We rode to my place in Tony's massive white truck in silence until I finally addressed the elephant in the room as he followed me into my home.

"So, you heard about the murder thing?" I asked, putting NB down in the kitchen and grabbing his special night time food. He liked a bowl of doggie stew before bed. I moved a short stack of plates out of the way on the counter.

Tony propped himself against the wall between the living room and kitchen, watching me. His gaze tracked my every movement like he expected me to have a panic attack. "It's kind of making its way through town."

I scoffed. Of course it would. We lived in Pelican Bay. Small towns loved murders. "It's not like it's the first time someone accused me of something I didn't do."

Murder? Yes.

But it was fine. I'd make sure of it. Once I solved the murder, everything would go back to normal. I tapped the spoon from NB's dinner on the counter in thought. Who would kill Mick? Besides me.

"Should we talk about the dishes?" Tony asked, focused on the stack of plates I'd moved out of the way.

I stepped in front of them. "No."

With all the murder drama, I'd forgotten the state of my kitchen. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd never have let him in here. Now he'd probably get all pushy and bossy.

"Princess?" Tony crossed his arms and stared at me with pity in his eyes. I hated pity.

I met his pity with an expression of annoyance and crossed my arms as well after tossing the spoon in the sink. "Someone broke the dishwasher."

Probably.

Three days ago, I loaded it, but when I hit start, it just made a horrible screaming sound like I'd locked an animal in there.

"Isn't Pierce Kensington your landlord?" he asked.

Tony asked too many questions.

"Yeah. So?" I crossed my arms harder.

Tony nodded once. "So, I'm sure he can afford to fix it."

Oh, that's all? I loosened my crossed arms and waved a hand in front of me. "It's fine. I haven't called Pierce because Broadrick will fix it when he gets home."

"How long has it been broken?" he asked and stepped away from the wall.

I walked toward him to get him out of my home. "Just a few days. I have plenty of dishes left."

Sure, I'd eaten my cereal that morning out of a cup, but it was fine. I only had about two days left of food in the house before I ran out, and then that problem would solve itself. I'd grocery shop once Broadrick came home. He liked to make sure he had enough healthy things in the fridge.

"Do you want me to look at it?" Tony asked as we reached the front door. "Or you could hand wash them."

I opened it for him to usher him out. "No, it's fine. B will fix it. Let's get some pizza. You drive."

Everyone just needed to wait until Broadrick came home. Then everything would be fine again.

**

"You really don't want to talk about it?" Tony asked as he parked in the lot of Buddy's five minutes later. He'd been full of questions during the ride, mostly about how things were going without Broadrick and a murderer question thrown in every few like he figured I wouldn't notice.

It's like he thought I'd killed Mick. Yes, the man annoyed me, but I wasn't a killer. Like my dad always said. We didn't have criminals in the Vines family. Sure, he mostly said it to me when I was in trouble for something, but it held true.

I widened my eyes and stared at Tony as he parked to make sure he got the hint. "No. It's fine."

"I just thought women wanted to talk about everything. This seems like something you'd want to talk about."

The truck door slammed as I jumped out, and I cringed. Hopefully Tony didn't notice. "It's fine. I'm not worried."

We met at the hood of his truck. "So, you're just going to let the police solve it?"

Eww. I hadn't lost my morals. "Hell no."

Tony laughed, a big barrel sound. "That's my girl."

I held open the door to Buddy's for him. "Yeah, well, you're buying your girl a pepperoni pizza and a large basket of breadsticks with ranch."

Tony laughed again. "You got it, princess."

The second we stepped into Buddy's, the conversation inside stopped. And I mean stopped. From a full-on loud chatter that I'd heard as we approached to nothing. Crickets could have played me a melody on a small violin.

I blew out a breath. Best to rip the Band-Aid off and address the problem head on when dealing with this crowd. Bikers wanted answers, and no one liked it when they had to demand them.

