The taller of the men, obviously the leader, glanced down at me like I'd lost my mind. "That's too big of a patch job. The entire ceiling has to come down so we can rebuild it and assess the damage. Nothing in this room is up to code."

Obviously. He needed to tell me something new. There weren't even working windows.

"Does this mean you'll give me more electrical outlets?" If I had to have my office serve as a work site, at least I'd hope to get something good from the deal. Currently, the office only had one plug, and I had way more things to plug in, especially since it didn't have any overhead lighting.

He shook his head. "We're getting paid for the ceiling. You'll have to talk to your landlord about anything else."

Of course. That's how the cookie always crumbled.

At least they were fixing the ceiling. Pierce might have been a hard-ass of a landlord, but if he'd owned the building, he'd have fixed the ceiling in February rather than April.

The saw threw more wood dust into the air and I coughed. At least it was being fixed, and I didn't have to pay for it. The office rent came at one hell of a deal-hence why I didn't complain about the lack of outlets-but it better not increase because of the whole mess.

Broadrick approached us as the man with the saw finally turned the machine off. "How are you going to work here?" he asked.

I pointed at my desk, on which three workers were storing their equipment. Someone had thrown bright orange extension cords on it along with a collection of drills and an old fashion saw. "I have noise-canceling headphones."

A heavy crack had me ducking for cover as a thick beam swung from the ceiling and almost took out the guy who'd been using the saw. "Holy shit!" he yelled as it missed his face by an inch.

The team lead ran over and tossed him a hardhat. "Don't lose the last two brain cells, Doug."

I waited by Broadrick as the other worker tore the beam from the ceiling with barely a yank. "Look at the water damage."

"Termites if you ask me," the one donning his hardhat said.

The other dropped the beam and turned toward him. "We don't have termites this far north. That's a Portland problem."

The guy shrugged, and I waited for them to start a Three Stooges routine. I'd never seen one of their comedies, but I imagined they started something like this from the way my great grandpa used to talk about their comedy bits. He thought they were hilarious.

Broadrick lurched forward as the office door opened, and the doorknob hit him in the ass.

"Hey, kiddo," Uncle Richard said as he walked into the room like he didn't notice the war zone. His graying blond hair was combed into perfection, and he adjusted his light sweater as he took in the mess. "What's going on here?"

"Hey, Uncle Richard," I said with a short wave.

Broadrick opened the door the rest of the way. "Let's go in the hallway. It's safer."

Uncle Richard kept his eye on the construction for a second longer and then nodded. "I came to catch up on the Torres's case. Everyone is asking questions at the superintendent's office."

My uncle worked in the finance department at the school as a purchase manager, and even though he hated the job and complained about it endlessly, he loved to hear the gossip.

"Edna, the secretary thinks a student did it, but she's nuttier than a hen without her head," he said, as if that analogy made sense.

Broadrick's phone rang, and he glanced at the screen before his eyebrows pinched in, creating wrinkles of concentration on his forehead. "I've got to take this. Be right back."

I watched him walk further down the hallway for a second before turning back to my uncle. "They took Vivi's boyfriend in for questioning but only because he found the body."

My uncle loved to watch crime shows as much as I did. He'd have been a great cop if my grandpa hadn't forced him to go to college and get a business degree.

Uncle Richard's eyes sparkled. "Allen? He doesn't have it in him to hurt anyone."

I nodded. Allen hadn't appeared the most assertive kid, but he treated my sister well, so I didn't complain. Their relationship was new, but they'd known each other for years. That's what happened when you lived in a small town.

Another crash came from inside my office, and Uncle Richard's eyes widened as we both turned to it. I didn't bother opening the door to check. No one screamed for help. No sense in giving myself nightmares about the way they were treating my sacred space.

"You should ask them about getting you more electrical," he said, still staring at the closed door like he wanted to open it and see what had happened.

"I tried. They said it was a no-go."

The door shook as someone in the room turned the saw on again and cut through a piece of wood. I did my best to ignore it, so I didn't worry. As much.

"Edna says she heard Coach Torres had a thing for students," he blurted out.

It took me a few seconds to process his words over the buzz of the saw, but when I turned to my uncle, he wasn't laughing. "What?"

How hadn't that rumor made its way around the town? If it were true, Susan would have printed it in the paper. Everyone in Pelican Bay loved gossip, and a student-teacher affair was juicy gossip.

