Her body still tingled the next day. Once they had sex, they didn’t stop having it. Lauren’s thighs ached in the most delicious way. She hadn’t experienced that feeling—the puffy lips, the sensitive breasts, that sensation of being filled—in so long.

Even before Carl left, he had checked out of their marriage and moved into the extra bedroom. Since she was never quite sure about his commitment to either fidelity or her, she hadn’t fought the move to the extra bedroom. She handled what she needed herself. Tricked her brain and body into thinking that was enough for her. But the truth was she loved being touched and being with someone who appreciated her body and took care of it. She’d missed the sounds a man made when she wrapped her fingers around him. Now, thanks to Garrett, it all came rushing back.

He was as good as she’d known he’d be. Not selfish. Almost worshipping when it came to her nearly thirty-seven-year-old body. She was in good shape, but gravity was gravity and he didn’t seem to notice. She thanked the universe for his failing eyesight or whatever it was that had him kissing and licking her, running his hands over her, as if she was a tight twenty-something.

“Uh, Lauren?”

Lost in her own thoughts, it took a minute for the words to break through. She looked up to see Garrett’s knowing smile and realized he was the one who’d cleared his voice and called her name.

“Sorry.” But she wasn’t. Not for the night before. Not for this morning. Her only regret was agreeing to this meeting.

At just past ten, she sat with Garrett, Jake and Bob around the small table in the corner of her office. She’d pushed the business pamphlets and paperwork to the side to make room for everyone, though Matthias still stood at the door, keeping watch. The man looked ready to pounce, but she was pretty sure that was his usual look. Only Garrett seemed calm. Maybe repeated sex did that to a guy.

Bob leaned across the table, focusing only on her. “What did Carl say to you when he came back into town?”

She’d been asked that question so many times that she started to doubt how innocuous Carl’s stop at her door really was. This time Bob demanded to know, as if he had a right to ask her for anything. She’d been furious with Carl over his screwed-up financial dealings and all the lies. How he actually went to the extra step to falsify documents just to throw her off. Who did that sort of thing?

But the simmering rage for Carl’s antics didn’t compare to what she felt for Bob. She despised Bob, the self-proclaimed financial guy who gave Carl investing and business advice. He pretended to be an innocent victim to Carl’s scams, but she didn’t buy it.

“Carl didn’t say anything. Literally nothing of any interest.” That wasn’t a lie. Other than ticking her off, Carl’s comments had been unremarkable, which was saying something since he’d just risen form the dead.

Bob’s eyes narrowed. “Tell us exactly. Line for line.”

“She walked through this with me and again with Matthias. Another time with the police and Detective Cryer.” Garrett leaned back in his chair. “That’s probably enough of that unless you have a specific question for her about a specific topic.”

Bob’s frown only deepened. “Who are you two again?”

“I’m an interested party,” Matthias broke in and then nodded in Garrett’s direction. “He’s Lauren’s boyfriend.”

She waited for a not exactly or something similar from Garrett, but he stayed quiet. Only Jake shifted in his chair. “Since when?”

“It’s recent,” Garrett said.

Sure, now he piped up. She fought off the urge to roll her eyes.

“Carl came to my house and asked to come in.” She made sure to emphasize the my part. “He wanted to pick up where he left off and wasn’t offering any explanations, even though I asked for them. He was there all of ten minutes before he left.”

“And then came back and was killed.” Bob wore a self-satisfied grin. At forty, his hair had started to recede and his shiny good looks had faded a bit, but he still possessed that successful-and-flaunting-it air that many men of a certain age in the metro area had. The sharp navy suit. The matching unnecessarily expensive watch and sedan. And every now and then he dropped the name of the school he graduated from, as if anyone cared.

“Yes, Bob. We all know what happened.” She kept her voice flat, hoping to telegraph just how done she was with Bob and his prepackaged persona.

“Do we?” Bob’s gaze flipped between Garrett and Lauren. “You guys start going out, the husband comes back and now he’s dead. Seems convenient, or maybe I should say inconvenient for you.”

Garrett shifted just an inch and all the attention at the table flicked to him. “Do you have a question, Bob?”

That low steely voice suggested Bob should rethink this topic. The I-could-kick-your-ass tone had her mind drifting back to Garrett’s comments about killing. He possessed an interesting mix of an easygoing charm and a commanding personality. He clearly was successful but never needed to spell that out for people. She could see it in his sure confidence. In the way he held his body and spoke. But underneath she wondered if maybe there was something a little bit lethal about him.

“It’s suspicious.” Bob opened his mouth as if he was going to say more, but one look at Garrett and he stopped.

