It Had to Be You (12 page)

Z
ach showed up that afternoon in a suit that emphasized his beanpole body, a messenger bag strapped across his chest, and thick black-rimmed glasses on his nose. His jet-black hair was in spikes. His eyebrow piercing glittered as he scooped Ali in for a big hug.

Zach’s familiar ease faded when she introduced him to Luke. Oh, his warm chocolate eyes were friendly enough, but reserved, as the two men sized each other up.

Luke was his usual steely intense self as they shook hands, and Zach reverted to geeky awkwardness, though he maintained eye contact. Ali gave him credit for not peeing his pants.

“So you’re licensed in the state of Washington?” Luke asked him.

Ali gave him a long look. “Luke…”

“Yes,” Zach said, and pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “I’m licensed in Washington.”

“How many trial cases do you have under your belt?”

Ali grimaced. “
Luke
.”

“If Ali gets arrested, and if the case goes to trial,” Zach said, “this would be my first solo. But we both know even if it gets that far, as a first-time offender she might end up with restitution over time served. The record would be the worst part.”

“Might isn’t good enough,” Luke said. “And how about the fact that she’s innocent?”

“Of course she’s innocent,” Zach said simply. “It’s Ali.”

Ali smiled at him, sent Luke a hard look, and brought Zach to the kitchen table, where they discussed the case at length. Zach asked questions that might have had her head spinning, except he had a way about him. Sweet. Calm. It allowed her to concentrate on the task at hand, telling him all they’d learned about the comings and goings the night of the auction.

Zach looked over his notes. “So you took your pencil pot back without looking inside it.”

“Yes, except it wasn’t exactly mine. It was his, a little bit.”

“How little?”

“One hundred percent.”

Zach looked up from the iPad, expression wry. “You mean you stole it.”

“Well, if you want to get technical, yeah. I stole it. I guess I shouldn’t admit that to my attorney, right?”

Zach smiled gently at her. “You can tell me anything, Al. I’m not a cop.” He slid a silent Luke a long look. “And the only cop in the room is off duty.”

So Zach had done his own background search.

Whatever Luke thought about being baited by Zach, he kept it to himself. He was good at that.

It was a lesson Ali would be well served to learn herself.

The next morning, Luke was woken just before dawn by a text from his commander.

Luke thumbed his way to the browser and searched for the latest reports. It wasn’t pretty. The first article he pulled up called the SFPD a complete failure. Luke tossed the phone aside and tried to tell himself he didn’t give a damn. But he did. Only a week ago, his job had been everything to him, his entire being wrapped up in the reputation and ego of it. That had been who he was.

Now, far from San Francisco, he didn’t feel like that same guy.

He’d lived the fast-paced, adrenaline-rushed job for years, and he’d thrived on it. But he wasn’t thriving anymore. It wasn’t the danger he faced on the force, or the darkness of the things he saw, or the slogging knee-deep through shit on a daily basis.

He missed life here.

He’d left Lucky Harbor, exiled himself really, and not looked back. And in doing so, he’d cut himself off from the happiest times of his life. In coming back, he underestimated the pull that the wild, hauntingly beautiful, resilient Pacific Northwest had always had on him.

Now there was something else pulling at him as well—the equally wild, hauntingly beautiful, resilient Ali Winters.

Rolling out of bed, he pulled on swim trunks. Out back, he balanced his board on his head and took the steep stairs down to the water.

The harbor was quiet. By the time he’d set the board in the water, the sky had lightened from black to purple. The water was icy cold and would clear his head.

Or kill him.

He pushed off and began paddling. And then there was nothing but the sound of his board skimming through the water, the occasional splash of a zealous fish, and the chirping birds that were waking with the dawn.

Alone.

Quiet.

It was the closest to heaven that he could imagine. He paddled out past the pier and harbor and into the open water. He pushed himself hard, until his heart pounded and he couldn’t catch his breath. It felt good. Here, in the zone, he couldn’t think, couldn’t obsess, couldn’t regret.

An hour later, muscles quivering, he stopped, panting as the sun beat down on him. He cooled down by making his way back slowly, enjoying the early morning. As he entered the harbor again, he passed the pier and the Ferris wheel, and saw a female jogging along the water’s edge. She was built like a Victoria’s Secret model, and her long blonde hair flowed behind her.

