Harper leaned into the shower, letting the warm water pour down her neck and over her shoulders like a massage. That’s exactly what she needed. A massage. What were the chances that Birdsville would have any place nice enough for her to trust somebody to touch her naked body?

Not likely. Birdsville had never been a place for trust, especially not for her. The closest she’d ever come to making a romantic connection here was making out with Shane on prom night. And even that had turned out to be a mistake.

Well, not that big a mistake. At least he’d been the first person to prove to her what a man was supposed to kiss like. But Shane had never really been serious consideration for boyfriend material. She could never be a groupie for the rest of her life, and to be in love with Shane meant traveling the country and dealing with all the other horny housewives batting their lashes at him.

Why was her gender so vulnerable to an Irish accent?

Harper shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself. The motel room included a so-called king-size bed—that couldn’t be any bigger than a queen—some aged, water-damaged carpet, a flat-screen TV, and a mini fridge. Nothing luxurious, but all she needed for the night. She was just about to lie down when her phone rang. She wanted to ignore it, but in her line of work, any phone call could be important. When she glanced at the screen and saw it was Wade calling, she knew she had to answer. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling.”

“I was in the shower. Why? What’s wrong? Where’s Zoe?”

She heard a heavy sigh over the line. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Everything’s fine. But I got an interesting call from the PI I hired.”

“Was the interesting fact that you hired a PI when I was handling this already?”

“Harper, I—”

“For you to bring any outsider into this is ridiculous. What if he finds something? What if he figures out what we did?”

“You’re too close to this, Harper. We both are. An outside perspective is always good, especially when there’s so much on the line. Lucas won’t go to the police even if he finds anything. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You’ll make sure of it? How on earth are you going to make—” Suddenly it clicked in her head. “You’ve got something on him, don’t you? What are you blackmailing him with?”

“If I told you, that wouldn’t make me a great blackmailer, now would it?”

“If you didn’t tell me, that wouldn’t make you good friend.”

“Don’t throw that shit in my face. Right now I’m one of the best friends you’ve got.”

Depressing but true. “I found another box in the woods today. I want to start looking in the east side forests tomorrow. I’ll make sure there are no more scattered around.”

“Someone else has to have found one by now,” warned Wade.

“But as far as we know, no one has done anything about it. People in this town know you. They also knew how terrible your dad was. Even if they thought that you had something to do with it, they might not go running to the police. Everyone here has enough problems without adding accusing one of the richest men in the world of murder to the list.”

“Until we find out who’s putting the boxes there, I’m not assuming anything,” said Wade. “If you need to handle your business and leave, that’s fine. I’m sure Lucas can—”

“Would you please stop trying to get rid of me? I said I’m going to help you, and I’m going to. Believe it or not, I’m a pretty good investigator. Finding people is what I do for a living.”

“You’re not looking for a person. You’re looking for a ghost trying to put me in prison. There is a difference.”

“Not as much as you think.” But she didn’t want to give him any more details than she had to about her job. Instead, she tried changing the subject. “So anyway, who is this guy who you hired to replace me?”

“He’s not replacing anything.”

A likely story. “What exactly qualifies him as an investigator? What are his credentials?”

“What are your credentials?” Wade shot back, as though that were some sort of defense.

“My credentials are that you’ve known me your entire life, and if you go down, there is a very real possibility of me going down with you. Do I have to remind you that I recently saved your fiancée’s life? Don’t ask me what my credentials are. I’ve proved myself to you multiple times.”

“Fine. I’ll back off. You can’t blame me for trying to get more information on you. If anyone understands the desire to live a secretive life, it’s me. But you don’t need to be secretive around your friends.”

“Maybe I’m not being secretive. Maybe this is just how I want to live my life. I don’t need to tell you every single detail about my goddamn day to be friends with you.”

“I’m not asking for every single detail. I’m asking for some basic ones.”

She shook her head. This was a bad idea. She couldn’t handle Wade right now, and she had no idea what exactly he wanted from her. “Did you call to tell me something, or just to get on my ass about things that don’t matter?”

“I called you to tell you to go easier on Lucas.”

“Have you considered going easier on me?”

“I’m hardest on the people I care about. If you want to keep on accusing me of infringing on your privacy or getting in your way, that’s fine. Lucas is there for your own safety, and I’m not going to apologize for that. So get off your fucking high horse and, for once in your life, listen to somebody else.” The next thing she knew, Wade had hung up and the line was dead.