Matthias finally pushed away from the wall and stepped toward the table. He didn’t sit down. No, he stood, looming over Bob. “As suspicious as your knowing Carl planned to fake his death so you could collect money from Lauren here and from a top-secret business insurance policy that you, not his wife, benefitted from?”

Bob snorted. “You obviously don’t understand how this works. Business policies are routine.”

So routine that no one bothered to talk to her about it. That fact kept spinning around in Lauren’s head. The more she learned, the more she felt like she let her marriage happen to her rather than being an active participant. She had never been weak but when it came to Carl and their marriage she quickly ran out of energy and enthusiasm. She should have walked early on but stayed because everything she’d ever known about family had been skewed. She’d convinced herself that being with Carl was better than being alone. And she was wrong.

“Do you really want to have an argument with me about how businesses operate?” Matthias leaned in closer to Bob. “Please say yes.”

“And the part about you being in on the lie about Carl’s death?” Garrett asked.

“That’s a fucking lie.” Bob looked from Garrett then up at Matthias. “It is.”

She was more convinced than ever that Maryanne had told the truth, at least on that point. “Maryanne confirmed it.”

“The chick Carl ran away with?” Bob snorted. “She’s a—”

“Careful.” Lauren knew some insulting word was going to come out of his stupid mouth and she shut that down. She hated that argument trick. The game where people went after a woman’s looks or sexual activity to score points. It was derailing and insulting. Neither of those things were Bob’s business and neither had any relationship to Maryanne’s ability to tell the truth about the fraud.

Bob made an odd choking sound. “What, she’s your friend now?”

“You can describe her, talk about her, without calling her names.” That was Lauren’s one rule. She likely had others, but she absolutely lived by that one.

Garrett winked at her. “Nice.”

“Wait.” Jake held up both hands. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Bob knew Carl planned to leave, knew he planned to engage in fraud.” Matthias kept his arms crossed in front of him and he launched into the explanation. “Maryanne knew and likely would have stayed with Carl, but he dumped her. Because clearly that’s his MO. He uses a woman and moves on. Maybe Maryanne got too old for him. Who knows.”

The chair scraped against the weathered hardwood floor as Bob pushed it back and stood up. His furious scowl never left her. “And someone killed him in your locked house on your floor.”

“Just say it, Bob.” She dared him to call her a name this time. Garrett would likely jump across the table at him, but she’d bet she’d get there first.

But Bob didn’t go there. “No one would blame you. He treated you like crap. He deserved it.”

“Then why did you help him to disappear?” Garrett asked in a deadly cold voice.

“Never happened. That woman is lying.”

Garrett shook his head. “We’ll be able to trace the paperwork. Now that we know where to look, it’s only a matter of time.”

“There is nothing to find.” He stepped away from the table and around Matthias, who hadn’t moved an inch to get out of the way. “And I’m done here.”

Bob stormed out without a glance. He’d fallen back on his anger. Lauren had looked for signs of something else—guilt or fear—but saw nothing. His nerves either ran ice-cold or Maryanne had spun a believable tale and Lauren got trapped in it.

The door still shook from the force of Bob’s slamming it. No one else in the room moved. Boats bobbed in the marina and the constant clanking of boat lines and metal provided the only sounds around them.

It was another few seconds before Garrett spoke up. “That went well.”

His voice seemed to snap Jake out of whatever haze he’d fallen into. He glanced at Lauren. “May I talk with you for a second? Outside.”

When Garrett started to get up, she gestured for him to sit again. She could handle this. Hell, she wanted to handle this. Her life kept spinning around her, preventing her from moving forward. It was time for her to take back control, and that started right now.

Garrett watched Jake and Lauren go. He didn’t like her wandering out of his sight. Not that he didn’t trust her. He did. She was smart and could handle herself, but Garrett knew that sometimes mere seconds were the difference between a rescue and a horror.

“Sounds like Lauren believes Maryanne. Do you?” Matthias pulled out the chair Jake just left and sat down. As was his practice, he wore an outward calm while he constantly scanned the area for threats.

Matthias lived his whole life that way. The man was paranoid, but with good reason. He ran a security company that supplied forces to everyone from wealthy businessmen to political leaders. He’d seen shit that was even worse than Garrett had experienced during his black ops days, and that was saying something.

“Not really, but I’m not sure I trust many people.” Garrett ignored how hardass that sounded and continued his thought. “Maryanne had a reason to want Carl dead—revenge, jilted lover and who knows what he did to her while they were away. Bob clearly was in on all of this and might have killed Carl to cover his tracks. And Jake.”

Matthias’s eyebrow lifted. “What about him?”

