Detective Martinez’s eyes went round as she turned to face him, and I couldn’t hide my look of surprise either.

“Brady,” she finally said. “I don’t think you should be in here.”

“I’m not going to let you humiliate Magnolia on my account.” He shot me an unreadable look before he turned back to his partner and took a seat in the chair next to her. “Magnolia had my number because I gave it to her after the Max Goodwin case was solved.”

That was a lie, and we both knew it. He’d given it to me before he knew I had any connection to Goodwin. At the time, he’d worried that I was acting skittish because I was a domestic abuse victim.

Had he been watching from the other side of the mirror? He must have been, considering the way he’d timed his entrance.

Brady continued, “There was no conflict of interest at that point. I told her I was interested in seeing her again, and she was understandably reluctant. But she called me a couple of weeks later in a panic and said she’d found a body. She sought out my help because she was terrified of being harassed again. I went to the bar and called Owen since he was on call that night. Since Magnolia was already nervous about trusting the Franklin police, Owen and I decided she’d feel more at ease if I took her statement. We figured she’d be more likely to give a full account of what happened if she wasn’t worried about being named a suspect.”

I watched him in shock.

But he ignored me and continued his stare-down with his partner.

Her face reddened and she looked close to waling on Brady. “This is not the time and place to give your statement, Detective.”

“It seems like the perfect time and place. Once again, Magnolia is being treated hostilely by our department, which means we’re in danger of losing the trust I’ve worked on rebuilding. I’m in here hoping to salvage what might be left.”

Detective Martinez leaned back in her chair and asked incredulously, “And why would we give a shit if we have her trust?”

His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “Are you really that shortsighted, Maria? Perhaps we should leave the room and discuss it.”

They had a stare-off for a good five seconds before she broke eye contact, swearing under her breath. “This isn’t your interview, Bennett. Get out.”

“I’ve been working on this case for over a month, Maria. I’m staying.”

There was no hiding my surprise or my pain. I’d thought Brady had come in to save me embarrassment, but he was acting like he’d been using me the entire time. Was he lying to his partner, or had he been lying to me? What agenda was he working toward? My emotional turmoil clearly showed on my face, because Detective Martinez’s annoyance had turned to thinly concealed glee.

Brady turned to me with an expressionless face. “Ms. Steele, I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

I wanted to believe this was all an act for Detective Martinez, but even if it was, something wasn’t right with Brady. He lied too well for a detective, and how could I ignore the fact that he and Belinda had very different stories about his chat with Roy? And I couldn’t help but remember that Momma hadn’t liked him.

I wasn’t sure what to believe, and my emotions were too raw for me to process it.

I got to my feet. “I’m done.”

Detective Martinez stood and blocked my path. “You’re not done until I say we’re done.”

She stood about three feet in front of me, and we were about eye level. She didn’t intimidate me, and I wasn’t even playing a role right now. “Are you arresting me?”

“Do I have a reason to arrest you?”

“Detective,” I forced out, tears stinging my eyes. “Is your mother still living?”

“That doesn’t have anything—”

“Is she still living?” I demanded. “It’s a simple question.”

“Yes,” she conceded.

“Are you close to her?”

She looked like she was about to protest, but she said, “Yes.”

“My mother and I were so much alike we butted heads for my entire childhood. We spent the past ten years mostly estranged. But when I came home a month ago, we both decided to try to work on our relationship during the time we had left.” My voice broke. “I thought I had more time. I thought I had months. I wasn’t ready to let her go.” My voice broke again. “My mother died five days ago, and I’m beyond devastated. And now I’m finding out Detectives Bennett and Frasier have been using me for some type of investigation . . .” Having gotten over my initial shock, I didn’t for one minute believe Brady had gotten close to me for an investigation, but he had insisted on getting close to me for some other reason. It was all too much to process.

I took a breath. I would not fall apart now. Not here. I wouldn’t give either of them the satisfaction. “If you have an ounce of compassion left in you, then please get the hell out of my way.”

To my surprise, she stepped to the side.

I reached for the door, refusing to look at Brady, then walked out and headed straight for the exit.

No one stopped me as I descended the steps. I had no idea where I was going, only that I was headed back downtown.

It was no surprise when I found myself at the catering business. Colt was helping Tilly with inventory today. I held myself together until I walked through the back door and saw the two of them going through a pile of produce and groceries while Tilly held a clipboard.

Tilly took one look at me and worry filled her eyes. “Maggie? You okay?”

