I rolled out of bed and touched the base of the lamp on my nightstand before Broadrick started firing randomly at whoever he thought had us under siege.

"It's only the cat," I said, spying the black and white fluffy demon at the foot of the bed pouncing on a ripple in the comforter, completely unaware of the trouble he'd caused.

Broadrick trained his gun on the animal. "Don't say it like that."

"Like what?" I rubbed at my eyes.

"The cat. You said it like he belongs to us," he said, watching Spencer bounce on another ruffle and attempt to claw it to death.

"Don't shoot him." I flipped off the light, only to be horrified by a few rays of the sun peeking in through the window. "Put the gun away, Broadrick."

If I didn't get back to sleep in the next thirty seconds, I'd be up for the day, and that would only piss me off for the next twenty-four hours. I pulled up the covers, displacing the cat who didn't seem to notice, and crawled under them, determined to get more sleep.

"I cannot believe you brought him here," Broadrick said, storing his gun somewhere on his side of the bed. Where had he been keeping that thing?

I didn't normally see him with a weapon and hadn't decided if I liked it or not. Mostly, I wasn't sure why he got to have one and I didn't.

He sneezed as he fluffed his pillow but didn't get under the covers again.

"What could I do?" Spencer wasn't safe at my apartment. "Where are you going?"

Broadrick was halfway across the room before I noticed he'd gone in that direction rather than back to sleep. "I'm awake now, so I might as well get up."

I glanced at my phone clock, my eyes suspiciously open. "It's six thirty in the morning."

He grunted something in return, but I rolled over and smacked his pillow, pulling it closer to me and using it like a makeshift teddy bear. Spencer jumped at my toes, but I forced them to play dead. I couldn't let Broadrick hear me screaming.

The pillow I smooshed against my face smelled like Broadrick. His woodsy cologne seeped into the fabric and tickled my nose as I rested against it. Spencer continued to attack my feet, but I didn't care because a forest of Broderick invaded my senses and put me at ease.

My eyelids closed and my body floated along the river of almost asleep when something heavy landed on my back. In shock, my eyes popped open, and I froze. Spencer meowed and chewed on a piece of my hair before chomping it in his mouth.

"Why are you like this?" I asked as I rolled over.

He readjusted and settled on top of my stomach, but didn't dive into a dissertation about feline behavior.

Broadrick poked his head into the room with his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. "When is Frankie getting home?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I answered as he waved the toothbrush at me while I gave Spencer pets on the top of his head. Spencer purred. "Aww, isn't he so cute?"

"Your joint evils have bonded." Broadrick shivered so hard the tops of his shoulders hit the bottom of his ears.

I tossed his wonderfully scented pillow at him. "Shut up."

"I'm taking NB for his morning walk," he said and darted out of the room without picking up the pillow. "Sometime today I'm going to get the warning from Ridge. We're leaving on a service call. Probably an overnight job."

I sucked in a breath. "Where?"

"Not far. Portland to install a system."

**

An hour later, Broadrick and NB had returned from their walk, and I met them beside a stack of boxes in the living room, dressed in a cute sundress with a pair of black leggings and ready to go for the day.

"Let's get this party started," I said as Broadrick unclipped NB's leash.

He stared at me for a moment-probably taking in the dress I never wore but wisely deciding not to ask questions. "You don't look happy."

"Look, I'm awake, but I said nothing about being happy about it." The man had ridiculous standards. No one would be happy in this dire early morning hour.

Still, big things were happening. Today I'd figure out the identity of my second bed-and-breakfast shooter and solve the case. It was going to be a good day. I felt it in my bones.

The car ride to my office took less than five minutes, and since it seemed like such a great day, I let Broadrick drive. We rode in silence for the first four and a half minutes, and it wasn't until we were turning into the office parking lot he hit me with his question.

"Do you want to tell me what you did with eight cartoons of eggs?" he asked as he found a front spot by the main entrance door to my apartment building. He locked the doors.

"No." I mean, if he wanted the truth, I'd give it to him. And who in the hell turned me in? I bet it was one of the guys at Ridge's security firm on camera-monitoring duty. I really needed to figure out their shift schedule and bribe them to keep their mouths shut.

"Are you sure?" He turned off the car, and I unlocked the door and jumped out before he trampled me.

"Positive," I said as he got out of the car as well.

Damn it. Couldn't today be the day he had some super important task he needed to be to work on time for? Emergencies never happened when they'd be convenient.

I hurried to the door and wished the band had decided on an early morning. Broadrick hadn't heard them practicing their new country genre of music, and a loud disruption would work out splendidly at the moment. Something told me he'd love the banjo.

He was steps behind me as I jerked open the door.

To silence.

Double damn it.

What happened to my good-case-shattering-day?

"What the hell?" I said out loud as my foot crunched glass with my first step into the building.

Broadrick directed me to the side. "Stay here."

He grabbed his gun from his magical hiding spot and kept his back to me as he pushed me against the wall. Glass broke as he stepped over it without a care and made his way to my office door.

The door had a shattered window on the top half. What in the hell? Did the universe miss the memo about the good day?

Broadrick reached through the newly created hole and opened my office door, letting himself in. I almost made a joke about not knocking, but it didn't seem the right time for it.

Seeing as the hallway was clear, I snuck in behind him, keeping my gaze on the shards of glass littering the floor. "Who would do this?"

I bumped into Broadrick's back as he stopped two steps into the office. He glanced back just long enough to give me his patented scowl. "Didn't I tell you to stay out there against the wall?"

"Sure, but it's safe." I pushed on his back to get him walking again, but he didn't budge.

If a piece of glass ended up in my foot because he walked too slowly, I'd never let him live it down.

"How do you know?" he asked, still blocking my path into my office.

Really? Wasn't he the super smart and heavily trained SEAL? "Because if someone was in here, they'd have shot you already."

"Vonnie." He sighed but finally got out of my way.

I slipped into the office, stepping over the massive rock someone had thrown through the window, and made it to my desk.

Broadrick stood in the middle of the room like a big target and circled. "It doesn't look like they ransacked the place. Petty violence?"

"Haven't you learned that there's no petty violence in Pelican Bay? Also, the assholes stole my autopsy report." The entire envelope.