“Unrequited love.”

“Excuse me?”

“He has a thing for Lauren.” Garrett didn’t find the sentiment any less punch-worthy now than he had before.

Matthias glanced out the window then back to Garrett. “For his sister-in-law? That’s creepy as fuck.”

“I don’t know how to say it without sounding creepy.” There really was no way to pretty it up. “But I’m not sure Lauren sees it.”

Matthias shook his head. “I wish I could unsee it.”

“Then we have the problem of the locks and the alarms. Lots of motives, but how did the killer get in?” When Matthias started to talk, Garrett spoke right over him. “And do not tell me the evidence points toward Lauren.”

Matthias took another look outside. This time his gaze lingered a bit longer before he responded. “Oh, please. No way did she do it.”

The concentration break didn’t bother Garrett. He guessed Matthias was keeping a watchful eye on Lauren outside. So long as that was true, Matthias could do all the staring he wanted to. But the emphatic support of her was still a surprise because Matthias suspected everyone. “Look at you, believing in people. That’s new.”

“First, Kayla loves her so even if Lauren did kill the fucker, and I totally would get why because that guy was an ass wipe, I’d support her. I’d also give her a lecture on better ways to hide the evidence.”

“I love your practical side.” Only Matthias. Actually, no. Most of the Quint Five would answer that way. Since he’d started hanging out with them and spending most of his days with Wren, the response made sense to Garrett. He ran with a very protect-your-own crowd.

“Pissing off Kayla does nothing for my private life.” Matthias shot Garrett a man-to-man you-get-me look. “Besides, I don’t see how Lauren, a woman who is sympathetic to her husband’s mistress, is a killer. It doesn’t fit.”

Garrett both loved and hated Lauren’s quick support of Maryanne. Name calling was bullshit and Bob had deserved to be censored before he could malign her. But having Lauren believe in Maryanne worried him because the other woman might be cut from the same con-artist cloth as Carl. She just might be better at scamming, and Lauren had been through enough.

“My money is on Bob. If he was in on the drowning, I’m betting he helped fake the bank and investment documents that fooled Lauren, too.” Matthias took a bottle of water from the center of the table and cracked open the lid. “Have you seen them? Wren says they are expert quality, which makes me wonder if Bob is pulling a scam on anyone else.”

“Well, I’ve read the file Wren compiled on Carl. He wasn’t the brains here. Lauren kept the place afloat despite him then thrived once his inept management was gone.”

“Bob is a financial guy. If people find out he’s playing with documents and running frauds, he loses everything.” That sounded like motive to Garrett.

“And if Carl didn’t stay dead as planned, he made himself into a loose end.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll have Wren dig deeper.” Matthias took another look out the window. “In the meantime, you may want to head outside. The conversation between Lauren and her lovesick brother-in-law looks serious.” Matthias shook his head. “The creepy fucker.”

At least Garrett wasn’t the only one saying it now. “That’s exactly how I think of him.”

Jake stood in front of Lauren on the pier. The smell of fish and salt and dampness floated around them. Boats rested in the water next to them and her back stayed to the office. She knew if she looked in the window and saw Garrett peeking out she’d have to roll her eyes, and that couldn’t happen. Not when Jake seemed very serious.

The color had drained from his face. “Boyfriend?”

“That’s the part that bothers you?” They’d talked about fraud and Carl’s games. Bob’s possible complicity. And Jake was worried about her love life, something she hadn’t had until very recently.

“I’ve seen him around. Heard rumors.”

About Garrett? That didn’t make sense. “What?”

Jake folded his arms across his stomach and stopped shifting around. His intense gaze never wavered. It stayed trained on Lauren. “I had no idea you guys had moved to the serious stage.”

Apparently she was supposed to make some sort of public announcement. That was news to her, so was the idea of having a boyfriend.

Rather than fight Jake on this and get frustrated, she went with standard relationship lingo. In this case, it fit. “It’s complicated.”

“Look, Lauren.” Jake’s arms dropped to his sides and he moved in closer. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. How much do you know about this guy?”

Right before he could take her hand, she stepped back. Jake had always been the touchy type. At first she thought it was sweet. As someone with no real family, being enveloped by Carl’s comforted her like the perfect soft blanket. But then it got weird.

Jake had turned strangely possessive after Carl disappeared. She knew it was his way of protecting her, but the last thing she wanted was to spend time with anyone related to Carl. Unfortunately, that included Jake, which she knew wasn’t fair, but nothing about her marriage and interpersonal relationships was.

She tried to turn the conversation back to the real reason they’d met today. Sure, it was for Matthias and Garrett, with Detective Cryer’s blessing, to size up two of the other suspects. But she really did want answers. “Look, the bigger issue here is Carl and finding his killer.”