Melissa Mann.

Shading her eyes with her hand, she took him in, a wide smile crossing her lips. “Well, look who the tide dragged in,” she purred as he slid up on the beach and got off his board. “Heard you were back,” she said, “and looking for trouble.” She waggled a brow and gestured to herself. “Meet trouble with a capital T.”

He had to laugh. She was right. She
was
trouble with a capital T. The very best kind of trouble. “How’s the salon going?” he asked.

“Running it now,” she said proudly. “Come by sometime. I’ll give you a buff and shine.” She smiled. “On the house.”

He smiled too, knowing that they both understood he wouldn’t. “Heard you were at the auction the other night.”

“I was. Everyone was.” She cocked her head and studied him a moment. “You’ve got quite a cop face on, Luke. Why don’t you just ask me what you want to know?”

“You’re sleeping with Ted Marshall.”

Melissa laughed. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s jealousy I hear.” She was still smiling. “You’ve been gone a long time. There’s a new dog in town. He’s a thoroughbred, but a dog is still a dog.”

“And by dog you mean…”

“Just what you think. Ted’s single and enjoying the life. Maybe our…enjoyment was mutual a few times.”

“He had a girlfriend.”

“Ali Winters? He always said that they were just roommates.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“What, that he’s really only exclusive with his own dick?” She smiled again and shrugged. “He’s actually pretty careful. He’s got political ambitions. He likes it that everyone likes him. Plus, it’s not like I’m looking for a relationship. He’s a good guy, not to mention hot. And he always springs for dinner first.”

“On the night of the auction, did you see anyone else with him?”

Melissa gave him another smile. “I don’t kiss and tell, Luke. You know that.”

He ignored the reference to the one and only night the two of them had shared, back when they’d been nineteen and drunk as skunks on the pier behind the Ferris wheel. “Did you even see the money?” he asked.

“Nope. He did put a big briefcase in the bottom drawer of his desk though. I saw that.”

“He lock it?”

“The police asked the same thing. I don’t remember either way.”

“After,” he said. “What happened after?”

“Aubrey came in, and she got
all
pissed off, asking Ted what he’d have done if someone had seen us.” She rolled her eyes. “Like he’s running for president or something.”

“Then what happened?”

“We left separately. He insisted on that. He really does like to keep his private life private.”

Which was tough shit, because “Teddy’s” life, private or otherwise, was about to be blown wide open. “Thanks, Mel.”

She smiled. “Was I helpful?”

“Yes.”

She looked him over for a long beat, taking in his wet gear. “If you need anything else, Luke, you look me up.”

He smiled at her, but he wasn’t going there. He had a different woman on his mind.

Back at home, he got out of the water, carried the paddleboard up the stairs, and leaned it against the deck. He looked up at the house. Today was day two of Ali’s enforced leave, thanks to Russell’s taking off to Vegas, and Luke had no idea what she might be doing. Not that it mattered, of course. It didn’t. Not in the slightest.

Shit
. It mattered. It mattered a whole hell of a lot.

He grabbed the towel he’d left for himself on the deck. He was rubbing it over his wet head when he realized he could hear voices coming through the kitchen window. Glancing in, he saw Ali at the island cooking something that smelled amazing and had his mouth instantly watering. On the other side of the island, cozied up on one of Luke’s barstools, sat Zach. Ali was listing off characteristics of Leah Sullivan, and why Zach should ask her out.

“She’s funny,” Ali said, “and has a great personality—”

Zach groaned. “Great personality? That’s the kiss of death right there.”

Ali’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?” she asked in a tone that would have had Luke changing course pronto.

But Zach apparently wasn’t versed in the
Don’t Go There Department
. “You know,” he said. “When you say someone has a great personality, it means that they’re…
not
hot.”

“Wow.” Ali shook her head. “And here I thought you were better than the rest of your gender.” She shrugged. “Your loss, because Leah’s
totally
hot.”

“Yeah? How hot?”

“Forget it, you’ve ruined it.”