I threw my hands in the air and rolled my eyes. "I didn't kill anyone. Go back to your mayhem planning," I yelled, so every leather-clad biker in the place heard.

Smokey, the bartender behind the long bar, whistled. "You heard her. Get back to drinking."

Someone cheered and then another followed. Were they for me or the beer?

"This town is so weird," Tony said as he picked out a booth in the back corner of the bar.

I slid in on the other side of him and waved at the people taking up a matching booth across the room. Gina waved back as Dominick played with a piece of her long black hair. I bet he didn't even realize he was doing it.

"Those two are adorable," I said to Tony with a slight jerk of my chin in their direction.

He dropped a menu on the tabletop after barely glancing at it. "You find The Impaler and his kidnap victim's relationship adorable?"

"He didn't kidnap her..." my sentence trailed off. "He only mini kidnapped her."

From the sounds of it, Gina was a willing kidnap victim. I decided not to judge. Especially since I was instrumental in their relationship taking a turn from willing hostage to girlfriend.

Tony ordered for both of us and I let him be since he technically ordered what I told him to anyway. He'd have to find a really sweet woman to put up with his alpha male-ness if he ever wanted a long term girlfriend.

"How are you planning to solve this murder and clear your name?" he asked once the waitress left with the order.

I shrugged. "Dude, I just found out there was a murder." Even I didn't work that quickly.

Tony leaned back in the booth like he expected me to launch into some grand plan, but I just didn't have one.

We sat in silence for a full thirty seconds before he leaned forward again. "You really don't have a plan?"

Wow, way to make a girl feel self-conscious.

"I'm working on it," I lied.

I hadn't had time to work on it. Between finding out I was a suspected, NB, and now pizza, nobody had given me any quiet time. I needed the quiet to think.

"If you need help taking your mind off it, I've got a job later this week that I could use you on," he said and thanked the waitress when she set down his thick, dark-colored beer.

I didn't need to take my mind off the murder. I needed to put it firmly on the murder and how to solve it, but I wouldn't turn down an offer to help Tony take down a bail jumper.

"Let me know the details and I'll be there."

He gave me info on the job and a little on what I had to do, and I let my mind wander to facts of the case. Who wanted Mick dead more than me? He had to have enemies. I'd heard all his tricks for the PI business, and some of them were downright shady, including entrapment. Had a man he'd tricked into cheating returned for revenge?

Tony paid the bill and handed me the leftovers in the small pizza box on our way out the door an hour later. "So you don't have to cook."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I buckled my seatbelt in his truck. "Did you look in my fridge?"

He gave me a matching narrow-eyed expression. "No. Should I?"

"No."

Tony shook his head, but I noticed he didn't laugh. "Broadrick told me to take care of you. I can't have you starving on my watch."

"You could just blame it on Anderson," I supplied.

He rubbed his chin. "True. But there's another reason for dinner tonight."

"Besides the murder suspect and the job?"

He nodded. "I'm thinking of taking some work down south. My buddy is short two guys, and he could use the help."

"You're leaving?" Tony had shown up in January and promised he was only here for one job. However, that job turned into many, and I'd forgotten that he didn't actually belong here. "When?"

He slowed as he approached my road. "Not until Broadrick is home. I made him a promise."

I tapped on his side window where NB had painted him a picture with his tongue the last time he doggie babysat. "You men drive me insane. I'll be fine here."

I'd been fine before. It's like they thought I suddenly couldn't take care of myself once they showed up.

He pulled into my driveway and we both ignored the two people knocking on my front door. "I know that, but a promise is a promise."

My chest grew heavy with the thought of Tony no longer being around in his big white truck. Who would I call to get into trouble with? Broadrick only agreed half the time. I needed Tony for the other half. "Just tell me before you leave, okay?"

"You'll be the first person I tell," he said.

I nodded once, unlocked his truck door, and jumped out. "See you around Tony Balonga."

He rolled his eyes as the door closed. "That's not my name."