"His last name is Balonga?" Katy asked as she stood beside her boyfriend Pierce on my front porch.

I laughed. "No, it just annoys him."

"I wish more things rhymed with Pierce," she said and waited for me to unlock the door.

Pierce flattened his lips. "Not me."

"We thought you were home," Katy said, following me into the porch that used to be hers. She'd moved in with Pierce, her billionaire boyfriend. They weren't far. Just across the street.

I stopped in the doorway before walking inside. Shit. I couldn't let Pierce-my landlord-see my kitchen. Or the dog. He thought NB spent most of his time with Broadrick at his place, but in reality, they both basically lived with me.

I spun around and stuck the pizza box between us. "What's up?"

Katy tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Can we come inside?"

"No," I said a little too fast. Way too fast. It came out as suspicious. "I...have to leave. I'm leaving."

"Right now?" Pierce asked, and he leaned to the side to see around me. Why did he have to be so smart? And suspicious?

"Yeah, I have to grab something from the bakery. For tomorrow. I just remembered. It's super important." I'd have to figure out what it was once I got there.

"It's fine," Katy said and clapped her hands together. "We just came by to give you good news considering all the... allegations."

"I didn't kill Mick," I said and rested my hand on top of the pizza box like I was swearing on the Bible.

Katy waved her hands. "Oh, we know. You wouldn't leave a body in your office. You'd dump any evidence at sea like a respectable murderer."

"Exactly!"

Someone clearly wanted Mick to be found.

Pierce shook his head. "You guys don't say these kinds of things in public. Do you?"

Katy glanced at me with a gentle head shake. "Of course not. Don't be silly."

The bakery didn't count as public, anyway.

NB barked inside my house.

Pierce lifted an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to ask us to come in?"

"No." I lifted the pizza box to use as a weapon in case he got any ideas.

He nodded twice. "Sure, that's not concerning."

"I've had a long day, Pierce," I said, trying to sound contrite.

"Anderson accused her of murder today, Pierce," Katy said. She always had my back, but I'd definitely get a text later asking for details. "But we're here with good news. Right, babe?"

"Right," Pierce said after Katy elbowed him.

We all stared at one another until it became too much. I had to pee, and I couldn't let Pierce see the state of my kitchen. And now I had to make a fake bakery run for an imaginary something I desperately needed. "Are you going to tell me the good news?"

"Oh, right," Katy said and clapped her hands together once. "We've found you a new office space."

I narrowed my eyebrows. "I have an office."

Sure, it tried to kill me earlier this year, but I paid rent for it each month, so it kept me determined to use it.

"It's got a dead body in it, Vonnie," Pierce said.

He had a point.

Katy elbowed him again. "I'm sure they moved the body by now, but Pierce is right. It's going to be a crime scene for a while. You need a new space, so Pierce is giving you an office at the Kensington building."

"Really?" I asked and allowed myself to get a little excited about this news.

The Kensington building was owned by Pierce's cousin, and it was a big black building-over four stories tall-set at the end of town, which didn't match any of our old town esthetic. But it was new and formative, like me as a PI.

"Only until they get your office cleaned," Pierce said.

Katy frowned. "It doesn't have a splendid view because it's on the first floor."

A cool breeze came in off the ocean, and I imagined the waves crashing against the shore across the road. The pizza box grew heavy in my hands.

"Jerome doesn't want you mingling with the regular people." Pierce rubbed at his arm after Katy elbowed him again.

"But it has a desk and two chairs and even a real plant in the corner," Katy said, her voice growing more excited with each item.

"We're swapping it out for a fake plant, and of course there are rules you have to follow. No hanging things on the walls, no parties, no late hours, no pets, and absolutely no shady characters in the building."

I stared at him, but it seemed he'd finished. "Should I have written those down?"

Pierce drew in a big breath. "I'll have them sent in writing to you tomorrow."

Wow. An office in the Kensington building. I was moving up in the world. Well, considering it was first floor, I guess my move was more lateral, but still.... The Kensington building. Think of the prestige.

"Why are her eyes all shiny like that?" Pierce asked and totally broke the mood. "She heard the rules. Right? You're going to make her follow the rules. Right?"

"Absolutely," Katy said, which we all knew was a lie.

The visions of office parties and hobnobbing with the billionaires fluttered away, and I turned back to the couple. "When do I get to move in?"

Katy shrugged. "It's empty now, so as early as tomorrow morning if you want."

"Perfect," I said and rubbed my hands together over the pizza box. NB barked in congratulations.

**

"What if he decided I suck and he never comes home?" I asked Tony the next morning as we drove toward my new office.

In the Kensington building. The. Kensington. Building.

Yes, I helped Katy protest the building of it, but now I had an office on the ground floor. That made everything totally different.

Tony pulled into the parking lot and stopped but didn't turn off his truck. "He's not going to do that."

"How do you know?" He always said everything with all this confidence, but neither of us knew what might happen in the future. Broadrick could be falling in love with a feisty hot woman right that very instant.

He sighed. "Because you're hot."

"Tony," I said and laid a hand on my chest. Flattery definitely worked. "Don't be cute. I promised B I wouldn't fall for you."

He laughed as I opened the truck door and jumped out. "You could not handle me, princess."

Something told me he might be right about that.

His tattooed arms flexed as he grabbed my single box from the back of his truck.

"It's just that he hasn't responded to any of my texts," I said, following behind him as he carried the box into the black Kensington building.

He stopped at the door. "Didn't he tell you he'd be incommunicado for a while?"

"Yeah."

He widened his eyes like that answered anything. "Vonnie, what you and Broadrick have is... special."

"You think we're special?" I hated how I needed the reassurance so much, but if he planned to give it, I'd lap it up.

"I was going to say weird, but special sounded better," Tony said as he walked into the building.

We passed through the lobby and I led us down the short and hidden hallway on the back of the building and stopped at door J. "It does."

"You're in office J?" Tony asked, staring at the door oddly.

I shrugged. "This is what Pierce told me."

Tony opened the door and stuck his head in. "Nice digs."

I followed him in and my mouth dropped open. I had windows. Windows! Two of them, side by side, and they weren't bricked over. "Hurry and count the outlets for me."

Tony glanced around as he set the box on the desk in the middle of the room. The one highlighted by overhead lighting. I had overhead lights.

The glory. The prestige. The convenience.

"You only have three outlets," he said, unimpressed.

"Three?" I threw my arms out wide. "Three outlets, two windows, and an overhead light. This is paradise."

"This is definitely the janitor's office," Tony said.

My excitement screeched to a halt.

"No, it's not," I said and gave him a look that conveyed he was never to say anything like that again.

Tony's eyes widened, and he popped the lid on the box. "Okay, if that makes you feel better."

"I am not a janitor, and I didn't murder anyone."

He leaned against the corner of the desk. It slid against the carpet and he had to reposition himself. "Do you think those are conjoined statements? Never mind."

I unloaded the pack of pens I stole from Broadrick's side table. "What if he's hurt? What if he starts another family in this unfamiliar country? What if he stays in the military? There are so many things, Tony."

"Is this what you worry about every day?" he asked me and watched as I loaded up the desk with supplies.

"No. I have tons more. What do you spend your time thinking about?" I closed the top drawer.

"Football."

"Football?" I asked and moved the now empty box off the desk.

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"I didn't know you even liked football." Had he ever mentioned football? Did Broadrick like football?

"Men like football," he said with another shrug. "I got you a present for your new office. You want to see it?"