

He went left.

“So you think her assistant pushed her over the yacht to kill her to basically take over her life?” Sergeant Fox asked. “Seems awfully far-fetched.”

“Maybe not take over. But, yeah. And ... they’ve known each other since they were kids. Since high school. Inez’s dad was a cop. One of the cops that Brooke helped put away.”

“Well, next time fucking lead with that,” Sergeant Fox said, his tone holding immediacy and irritation. “That didn’t come up in the background check. And if it did, it wasn’t flagged. Fuck. Okay, I’m dispatching someone now. We’ll have port authorities down at the docks to retrieve Inez and Ms. Barker and bring them to the station for questioning.”

“They’re not there. I see them,” Clint said, gaining ground, but also hanging back so he wouldn’t be spotted. He knew that was Inez’s rental car, though. They turned a slight corner.

What the fuck were they doing at Heaven’s Leap?

He pulled off to the side of the road and parked. “Inez took her to a fucking lookout with a cliff,” Clint said into the phone.

“What?”

“I ... I can’t talk.”

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