Spencer zigzagged his way through my living room and jumped in the litter box. His feet kicked out litter over my carpet.

"Why would they leave the cat?"

Wait.

My breath stalled as my heart skipped a beat. Nobody would be that horrible. Right? They didn't take the most important thing in my apartment. They wouldn't.

I finally worked up enough courage to jog to the fridge and rip it open.

"Nooooo." I fell to my knees as my gaze frantically searched the contents of my fridge, hoping I'd just missed it.

Everything was gone. They even took the ketchup bottle. But the biggest theft was the chocolate cheesecake piece I'd been saving. It had chocolate chips on top with a drizzle of chocolate syrup over everything. I planned to curl up in a ball on the couch and eat it slowly to enjoy every bite.

How could they?

What monsters stole a woman's last piece of cheesecake?

I closed the fridge door and leaned against it for support, gradually sinking to the floor. Without that cheesecake, what did I have to look forward to anymore?

The door to the apartment opened and closed, but I didn't glance in that direction. Hopefully, it was a horde of ninjas come to take me out. Someone had to finish the job.

"Vonnie?" Broadrick asked as his gigantic frame filled the space between the kitchen and living room of my vacant apartment.

I rolled my head to glance at him. "No, there's no more Vonnie. She's gone." With the cheesecake.

He had on the signature black polo shirt the guys at Pelican Bay Security wore as a uniform and a pair of dark-wash jeans that hugged him in all the right places. Under normal conditions, I loved to watch his ass in those jeans but not while in mourning. It didn't seem proper.

He ran his hands through his auburn hair and then widened his stance. "Why are you on the floor?"

"I've been robbed." I shrugged and then threw out my arms to encompass the room beyond him. Didn't he notice the lack of... everything? "They even took the cheesecake. There's no reason to go on. You'll have to raise NB without me."

Broadrick dropped his arm. "No one robbed you."

"Wait!" Another horrible thought hit me at another missing item. "NB isn't with you. Did they take my dog and leave the hellion cat?"

I rolled over, trying to find the strength to stand and begin the search for NB but couldn't do it. The new position gave me a perfect view of under my fridge and I almost gagged.

That's where I'd lost that Oreo. Although I didn't remember it having a fuzzy top.

"Vonnie, look at me," Broadrick said. When I lifted my head, he held up a finger. "Number one. I told you, he's my dog. He just lives with you."

Another finger ticked up. "Second, I knew you hated that cat, too. Three, no one stole anything. NB and your stuff is at the new place." He finished with the final third finger and then closed his fist.

Nothing he said made sense. How did he get all my stuff to his place on his motorcycle?

"If that's true, why is the cat here?"

Broadrick scoffed and kept a watchful eye on Spencer as he left the litter box after having scraped at the sides for ten minutes. His paws never once touched any actual litter. "Because I'm not letting cat hair get into the new place."

If my stuff really was at the new place, I guessed I'd leave the mystery of the Oreo for the next tenant of my basement apartment. I stood up with a little help from the fridge. "I don't know what you're talking about. Spencer is a good boy and doesn't shed."

"He's a fucking criminal and you know it," Broadrick said, backing away from the cat when he stalked toward us. Someone knocked on the apartment door, and it slowly opened.

I answered with a whispered, "Maybe," under my breath and then thought of a subject change. "How did you move all my stuff?"

I probably should have asked that question earlier.

"It's convenient living in a town full of SEALs and their better halves," Anessa said as she walked into the empty living room and then raced back to shut the door so Spencer didn't escape.

She leaned over to give the tuxedo cat scratches and then picked him up and cradled him in her arms when he asked. He left a ton of white hair on her dark pink jacket, but she didn't seem to mind. "He's so cute."

"Yeah, cute like Chucky," Broadrick said and actually stepped back as she approached.

Dramatic.

Sure, the cat was hell incarnate, but we shouldn't show fear around Anessa. What would she think if Spencer had us shaking in our boots? I'd lose all my street cred. I worked too hard for that to let it go to a cat.