I shook my head and a tear escaped down my cheek. “I need to talk to Colt for a moment.” I shot him a look before turning back to Tilly. “I’m sorry to steal him, but this is important.”

“Of course!” Tilly said as she walked toward me and pulled me into a hug. “Let me know if you need anything.” Then she released me and headed up the stairs to the office.

I heard the door close as Colt moved in front of me. I could tell he was anxious, unsure of what I needed. “What happened, Maggie?”

I wasn’t going to lose it yet. I needed answers. “Why are you staying at Momma’s with me?”

Pain filled his eyes. “I know why you’re hesitant to trust me, and if I could change what I did, I would. I’m trying to prove to you that you can.”

“Why are you with me, Colt?” I demanded.

Confusion washed over his face. “I told you.”

“No. Not really. Why are you with me?”

He reached for me, putting his hand on my arm, and when I didn’t push him away, he pulled me into an embrace. I remained stiff, but that didn’t deter him. “Because I’m falling in love with you, Magnolia,” he said, searching my face with pleading eyes. “And the thought of losing you because of what I did terrifies me. I know I should give you space, but even if you weren’t in danger, I’d be afraid to leave you alone. I’m worried that you’ll decide you don’t need me and I’ll lose you forever.” He took a breath. “I deserve to lose you, Maggie. I know that. That’s why I’m so terrified. You have every right to kick me out of your life, but I haven’t felt this way about a woman in a very long time, and I know we could have something special.”

I wasn’t sure what to believe. I’d never felt so alone in my life, which was saying something since I’d spent the ten years I’d lived in New York holding everyone at arm’s length. More than ever I wished Momma was still alive. I trusted her opinion of people, and I needed her advice more than ever. She’d believed in Colt in spite of knowing about his arrangement with Daddy. Why?

I started to cry. “I can’t take one more person using me.”

His hand slid up to my upper back and his hold tightened. “Mags, what happened? Why are you so upset?”

“Tell me you won’t hurt me,” I said as I broke from his embrace and took a step back. “Tell me you’re not using me.”

A war waged in his eyes. “I wish I could tell you that I’ll never hurt you, but I can’t.” I started to back up more, but he reached for my arm and held me in place. “Let me finish. Please.”

I nodded and jerked out of his hold.

“I can’t promise that I’ll never unintentionally hurt you, but I promise from this moment onward to always tell you the truth, no matter how hard it is for the both of us.”

Could I really trust him? I only knew that I wanted to.

“Maggie. What happened?”

“I went down to the police station to talk to Detective Martinez.”

“About the murders on Saturday night?”

“It never got that far,” I said. “She asked questions about how I knew Owen and about the Walter Frey investigation.”

“What did she do? Why are you so upset?”

I could tell him about Brady, but what good would it do? He’d never really trusted Brady, and while he wouldn’t say I told you so, he really couldn’t do anything to help me. Besides, it would be weird for him to comfort me about this, and I had no idea what to think. I suspected Brady had been playing a part to get his partner to leave me alone, but the smooth way he’d lied to someone he knew well seemed like further proof that I couldn’t trust him. “I think everything’s caught up with me. Especially after I told off Miss Ava this morning.”

He grinned. “I would like to have seen that.”

I gave him a wry smile, but another thought flitted through my head, and my expression turned serious. “Why did she hire you two years ago?”

Dread washed over his face. “Mags . . .” I was sure he wasn’t going to answer, but he took a deep breath and said, “I approached her.”

“Because of my dad?”

“Yeah. I think he knew she was snooping, so he told me to get close to her.”

“And how did you manage that?”

“Christopher Merritt had just disappeared, and I played on her fears that your dad would go after her too.”

“Ava Milton doesn’t seem like the type who can be easily played.”

“She’s not. And it took some time. I met her at a party, while I was bartending, and I flirted with her.”

“That’s disgusting.”

He shrugged, but he didn’t look happy. “I told her to give me a call if she ever had any issues that she needed a man to deal with.”

“She fell for that?”

“Not entirely. But someone tried to break into her house, and she contacted me to keep an eye on her place for a few weeks.”

“So that’s why you were there at night?”

“Yeah . . .” He sounded confused. “It didn’t take long for me to figure out that Ava’s not the skittish type. I think she made up the break-in so she’d get a chance to figure out what made me tick.”

“I take it you continued a working relationship with her after that,” I said in a disgusted tone.

