He shrugged his good shoulder. “Traffic stop gone bad.”
“They catch who did it?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Lucian answered.
The chill in his tone had a shiver running down my spine.
“I’m going to hit the restroom,” I said.
“I’ll come,” Sloane volunteered, jumping out of her chair like it was electrocuting her.
I followed her into the gloomy hallway, but when she held the door open for me, Nash stopped me. “You got a second?” he asked.
My bladder was nearing the red zone, but this sounded important.
“Sure,” I said, signaling to Sloane to commence peeing without me.
“I just wanted you to know that I’m looking into the list you gave me,” he said. “I’m not officially back on duty, but that just means this is getting my undivided attention.”
“I appreciate that, Nash,” I said, giving his arm a squeeze. It wasn’t a crime to appreciate the muscle, right?
“If you remember any other details about this red-haired guy, you’ll let me know?”
“Sure,” I said, my head bobbing. “I only talked to him that one time. But he stands out in a crowd. Muscular, tattooed, bright red hair.”
Nash’s eyes got a funny faraway look to them.
“Are you okay?” I asked again.
He gave an almost imperceptible head shake. “Yeah. Fine.”
“Do you think he could have something to do with the breakin?”
Nash did the Morgan nervous tic of running his hand through his hair. “He’s a wild card, and I don’t like wild cards. This guy just happens to show up at the library to talk to you.”
“He said he needed help with a computer problem.”
He nodded, and I could see him rearranging puzzle pieces in his head, trying to find the pattern. “Then you see him in the bar the night someone breaks into your place. That’s not a coincidence.”
I shivered.
“I just keep hoping, whoever they were, they found whatever they were looking for. If they found it, there’s no reason to come back.”
“I hope so too,” he said. “Did you talk to Waylay about it?”
“I did finally. She took it pretty well. She was more concerned about whether any of her new clothes were stolen than the breakin itself. She didn’t seem to know what Tina or anyone else would have been looking for. I mean, it’s not like we had a pallet of stolen TVs sitting around in the living room.”
“Been thinking,” Nash said, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “It doesn’t have to be stolen goods. If Tina was bragging about a big payday it could have been a different kind of job.”
“Like what?”
“People get paid to do a lot of shit. Maybe she gave up on moving stolen property and got mixed up in something else. Maybe they got their hands on information that someone else wanted. Or that someone didn’t want anyone else to know.”
“How does someone lose or hide information?”
He smiled sweetly at me. “Not everyone’s as organized as you are, honey.”
“If this whole thing is about something Tina was irresponsible enough to lose, I am going to be pissed,” I told him. “She went through nine house keys. Nine. And don’t even get me started on the car keys.”
His smile stayed fixed in place. “It’s gonna be all right, Naomi. I promise you.”
I nodded. But I couldn’t stop thinking of all the ways Tina had managed to hurt me despite my parents’ best efforts. How were a small-town police department and a wounded chief supposed to protect us?
And then it hit me. Maybe it was time for me to start standing up for myself.
Nash leaned against the wall. His expression gave nothing away, but I was willing to bet money that he was in pain.
“There is something I wanted to ask you,” he said, looking serious.
“There is?” I croaked. Sure, Nash was as unfairly gorgeous as his jerk of a brother. He certainly had a more amiable personality. And he was great with kids. Great with Waylay. But if he asked me out just days after his brother, I was going to have to let him down easy.
I had zero headspace for another Morgan brother and I needed to focus on my niece and the guardianship.
“You mind if I have a word with Waylay?” he asked.
I jolted, rewinding his words to see if I’d somehow missed the dinner invitation. Nope. “Waylay? Why?”
“I might ask the right question and help her remember something important from before her mom left. She knows Tina better than any of us.”