Well, that had gone terribly. She fell back on the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, clutching the towel to her chest tightly. What a clusterfuck. It wasn’t as if she’d ever gone to him asking for money or even for a reference. He might be her crazy rich friend, but she had never once taken advantage of him. The fact that she was helping him was purely a favor. She didn’t owe him anything; for him to act as if she did just because they were friends was ridiculous.

While she was stewing in her own anger, there was a knock on her door. She knew it was well past ten o’clock at night and there’d be no reason for housekeeping to be there. Which meant she could probably guess who was outside right now.

Groaning as she got off the bed, Harper clutched the towel tightly as she pulled open the door as far as the chain would allow. “What a surprise,” she deadpanned as she looked out at Lucas.

“I can see you’re expecting me. Why else would you just be wearing a towel?” He looked her up and down approvingly.

She contorted her body away from the opening of the door, making sure all the important bits were covered.

“I told you to come back when you knew something, and this is way too soon for you to have found out any useful information.”

“Useful is relative.”

“Maybe, but since I’m the jury in this instance, relative is what I want it to be.”

“Fair enough. So what do you want to know, Harper Sloan? You’re a thirty-three-year-old feminist who forced her way on the football team in Birdsville, Ohio?”

She frowned and cocked her head. “Did you really only go with things that Wade told you?”

“I could’ve brought up the dishonorably discharged part, but that seemed like it would be a little bit too personal.”

She sucked in a breath. She didn’t think it was possible that he’d find that out, and the fact that he’d done it so quickly caught her off guard. “Did Wade tell you that? Does he know?”

Lucas raised a brow. “No, Wade was surprisingly tight-lipped about you. So are your parents, for that matter. I had to bring in a few other contacts to find out the truth about you. For someone so focused on her privacy, it’s surprising that you even sent me off on this little side mission.”

“Consider it a job interview.”

“But a job interview I passed, right?”

She really wanted to say no, but she was a little bit impressed. As much as she didn’t want to care about Wade being upset with her, he had asked that she work with this guy. And really, despite him being a little annoying, it couldn’t be that bad to have an extra pair of eyes and ears working with her. She knew she could be headstrong and stubborn, but she tried her best not to be stupid about these sorts of things. Refusing good help, especially on someone else’s dime, was stupid no matter what way she looked at it. She shook her head as she pushed the door closed. She could hear Lucas start to protest as she slipped the chain free and opened the door again, this time wide enough for him to walk through.

“Come on in. It’s time for us to talk.”

A cocky grin spread across his face as he stepped past the threshold. Great. He wasn’t even a gracious winner. How on earth had Wade thought this would be a good idea?

“I like the towel look.” Lucas pushed the door shut with a little kick of his foot. “Easy access is always sexy.”

“Not as easy as you might think,” she muttered as she slid the chain back in place before turning to sit on the one armchair provided by the motel. That left Lucas with the option of sitting on the bed or standing.

“Wow, you’re really sticking with that towel look. I don’t mind waiting if you want to change.”

“I think it’s important for us to learn about each other. For starters, you should know that I’m not very modest. Quite frankly, I could be sitting here naked and I wouldn’t mind. You can look at my tits and my ass all you want to—that doesn’t mean you’re ever going to touch them.”

“That sounds like a much more boring option. For both of us.”

Harper didn’t directly respond to that, but she also didn’t take off her towel for him either. “Another thing you should know about me is that I’m not used to working on a team. I recognize that I won’t be the easiest person to work with, but I will try my best. If not for you, then for Wade.”

“You’ve worked on a team before though. I hear you caused quite a ruckus to get yourself a spot on the football team. I’m assuming it wasn’t your charming demeanor with the other players that allowed you to have so much success there.”

“That was a lifetime ago. You don’t really know why you’re here, do you?”

“I know someone is trying to frame Wade Maxium. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I know Wade was trying to be clever when he hired you, but I don’t work under the same rules he does. He wants you to be on a need-to-know basis, and I think there are details you might not need to know but sure as hell could help you. Someone isn’t trying to frame Wade. The crime that is being alluded to in these hidden boxes really happened. Wade, along with me and a few others—we’re all complicit. I don’t feel comfortable naming names, but this was committed a very long time ago, and now somebody is trying to bring that crime to light.”

