He pulled his head down into his coat. “Jake won’t risk families finding out their loved one is dead — and in potentially horrible fashion — from any source other than his department.”
“Yeah. He’s a pain.”
Eliot chuckled. “You’re in a mood.” He ran his thumb over my cheek, considering. “You’re cold. How long have you been out here?”
“Not very long. I was just thinking about stuff.” I turned to face him. “Do you remember when all the Beau Burton stuff came out in the news?”
He nodded, blowing on his bare hands before moving them to my cheeks. “We could have this conversation in the shop. You’re really cold.”
I cast a dark look toward the pawnshop, to where my cousin Mario worked behind the counter. He seemed to be having a heavy discussion with a young woman in front of the jewelry case. “I don’t want him squealing on me.”
“He’s too caught up hitting on my clientele. We can use my office if you have anything good.”
“I don’t have anything. It’s all just conjecture right now.”
He fell silent, and when I shot a questioning look toward him, he didn’t smile. “How was Jake?”
It was as if he could read my mind. How did he know that my interaction with Jake weighed on me? “He was fine.”
“I guess you won’t mind if I call him to ask him about your conversation.”
“I just told you what our conversation consisted of.”
“Not all of it.” He was calm. “There’s no way Jake didn’t bring up the fact that I’m going to propose to you.”
I jerked up my head, darting looks in every direction to see if anybody was eavesdropping. Winter was upon us and it was cold. Nobody was on the street. That was a relief. “Stop saying that in public. You’ll ruin my street cred.”
Amusement flitted through his eyes. “Does becoming a wife somehow make you less of a badass?”
“Yes. How am I supposed to instill fear in the populace if they keep picturing me in an apron and carrying around a platter of cookies?”
“You’re so funny.” He shook his head. “I mean ... really funny. Do you think I expect you to suddenly hop in an apron and bake cookies? Because, and I love you dearly, the only thing you can cook up is trouble.”
“That’s not the point of this conversation. I’ve gotten off track.”
Eliot looked as if he might momentarily push harder, but he ultimately held out his hands and shrugged. “Okay, what is the point of this conversation?”
“Jake won’t tell me anything.”
“Was he upset with you?”
“He was ... fine. He said he thought you were smart to do what you’re doing. That made me want to smack him, but I figured he would never tell me what I want to know if I did. Besides, I needed him to handle Sabrina for me. I couldn’t very well smack him around if I expected him to order his men to solve my intern problem.”
“Um ... now I’m behind.” He tilted his head. “What intern problem?”
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t told you. Wait until you hear this.” I unloaded the contents of my morning, leaving nothing out. When I finished, he let loose a hearty guffaw and shook his head.
“So, you got stuck with babysitting duty today on top of everything else. This has to be painful.”
“You have no idea. She keeps saying I’m her hero. I had no idea how ridiculous that was going to sound until after she wouldn’t shut up about it. I’ve always been my own hero, but when she says it, I want to sew her lips together.”
His smile was back. “What if I tell you you’re my hero?”
“Then I’ll say you’re sappy and trying to annoy me.”
“Well, you are my hero.” He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. “I’m about to be your hero, too. Because you’ve managed to have an entire ten-minute conversation regarding our upcoming engagement without changing the subject and reminding me what the zombie apocalypse would really look like, I guess it’s time to reward you.”
I was instantly suspicious. “I think I’m right about the zombie apocalypse. I know I said I wanted you on my team, but now I’ve decided it’s not even worth living if I can’t have Cadbury Eggs and regular doses of Netflix.”
He laughed, as I’d intended, and slung an arm around my shoulders. “We’ll have to save the zombie conversation for another time. I really do have a present for you, and it comes in the form of information. I know a guy who worked as part of a tandem team with Beau Burton for a time. I thought you might like an introduction.”
All thoughts of the engagement, my talk with Jake, and the annoying intern evaporated. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “That’s the thing I mentioned this morning. He worked with Beau several years ago.”
I was dumbfounded. “How does that even work? I mean ... Beau was scamming women. Were they romancing these women together? Like ... there wasn’t any sandwich action, was there?”
Eliot laughed so hard I thought he might choke. “To my knowledge, there was no sandwich action. By the way, your gutter mind is only one of the reasons I love you. As for my source, he’s not exactly trustworthy.”
All the enthusiasm I’d been building died in an instant. “If he lies, why are we going to talk to him?”
“He doesn’t lie as much as he avoids questions. He’s great at getting information, but he’s also good at covering for his friends. I called him this morning, told him what was going on. He agreed to talk to you — off the record. You can’t use his name if you write something.”
“Do you think he has something good?”
“He always has something good. It’s getting him to spill that’s difficult.”
I downed the rest of my coffee before standing. “Well, it’s worth a shot. I’m not getting anywhere with the cops.”
“We’ll go together.” He joined