Uncle Richard pinched his lips together and shrugged. "The principal and superintendent work hard to keep school stuff out of the town's gossip mill. Anything that might make them look bad would hurt enrollment."

Shit. What else were people hiding in this town?

My brain exploded from the news until Broadrick's return broke my concentration. My uncle glanced at him uneasily. Probably because Broadrick had almost six inches on him and right then looked like he wanted to rip the head off the first person to annoy him.

It would probably be me.

"Well, you kids look busy, so I'll let you go. But keep me updated if you hear anything," Uncle Richard said. "Edna will want to hear any updates."

"Edna, yeah." I wasn't sure if I even believed this Edna character existed. My uncle wanted the updates. Living in Pelican Bay was better than any soap opera.

Broadrick kept his face all pinched together as he watched my uncle leave the building. As the door shut to the outside world, his expression turned to conflict. "I don't think your uncle likes me."

"You scare him," I answered.

His eyes jerked open in shock. "Me?"

"You're a scary guy," I said and then followed it up with, "To everyone but me."

Broadrick didn't even laugh. Something was troubling him.

"Just tell me." I sighed and did my best to brace for whatever news he'd share. It couldn't be good, and my stomach twisted as I ran through the options.

His attention jerked to the side as the saw cut through a piece of wood and the door rattled. "Not here. I'll tell you at home."

Worry ripped through my chest. "Now you have to tell me it. It will annoy me, and I'll think the worst."

His expression fell even more. Like a doctor ready to tell their patient that the operation didn't work. "Oh no. I have cancer. Don't I?"

My heart beat in overtime. Probably the cancer making its way into my bloodstream.

"How would I know if you had cancer?" he asked with a shake of his head.

Great. Worse. "You have cancer?"

Broadrick lifted his chin so his gaze hit the ceiling, and he mumbled to himself for a moment. "The call was from my commanding officer. They've picked our next assignment."

"Where?" I asked on reflex and closed the distance between us, so I was right next to him. The sawdust odor was stronger on his side of the hallway. It tickled my nose as I sucked in a breath, waiting for an answer.

"Can't say." He opened his arms.

I stepped right into them. "Is it dangerous?"

Broadrick chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. "We wouldn't be going if it wasn't dangerous."

That's what I feared.

I hugged him harder as the ball of anxiety from the impending cancer diagnosis turned into worry over his safety. But, no matter what he said, I wouldn't cry.

Broadrick dumped me last year because he wanted to protect me from this very thing. I couldn't start babbling like a baby and prove him right. He needed me strong, so that's what I'd give him.

"When?"

He sucked in a breath and his hold tightened to the point I had a hard time gathering my breath. "Soon. We're never given much prep time to move in on these things."

He'd never really clarified what 'these things' were, and I'd always been too scared to ask. Now I hated not knowing as my mind came up with a billion horrible scenarios. It's not like the military needed him to go in and rescue a batch of ducks from a sewer drain. They had firefighters for that.

He'd made one thing clear, though. The government only called his team in for big missions. The scary stuff.

He'd warned me he'd be going again soon, but it actually happening sucked. Yet I had to remain strong.

For both of us.

I sniffed him one last time, letting his cologne settle over top the sawdust, and then stepped away and brushed off the sleeve of his jacket. "It's fine. You'll go, kick ass, and then be back here."

Somehow, I held off turning it into a question and then demanding he answer it and pinky promise.

Broadrick lifted my chin with his thumb as his palm clasped my neck. Our gazes met before he spoke. "Von, I promise I will do whatever it takes to get home to you as quickly as possible."

My heart thundered against my chest, the heavy beat clunking against my ribs. "You better."

The main door to the building opened, and we broke apart from our embrace. A man almost as tall as me, wearing a buttoned blue shirt with the top one undone, walked in. He had on a black baseball cap with an M embroidered with black thread in the center.

He glanced around and his gaze stopped at my door with the frosted glass and my name etched into it-a present from Broadrick. "Are you Vonnie Vines?"

"Yeah." I tried to step closer, but Broadrick moved in front of me, putting himself between me and the mystery guy.

He came off way too scared to be dangerous, but Broadrick took security seriously.

The man peeked around Broadrick's wide shoulders. "Miss Vines, I need you to save my life."