He grimaced. “I never slept with her, if that’s what you’re implying, but yeah, I did things for her. She knows everything about everyone, Maggie. And I learned all kinds of things through her.”

“Which you promptly delivered to my father.”

He hesitated, then grabbed a metal barstool and dragged it over to me, going on to position a second one within a couple of feet from mine.

Once we were both seated, he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I told him things. But not everything.”

“Why did Miss Ava go to you? Do you think she knew you worked for my father?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“I eavesdropped on the first Bible study I helped with. The one right after Walter Frey’s murder. One of the women said Ava had dealt with a messy business two years ago and that it had spawned two more issues.”

He hesitated, then said, “I helped with the two other issues.”

“And what were they?”

“They weren’t related to your father or Christopher Merritt. She has multiple businesses and rental properties, and she had an issue with one of the businesses. She tried to handle it her usual way, and when it didn’t work out, she had me deal with the outcome.” He paused and guilt washed over his face. “I’d rather not say how I took care of it. I’m not proud of it.”

“Why did the woman insinuate it had something to do with Walter Frey and Christopher Merritt?”

He shook his head, looking genuinely confused. “Maybe because one of the issues was violent.”

“I deserve better than these bullshit vague answers, Colt,” I said in a hard voice.

“I know.” He ran his hand through his hair. “You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, Magnolia. You have to swear.”

I frowned. What was he going to tell me? But I wanted to know badly enough that I was willing to make a blind agreement. “Yes. I swear.”

He took a breath and then slowly blew it out. “She pissed off a customer, and he retaliated by showing up at the spa a few days later. He roughed up an employee and told her to give Ava a message.”

“A spa?” I asked incredulously.

“You’re a smart girl,” he said in a dry tone. “Read between the lines.”

“A brothel?” How ironic that she’d worried it would ruin her reputation if too many men dropped by my apartment. Then again, I suspected she would want any stink of impropriety far, far from her home.

“That’s an old-fashioned term.”

I was stunned speechless. “But . . . Miss Ava . . . she’s . . .”

“So prim and proper? What better way to get information than when men are their most vulnerable?” he said, not sounding happy.

“What did she have on you?” I asked.

“I never used her services,” he said in disgust. “I only did her bidding.”

“So she had an unhappy customer and he hurt one of her . . .”

“Escorts. Yes.” He smirked. “It was an escort service. They accompanied men to parties, events, and so forth. It was up to them if they slept with the guys. Totally legit.” He gave me a theatrical wink. “But let me just say it was expected they would put out.”

“But I suspect you won’t find Ava Milton’s name on the business license.”

“Exactly. But this one guy got pissed when he realized the information he’d given his date had fallen into Ava’s hands. Most people had no idea there was a connection, but somehow he figured it out.”

“And what did you do?”

“I roughed him up a bit and told him if he ever hurt another girl, I’d cut off his dick next time.”

“Why didn’t he have you arrested?”

“He didn’t know it was me. I wore a ski mask.”

I didn’t say anything for a moment. “Who was the guy?”

“Maggie, this has nothing to do with your father.”

That perked me up. “Who was it?”

He grimaced. “Clint Duncan.”

I gasped.

“This had nothing to do with your father, Maggie,” he repeated with more insistence. “Clint’s a dried-up and bitter man who lashes out at the world. It was a coincidence.”

I wasn’t sure I believed in coincidences anymore. I studied him carefully as I asked my next question. “Did you know Ava planted the cameras in my apartment?”

He stared at me for a moment, shock washing over his face before fear replaced it. He sucked in a breath. “I didn’t plant them, Maggie. I swear on Lila’s grave. I didn’t do it, and if she’d made me, I would have told you immediately.”

“But you did tell me immediately,” I said. “When we went into the apartment after Lopez’s murder. You saw the cameras right away and rushed me out of the apartment.”

“I didn’t know, Maggie!”

Something caught my attention then—something I’d almost missed. “You said if she’d made you do it. Despite being my friend, you would have put cameras in my apartment if she’d insisted.”

His eyes widened, but he didn’t answer.

My chest constricted and I got off the stool. I knew I was onto something. “What does she have on you?”

He continued to stare at me.

“Why are you still working for her?”

“I’m not. The last thing I did for her was to get you to move into her apartment.”

“And you never once thought it might not be in my best interest to move in there?” I asked in an accusatory tone.

He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes full of panic. “You wanted answers, Mags, and I knew Ava had them. I figured it was a win-win situation.”