Broadrick had to toughen up. He was a SEAL for fuck's sake.

"You also owe Antonio a pizza for helping to keep you distracted," Broadrick said to me as he watched Anessa snuggle Spencer.

What? "Me? Also, Tony Balonie was in on it?"

The jerk face. How did he keep that from me? Why make me break into the house? Was he really planning to stay in Pelican Bay, or did he just lead me on a random chase?

Men.

"He said he wants a supreme," Broadrick finished.

Of course he did. Whatever. "Well, thank you for all the help," I said to Anessa and not Broadrick, even though I imagined he probably coordinated things. "I'm going to owe so many favors."

I hated owing people favors. They never asked me to do anything fun.

Anessa smiled and let Spencer jump from her arms. "You know, no one keeps track of favors in Pelican Bay."

Spencer wandered over to Broadrick, and he backed away while speaking. "Bennett says you owe him seven favors now."

Oh, he must have forgotten about that time I used him as a decoy to sneak out of the hardware store last summer.

"Everything is ready if you two want to head that way," Anessa said, giving Spencer one last pet as he circled her leg. He was probably thinking of ways to trip her and cause her untimely death.

We followed Anessa from my place and Broadrick drove my car to the new house. I had an uneasy feeling. The new place I'd leased after Katy moved in with Pierce was gorgeous and close to the beach. It was bigger and had a view-not of the ocean but better than my basement place-but for some reason the nerves of moving had a grip on my chest.

What would life look like now? Could I find enough cases and dead bodies to keep paying the rent? With Broadrick back and me almost an official PI, life looked so different from a few months ago. I needed a while to sit back and take in all the changes before I ran ahead like normal.

Nothing had really changed, but everything felt different.

"Did you know you own thirty-seven pairs of shoes?" Broadrick asked as he turned onto my street.

I tapped on the armrest with my fingers. "Only if you count the flip-flops." Which I did not. They were basically a quarter of a shoe.

No one counted them.

I used my key to unlock the door at my new place, and NB ran up and jumped on my legs. Broadrick scooped him up and nuzzled his nose with his. Boxes lined the walkway in the living room and my couch sat in the middle of the room. The place looked like an adult fun house of obligations.

"Wow, I had more stuff than I realized." It would have taken a lot of trips with three boxes at a time.

"Okay, let's check out the bedroom," Broadrick said and held out his arms.

I took the invitation and jumped into them, wrapping my legs around his waist. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly what he meant, but he didn't complain as he carried me toward the bedroom.

"I had Katy make up the bed so you're all set," he said and placed a gentle kiss on the space behind my ear.

I leaned into his touch. "Is that so? We should christen it."

The cold had almost completely left, and besides a few sniffles here and there, I felt fine. Mostly.

He nodded. "That's my plan, babe."

Another kiss had my toes curling in my shoes. Broadrick pushed open the bedroom door and stepped around another tower of boxes. Where the hell did those come from and what did they have in them? No way did I have this much shit in my old apartment.

He pushed back the comforter, which smelled like fresh laundry soap. Did they have time to wash it? My friends were the best. Broadrick lowered me to the bed and lifted one of my legs to his chest to pull off my shoe.

I swallowed and tugged on my shirt, trying to make myself look sexy while he did the other one. Did my nose still look red? Hopefully, he wouldn't notice.

"Should we shut the door so NB doesn't watch?" I asked as Broadrick pulled my other leg to him.

He yanked off my shoe and dropped it to the floor as I unbuttoned my pants. Broadrick jerked on the cuff of my jeans and drew them from my legs, letting them fall to the floor too.

"He'll be okay," Broadrick answered and then tucked my legs back together, lifted the comforter off the bed and slid them under them. "You should rest."

I sat up. "What? Wait."

He turned from the door where he'd been about to walk out.

"You mean we're not... you know?" I moved my finger back and forth between us.

Broadrick raised his eyebrow. "No. I'm not getting your cold."

"That's entrapment." I'd never have gotten into bed if I'd realized what he had planned.

Something told me he knew that.