“Bob.” Jake sighed. “I hate to say it but he has the most to lose.”

“How did he get into my house?” That was the piece she couldn’t make fit in her head. The lack of a break-in suggested someone close enough to be able to come and go. The only person who fit that description was Kayla.

“He’s connected. He probably could have had keys made. I think—”

Garrett stepped onto the pier and walked over to him. He didn’t bother closing the door to the office behind him. “Everything okay out here?”

“We were talking about keys.” She smiled as she said the words, but something tickled in the back of her mind. A memory she couldn’t grab on to.

Garrett made that familiar humming sound that he usually made before he made a smartass comment. “I’d say ‘That’s interesting’ but it really isn’t.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed as he watched Garrett. “Can you give us a few more minutes?”

“No.” No reason. Garrett just denied the request and stood there.

The response had Jake blinking. “Excuse me?”

“Lauren and I have a meeting with the detective.”

“Oh, right.” Never mind that it was news to her. She used it as the excuse to start heading for the office. She hesitated just long enough to call to Jake over her shoulder. “I’ll call you.”

“You do that.”

She waited until Jake was out of earshot. “Do we really have a meeting with the detective or were you being a jerk to Jake for fun?”

Garrett finally broke eye contact with Jake’s retreating back. “I don’t like anyone in that family but you.”

Something about that statement sent a shiver racing through her. “I’m not in it anymore.”

“Anyone else lurking around? His parents or a stray cousin?”

“No. His parents were older. They died in the first few years we were married. One right after the other.” She remembered mourning them. They’d raised two very different sons. Carl, outgoing and flirtatious with a mean streak. Jake, handsome but quiet, pretty unassuming.

“That doesn’t really help the case.”

Then the memory clicked. The keys. That was it.

She held up a finger as she headed for the office. “I think I have something that might.”

“Clue me in . . .” His voice trailed off. “Where are you going?”

She stepped back inside. Didn’t even stop when Matthias looked up from studying one of her business pamphlets. She slipped behind her desk and pushed her chair to the side. There, under the drawer was an open space. She reached in and pulled out a set of keys. Held them up by the far edge and let them jangle in her hand.

“Huh.” Garrett stared at her. “I feel like I should be more excited about this reveal.”

The man really knew how to kill a big moment. “My extra set of keys.”

“To your house.” Garrett said it more as a statement than a question.

Excitement ran through her. This could explain so much. “The house. This office, which is unlocked all day while I’m in and out. And to the boathouse up the pier.”

“You think someone came in and took them,” Matthias said in a flat tone that mirrored the one Garrett now used.

She had no idea what was wrong, so she kept talking. One of them would clue her in eventually. “It wouldn’t be that hard. I don’t use them every day. I wouldn’t notice if they were gone.”

Matthias made a baggie appear out of nowhere. “Drop them inside. It’s unlikely since there were no prints in your house, but there could be on these.”

“That doesn’t explain the alarm,” Garrett said as he watched Matthias handle potential evidence.

This is where the explanation got a little tricky. “Human error.”

Her brain had been wrapped in a haze that afternoon. She’d texted Garrett, which secretly thrilled her, but the shock of Carl’s sudden disappearance hadn’t worn off. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember each step she’d taken when she walked out of the house that day.

Garrett froze. “What?”

“I don’t always turn it on.”

“Why have the damn thing?” All emotion left Garrett’s face, but he could yell. Boy, could he yell.

“I was with you and . . .” Well, crap. When both men continued to look at her as if she needed a reality check, she finished the thought. “I felt safe.”

Garrett shook his head. “You’re killing me here.”

She didn’t think he meant it in the sexy way. She got the distinct impression he was struggling to hold on to his temper.

Matthias shot Garrett a quick glance before looking at her again. “At least we have a possible way for someone to get in that doesn’t incriminate you.”

The room started to spin. The dizziness hit her out of nowhere and she grabbed for the chair to keep from falling over. “Is that an issue?”

“Your house. Your dead husband.”

Matthias did like to boil things down to their essence. Right now she would have preferred a little tact. “When you put it that way . . .”

“It kind of reinforces the need to use that alarm, doesn’t it?” Garrett added a sigh at the end, as if she needed further confirmation that he was ticked off.

Message received. The painful gut-kicking part of this was she didn’t know why Carl had snuck back to her house or who had followed him. But if she’d turned on the alarm, it was possible neither of them could have gotten in. Carl might still be alive.

That truth brought a whole new wave of guilt crashing into her. “It does now.”