Anger was pumping through my veins instead of blood. “And you never considered that maybe you should be honest with me? Say, ‘Hey, Ava Milton wants you to move into the apartment over her garage. I don’t know why—maybe she wants to know what you know about your father—but you can learn a lot from her too?’”

His eyes turned glassy, and his mouth parted as if he wanted to say something. He stayed silent.

“Nothing?” I asked in disbelief. “You say nothing?”

“You’re right. She has something on me.”

“What?”

He didn’t answer.

“You swore you would be honest with me, Colt. You swore no more lies.”

“This isn’t a lie, Magnolia. I’m just not answering.”

“My life is in danger, and you’re still refusing to be honest with me.”

He was slow to respond. I stared up at him, narrowing my eyes. “I want you to take me to the safety deposit box my momma left you right now.”

He still didn’t answer.

I gasped and took a step backward. “You’ve already been.”

He took a step toward me. “Maggie . . .”

“What was in the box, Colt?”

“If you’d just listen . . .”

“The only thing I’m going to listen to right now is what you found in that box.”

The defeat in his eyes nearly killed me. “I can’t tell you.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” I hated that my voice broke. When he didn’t answer, I shook my head. “Does Ava Milton know?”

His gaze dropped. “No.”

“Well, that’s a shocker.” I was being ugly and hateful, but I didn’t care. After everything, he was still hiding things from me. For all I knew, he hadn’t stopped making reports to Ava.

I turned and hurried up the stairs. When I got up to the office, Tilly was sitting on her desk chair, staring at my mother’s empty desk with tears on her cheeks.

I wasn’t sure how much heartbreak I could take.

She glanced up at me and dabbed the corners of her eyes. “Don’t be so hard on him, Maggie.”

“He’s kept some pretty massive secrets from me, Tilly,” I said defensively. “He won’t even tell me what was in Momma’s safety deposit box.”

“Maybe he has a good reason, sweet girl.” Her chin quivered. “His heart is breaking too.”

“He was working for my father, Tilly, reporting what we were doing to him.”

“I know.” She took a breath. “Your momma knew too. But she also knew he was a good man trapped in an impossible situation, and she spent the past three years trying to make him a better man. And it’s worked, Maggie. For the first time, his focus is on someone other than himself, and that person is you.”

“He’s still keeping secrets from me.”

“And you’re still keeping secrets from him.”

The words felt like a blow, but there was no denying she was right about that.

“I need to take a few days off to think,” I said. “I know I’m supposed to help—”

Tilly held up her hands. “I’ve got enough help. You take as long as you need.”

“About my part of the business . . .”

She shook her head and stood, walking toward me. “It’s here if you want it; otherwise, I’ll buy you out, but it’s too soon to talk about that. You need to grieve, Magnolia. You need to mourn your momma.” She tugged me into a hug and I relaxed into her, resisting the urge to cry. I was done crying . . . at least for now. I’d let myself cry later.

I pulled free and kissed her cheek. “I’m here for you too, you know.”

“I know.” A sad smile spread across her face. “I know.” Then she gave me a tiny shove. “Go home. Go do what you need to do.”

I reluctantly turned and headed for the door.

“Maggie?” I turned at the waist to face her, and she looked even sadder than before. “Don’t run off without telling me, okay?”

My chin quivered and I ran back to her, offering her support this time. She thought I’d leave town like I had last time. “I won’t. I swear.”

She nodded and pulled away, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “Look at the two of us. Lila would have hated this.”

I laughed, but it was bittersweet. “I know. That’s what makes it so great.”

Tilly gave me an ornery grin. “You’re terrible.”

“I am my mother’s daughter.”

Her smile fell. “That you are.”

I really left then, because I knew I was making her even sadder. Colt was pacing when I reached the bottom of the stairs.

I lifted my chin. “I’m giving you one last chance to tell me what was in that box or what Ava has on you. Just one. You pick.”

“I can’t.”

I expected that answer, but something hurt deep in my chest. “I can’t see you right now.”

A resigned look filled his eyes. “Are you staying with Brady?”

“I’m a grown-ass woman. I don’t need a man to protect me.”

“No, but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone with a big-ass gun,” he snipped back.

“I have my own big-ass gun.” I opened the back door and stomped out into the parking lot, half-expecting Colt to follow me. Hoping he’d follow me.

He didn’t.

His secrets were more important than keeping me.