Page 8 of Tangled
“But nothing. No evidence of a shooting or of anyone being shot, which is what the caller reported. So, yes, I found something, but that something was nothing.”
An uneasy feeling slid down his spine. “Did it say what might have happened that could explain the caller’s claim?”
“No. Only that one of the workers had dropped a large pot around that time. It apparently landed on his toe, and he sat down to look at it. Depending on how fast he moved, I suppose it could look like he’d been felled by a bullet,” Ava mused. Though by the tone of her voice, he could tell she found it odd that someone could mistake a shooting for a dropped pot.
“Well, no worries then,” he forced himself to say. Because he was worried.
“You want me to look into it some more?” she asked.
“No,” he said, with a definitive shake of his head.
Who were those men that they could make a murder disappear? And within minutes? He hadn’t been timing them, but he estimated that less than fifteen minutes passed between the time he and Magi had heard the bullet and when the police had arrived.
Suddenly, Magi’s desire to stay off the radar took on a whole new meaning.
CHAPTER FOUR
Brad spun his chair and looked out the window behind his desk. Across the road, themountain rose, and five ski lifts dotted the landscape. They’d had another storm yesterday, and skiers were taking advantage of the new powder. After a slow start in December, January had been their strongest ever, and February was shaping up to be a record-breaker as well.
And yet dissatisfaction coursed through him. He didn’t need to dig deep to figure out why. For over two months, he’d second-guessed his decision not to track his Magi down. With the exception of his twenty-four-year-old twin cousins, all of his other cousins and his brother, Cody, had married or partnered up in the past two years. And Mitch would join their ranks after his and Ava’s blowout wedding in July.
He didn’t feel left out or as though he needed to keep up with the Joneses. Those would be easy emotions to manage. What he felt was much worse. He wondered, nearly every day, if he’d let a chance at happiness, at contentment, pass him by. Pass them both by. Had they had a chance to have the kind of life his cousins and brothers and their partners had found, and they’d let it slip through their fingers?
He didn’t know. Although he suspected yes. He didn’t have a lot of evidence to go on; he’d only been with her for less than twelve hours. But when a Warwick fell, they tended to fall fast and hard. And generations had proved that worked for them.
He could always ask Ava to track her down. His soon-to-be sister-in-law could be discreet. And if she found Magi then,at the very least, he could put these demons to rest. Magi would either be in or out. And if she was game to explore what was between them, then they’d figure the rest out. If she wasn’t, he’d lick his wounds and move on.
Or try to, anyway. He didn’t know if he’d actually be able to do it. These past two months of questioning himself—of wondering—had started to eat away at him. Sleep was getting more and more elusive, and his attention wasn’t what it should be. Especially not as they moved into the second-busiest time of the ski season.
Not giving himself a chance to second-guess the decision he should have made weeks ago, he grabbed his phone and dialed her number.
“Charming.”
He could tell by the tone of her voice that she was in the middle of something. He hated bothering her, but it would work to his advantage. She’d be less likely to ask him questions.
“Can you pull CCTV from the back parking lot of Roxy’s the night I stayed in LA after I got back from Paris? Between ten and ten thirty that night, you’ll see me with a woman. I want to know who she is,” he said.
Ava hesitated. “Okay,” she said, drawing out the word. “But don’t think you’ll get away with not telling me the whole story.”
“I would never think that.”
She snorted. “Right, sure you wouldn’t. If I do this, I get first dibs. No telling the story to anyone else before me,” she added.
He chuckled. “Deal.”
“Excellent. I’m in the middle of something right now,” she said, confirming his guess. “But I’ll look into it as soon as I can.”
“You’re the best,” he said.
“Yes, I am,” she agreed before hanging up.
Setting his phone down, he lost himself in the meditative movements of the ski lifts as they ported skiers to the tops of various trails. For the first time since he’d woken up alone in the hotel room, he felt right. He had no idea how things would unfold once he found her, but that didn’t stop a frisson of anticipation from taking root in his body.
“Brad?” someone said as they knocked, then walked in.
Startled from his reverie, he spun around. Detective Mari Cheng stood in the doorway. Beside her was his cousin Ryan, the chief of police.
“Come in,” Brad said, waving them in. “Is everything okay?”