Lucas took a seat on the bed. His leather jacket crinkled with the motion. “What kind of crime, exactly?”

“Murder.” She debated ending it there. She’d already told him much more than Wade would ever feel comfortable with, but she forced herself to continue. “One of our friends beat Wade’s father to death. It wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t self-defense, but trust me when I tell you, his father deserved it. Wade and I helped to cover up the murder, because Wade’s dad was an asshole. The police didn’t look too far into the death. It was an open-and-shut case that ruined a lot of friendships and tore our lives apart, but at least it was in the past. Now, something’s changed.”

“What’s different now?” asked Lucas.

“Fuck if I know. Someone is damn intent on bringing Wade down for murder, but for some reason they’re not going to the police themselves. If we can figure out why they don’t want to be found, we might figure out who’s doing this.”

“The logic works, but what makes you think it would be any easier to find that out than the person’s identity in the first place?”

“I have no idea.” In all honesty, Harper was at a bit of a loss. Her main goal had been to get any remaining boxes out of those woods as quick as possible. The whole thing was kind of pointless if she couldn’t figure out who was planting them in the first place. The paper wasn’t any type of stationery that could be traced. The boxes themselves were pretty nondescript and didn’t give much to go off of. Unless she could get prints off them, she might be at a dead end.

“Do you have any suspects so far?” asked Lucas.

“You’re the investigator. Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

“We’re partners now,” he corrected. “We should be asking each other.”

“Okay then, partner. Who's your main suspect?"

“My main suspect is Tara. Isn’t she yours too?”

Harper’s lips tightened at the mention of Wade’s ex-girlfriend. “I admit the thought crossed my mind.”

“Come on. Ex-girlfriend goes crazy, kidnaps her ex’s current girlfriend in order to ransom her off for money. The whole thing sounds crazy. About as crazy as someone planting murder boxes in the woods.”

“That all sounds pretty circumstantial,” she pointed out.

“I’m not a prosecutor. I don’t have to prove things beyond reasonable doubt. I just have to prove doubt. This girl Tara—she gives me doubts.”

“I don’t like Tara either, but Wade insists that he never told her anything. How could she frame him with information she doesn’t know?”

“Hey, I believe him when he says he doesn’t remember telling her anything. But he was with her for over a year. Who knows how many drunk rants he went on in front of her, or how many times those traumatic memories came up in his dreams, in which he may or may not have spoken out loud innocently. Let’s face it, your buddy might be an unreliable narrator in this case.”

“Still, he’s not going to accept that it’s Tara unless we give him some hard facts. Beyond a reasonable doubt type of facts.”

“All right. If you want to play policeman on this, we can. Let’s get all of the boxes together that we have. We can take them to the station to get dusted for prints.”

“We can’t take them to the police here,” she pointed out.

“Why not? You have a history with the Birdsville Police Department you don’t want me knowing about?”

“Oh, trust me, I’m clean as a whistle." At least she had been ever since her hell raising days. As much as the police might not like her, they wouldn't arrest her. However Lucas didn't need to know those details about her past quite yet... " But I don’t want the police recognizing the boxes if we bring them in. We still don’t know if someone’s found one and gone to the cops about it yet. We need to keep this far away from Birdsville.”

“All right. Fair point. Tomorrow morning we’ll scan the woods once more and then I’ll call one of my contacts in the police force and have them run prints.”

“Sounds good. You can take the west side and I’ll take the east side.”

“Come on. What’s the point of being partners if we don’t actually work together? I’ll meet you here at eight a.m. and we’ll check out the woods together.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why spend twice the time we need to?”

“Because I don’t want to miss anything. Do you think Wade just wants me working with you to babysit you? He doesn’t trust either of us to get this done. Now, if we fail at this, you might lose a little face but that’s about it. If I don’t finish this job, I’ll lose a hell of a lot more than that. So if the very, very rich billionaire paying my bills wants me to work closely with you, I’m gonna wrap myself around you even tighter than that towel is right now.”

Instinctively, Harper wrapped her arms around herself, holding the towel tighter before she realized what she was doing. “I hardly think that’s necessary.”

“Well, that’s the thing. Wade hired me because he knows I go above and beyond what’s asked of me. I guess you could call me an overachiever.”

“Of all the things I could think to call you, overachiever isn’t even close to the top of my list.”

“Then obviously you haven’t talked to any of my ex-girlfriends.”