With a greasy, salty, ketchup-coated french fry pressed between two fingers, I groaned at Sheila across my desk. I was the one seated in a visitor chair this time as she plowed through the rest of the Curious Turtle’s accounting work on my computer.

“He didn’t even look at me,” I whined.

“You’re just overthinking things,” she explained between bites of fries. “He’s doing his job, girl. Why are you all upset about this guy anyways? He’s totally not your type.”

“But that’s the worst part,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I don’t freaking know why I am!”

“I mean, I get it,” she admitted, “he’s sexy.”

“You don’t even know which one is working as my bodyguard!”

“Oh, girl, they were all sexy,” she said with a grin, followed by another bite of fry. “You just haven’t seen all of them yet.”

I laughed as I crumpled up my burger wrapper and tossed it in the takeout bag.

She grabbed her shake and took a long drink from the straw. “You thinking about doing the safe house thing? Like he suggested?”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah. I just, I don’t know, want to feel safe. And if that’s what it takes to feel that way, that’s what I’m going to do. I just keep closing my eyes and thinking about that tortoise, worrying that next time it’ll be Walach or Eli. Or me, even.”

“Don’t say that!” Sheila said, looking uneasy. “Think it’ll really get that bad?”

“I don’t know,” I replied with a shake of my head. “But if it is these Skull and Bones guys, what would stop them? Sheriff Peak? He couldn’t even stop the random stalker when we thought it was just some nobody looking for trouble. What could he do to these guys?”

She popped another fry in her mouth and seemed to weigh my options as she chewed. “That’s true,” she said. “But have you thought about just taking their money and leaving? I mean, Daddy’s rich, but even I know two hundred grand is a lot of money.”

Honestly, the thought had entered my mind, if only for a moment.

“I mean, it would be enough for you to start over, open up a new gallery somewhere.”

“A new one?” I groaned. “I mean, I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think Enchanted Rock could really support another gallery specializing in the same thing. I’d have to move out of this town, and I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Good point. I don’t think I could handle you leaving, either. Everyone else around here is, I don’t know…lame.”

“Well, you’d still have Karen, right?”

She made a face as a little shudder went through her body. “I don’t know. Karen and I just aren’t as close as we used to be.”

I had no idea she felt that way about her! We’d always been friends through the years. Well, at least I thought we were. “You don’t like Karen anymore? You two were bosom buddies before I got back. What happened?”

“She’s okay,” Sheila replied with a shrug. “But I’ve just never liked the way she looked at the guys I brought around her. Or, remember how back in high school, when I got my first car?”

I shook my head. “Girl, high school was almost ten years ago.”

“Okay, so I got like some Jeep Wrangler or something, a brand new one that Daddy bought me. Guess what? She had her father turn around and buy the exact same one for her the next week.”

I laughed. “That’s what half the class drove. All you rich girls wanted one for your sixteenth birthday.”

“She got the same color as me, Jess! The same color! That’s such a copycat move!”

I shook my head and laughed. “So what you’re telling me is that two spoiled daddy’s girls can’t be friends? This town’s not big enough for the two of you?”

She kept her eyes leveled with mine, but finally smiled. “Oh, fine, you’re probably right. But please don’t leave me with Karen! I don’t think I could live with just her around. Not after I’ve tasted the sweetness that is Jessica Long.”

I smirked. “What else is there, then? Take the money? Or let Frost Security do its thing?”

Sheila slapped her hands clean of salt and oil as she leaned back in her chair. “How about this? Say they really want the place to launder money. Hypothetically. What about it would be so bad?”

“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously.

I was not about to seriously contemplate committing a felony.

“What?” she asked, faking innocence. “I said hypothetically, didn’t I?”

I shook my head. “Okay, so hypothetically? For one, I’d still be involved in their criminal organization and activity. If something happens, I’d still go down with them. Other than that, though, I don’t think I could sleep at night, Sheila. Gangs like this, they get their money from drugs and gambling and all sorts of shady, illegal stuff—illegal stuff that hurts people. That’s why they need their money laundered, right?” I popped another fry in my mouth and shook my head as I chewed. “I mean, there’s doing some things for money, then there’s something beyond that, you know? Like, this isn’t talking about stripping to pay for college or something. We’re not talking about working some crappy job that I don’t like, we’re talking about organized crime here. Going to the big house kind of crime.”

She shrugged and sighed. “Well, I still don’t think it’s what they want your place for, or what Wyatt has in mind. But what do I know?”

“Hey,” I snapped in her defense. “You’re still the smartest woman I know. Just because you have atrocious taste in men, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. You just, I dunno, turn your brain off sometimes.”

She laughed. “You mean that I know how to have fun, right?”