I lifted my hand to run it over the scratch decorating Broadrick's neck, but he pulled away. I guess the big macho SEAL couldn't handle having someone show concern.

"Really?" I asked with an eye roll at his over dramatics.

Broadrick frowned. "That cat is a demon. From now on, we are strictly dog people."

He sneezed, but it sounded different from mine. Between the sudden sneeze and the puffy eyes, I decided to believe him on the cat allergy.

"You should stay away until Spencer returns to Frankie's house."

If I kept the cat at my old rental, I wouldn't have to spend a month vacuuming up cat hair from the new place before Broadrick could visit again.

"That's ridiculous," he said and glanced behind him to make sure we were alone before opening his arms.

I stepped into them without thinking. We still had mega shit to work out between us, but my legs didn't care about our relationship issues. "Your allergies are bad."

Pelican Bay couldn't have one of our big beefy man steaks walking around sick. It'd make the entire town look bad. We had a reputation to uphold.

He squeezed me tightly to him. "I'm not being taken down by a cat."

"Technically, he's a kitten."

Broadrick snorted, and then his head moved toward the corner with the long box. The movement gave me a great whiff of his cologne, and I cuddled into his chest a bit more. The woodsy scent always made me want to roll around next to him.

"You didn't open it yet?" he asked, staring at the box.

"Hmm?" I lifted my head from his shoulder and then laid it in the same spot, letting B do most of the work to keep me standing. "No."

"I think you'll like it."

My head jerked up, the inside of my ear twinging with the quick movement. "It's from you?"

I didn't want Broadrick to think I hadn't opened the package because I'd been worried about what it had inside. Even if that was the truth.

"Picked it out myself."

Okay, that had me worried again, but I kept my grimace to where he couldn't see it. "Let me open it now."

We both moved to the box as if Broadrick didn't want to let me out of his arms. The office smelled like old coffee and a wet smell I couldn't place. If I had more outlets, I'd buy a wall plug-in, but since we were short an electrician, I'd have to grab a candle the next time I took a shopping trip.

I laid the box on its side and Broadrick passed me a Swiss Army Knife with the blade out. The device was huge and stretched from one end of my hand to the other. It had to weigh at least a full pound. I'd never seen one so big. I didn't even know they made them in such a large size.

"You just carry this around in your pocket?"

He shrugged, which I took as yes and then waited as until I shoved the blade between the box top and slit it open. Broadrick leaned over me as I opened the package as if he was as excited to see the contents, too.

I pulled back a long piece of brown paper used for stuffing. The dry packaging rubbed against my skin and I shivered. I needed hand lotion to go along with the candle. And a humidifier.

"Wow, Broadrick. This is wonderful." I jerked at the tube of the long lamp, but it didn't budge until Broadrick helped.

He placed the tall gold floor lamp between us. It had three metal globes that matched and made the thing resemble a weeping flower.

"You really like it?" he asked, staring at the lamp. "It's shinier than I expected."

I grabbed the lamp and tugged it toward me. "I love it."

Who didn't love shiny things?

Broadrick moved it to the corner of the room behind my office chair and plugged it in. He adjusted one globe to hit my desk where my computer sat, and I swear it was like an angel lit up the sky and brightened the entire room. Those bulbs had power.

I'd been using one small lamp with only a single bulb to light up the entire office, but this was three times the power. Now I wouldn't have to squint to see when I wrote notes.

"This is great, B. Thank you." Best gift he'd ever gotten me, and he'd given me some good ones.

He stood back and stared at the lamp with his hand on his chin. I tried not to drool over the way it emphasized his biceps. "I thought it'd give the room more light."

"It's great. Three times as much light as before." Literally.

He humpfted, which I didn't like, and then turned and gathered up the box and stiff brown packaging paper. "I'll get rid of this on the way out."

"Hey, what are you doing today?"

Broadrick stood with the paper wrapped around his hand. He tipped his head to the side, gave me a look, and said, "You know I can't tell you."

"Strictly confidential stuff?" He knew I had to ask. Those were the rules.

He shook his head. "No, Ridge just doesn't trust you."

My mouth fell open in shock, and Broadrick laughed. "This is why I don't call him first."

Broadrick shoved the paper in the box, creating a horrible scratching sound that circled around the small office and clung to my ears, making them ring. "I'm doing a little recon and connecting with a few informants."

"Well, make sure and stay safe." I didn't know what else to say to a man who probably learned a hundred different ways to kill a person. Did they teach that in the navy? "You know what?"

Broadrick stopped halfway out my doorway. "What, babe?"

"You should take NB with you today. For backup." It sounded perfectly reasonable. He might only weigh twelve pounds, but he had teeth and a wily personality.

Broadrick glanced at NB who hadn't moved from his sleeping position under my desk. Okay, he wasn't a great example of a guard dog, but that's because no one had trained him yet.

"I'll take him." He sighed and waited for me to hook up the leash. "But we need to get a doggy daycare or something. Until then, he can play with Frankie at the office."

Frankie being the monster dog that belonged to Spencer, the resident hacker employed by Ridge. She ate everything and then normally puked it back up twenty minutes later. The dog was a town legend.

When Frankie, the mobster, returned home, we were definitely going to talk about how he named his demon spawn cat Spencer. And human Spencer had a demon dog named Frankie. I had questions.

Lots of them.

"Great, NB would love a day with you. He needs time away from his mother."

Broadrick snorted and let NB lead him out of the office. I followed behind to say goodbye. "Don't be funny, Von. NB is my dog. He just lives with you."

"What?" I blurted in shock, but they were already through the door. Did he really believe that?

Why in the world would Broadrick think NB was his dog? Just because the dog listened to him and sat on his lap on the couch while we watched television. It was only because Broadrick gave him the expensive treats. He paid for his love. What NB felt for me was genuine.

With the two of them gone, I finally sat at the desk again and pulled out the photocopied ledger from Katy. I called the old couple again, but they still didn't answer, so I left a message. Their behavior was fishy but they also weren't super high on my suspect list. Someone better had to be in the papers from Katy. I needed to find the person who actually rented the room. They might be my second shooter.

Of course, Katy couldn't just give me that damn record. She had to make it interesting. And, yes, she was right. It felt more exciting to be going through paper records, but it would have been a lot faster had she just printed the shit off for me from the computer or written his name on a piece of hotel stationery.

I hadn't taken a class in college on how to decipher sloppy handwriting. It made everything take three times as long. And the fact, Katy mixed in all the people from December and January. Didn't she make guests fill out the book in chronological order?

The page in front of me only had useless information. Not a single date happened after January. What a waste of time. I sniffled and flipped a new page.

Immediately, a person of interest hit me in the face. The top line of the sheet had a name everyone in Pelican knew.

Trish Grant.

Why in the hell was hell was Trish, who worked at the bakery, reserving a hotel room at the bed-and-breakfast? She had a home and enough friends here that she didn't need to spend money renting an expensive place in town.

And more shocking, how in the hell did Katy see Trish staying at her bed-and-breakfast and she not tell anyone? Wasn't that against the girl code?