“Aw, man.” Zach wasn’t in a suit today. Instead he wore skinny-cut, black jeans, an equally tight-to-his-scrawny-chest black button down, and a bright pink tie that matched a few pink streaks in his dark, spiked hair. He still looked twelve. He eyed the omelet Ali was cooking, licking his lips like he was starving.

Ali flipped it onto a plate, pushed it to Zach, and then turned to the door as Luke let himself in.

“Hey,” she said. “Yours is next.”

Zach stuffed a big bite into his mouth as he eyed Luke. “You don’t knock, you just walk in?”

Luke looked at Ali, letting her field this one.

Ali sighed, and she flipped the next omelet. “Luke’s living here too, Zach.”

“Your mom didn’t mention that. She just said he’d given you a place to stay.”

“It’s not what you think,” Ali said.

“No?” Zach asked. “Because what I think is that you’re too kind for your own good, and
someone
”—he glanced at Luke so as to leave no doubt who the “someone” was—“could take advantage of you.”

“First of all, I’m not all that kind,” Ali corrected. “And second,
Luke
is the kind one, letting me stay.”

Not feeling particularly kind, Luke strode across the kitchen. He’d intended to shower. Instead, he parked himself on a barstool, sprawling his long legs out, making himself at home in his own place.

Ali gave him a look that he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret. Annoyance, definitely. Maybe even some affection too.

He could match her on both. But he found himself oddly out-of-sorts at the vibe between her and Zach—which made no fucking sense. They were obviously very fond of each other. And just as obviously, they were old friends with the same level of comfort that he and Jack and Ben had. He didn’t read any sexual tension between them.

Not that it mattered. Because it didn’t.

What
did
matter was Zach’s ability to defend Ali, if it came to that. And Luke wasn’t at all sure the kid—who, granted, seemed sharp and eager to get this right—could handle the case.

Zach was scrolling through the notes he’d made on his iPad the day before. “So is there anything else you can think of that I need to know?”

“Yes,” Ali said. “I talked to Edward this morning. He gets up early because once a week he enjoys driving the seniors to the early morning buffet at a casino in Tacoma.”

More like he enjoyed the early morning Texas hold ’em table
, Luke thought.

“The ground-breaking ceremony for the new rec center is scheduled for next weekend,” she said. “The mayor himself donated fifty grand to make up for the missing funds.”

“Wow,” Zach said with a low whistle, “I’d like to run the mayor’s financials to see where that money came from.”

“It came out of his retirement account and is supposedly legit,” Ali said. “Edward had some other interesting news too. He said that Mr. Wykowski was also in Teddy’s office the night of the auction. Mr. Wykowski didn’t say anything, because he was hiding from Lucille and her posse, who were chasing him. Mr. Wykowski says that it’s rough being eighty-two and single, because the women that go to the center outnumber the men two to one.”

Zach snorted orange juice out his nose. “
Dammit
.”

“And Mr. Lyons was in the hallway too, using that bathroom,” Ali said. “Because the main bathroom…um, smelled like something died in there.” She flipped Luke’s omelet. “And then later, Mrs. Burland ended up in the office too. Says she got lost trying to find the coat room. She needs cataract surgery, but hasn’t saved up the eight grand yet, which takes her off the suspect list because she can’t see past her own nose. Plus she threw out her back last week trying to keep up with Lucille and can’t even carry a purse. So it’s unlikely she stole anything, except possibly someone’s coat that she mistook for hers.”

“None of that came out in the police report,” Luke said.

Ali shrugged. “Probably no one thought to ask your grandpa.”

“I spent summers here,” Luke said with a shake of his head. “And I’m still blown away at how he knows everyone else’s business.”

“Oh, he knows yours too,” Ali said.

This gave him pause. “What did he say about me?”

“That I shouldn’t trust the man who once blew up all the Town Hall toilets.”

“Hey, I was just a kid,” Luke said, in his defense, over Zach’s choked laugh. “And anyway, that was all Jack and Ben’s doing. Mostly Ben’s to be honest. He was good at blowing shit up.”

Ali smiled. “He said you’d say that.”

Luke shook his head. “What else?” he asked, as she transferred the omelet from pan to plate and handed it to him. He dug in, and flavor exploded in his mouth in a harmony of deliciousness. He hadn’t realized how starved he was, and he closed his eyes to enjoy it. When he opened them again, Ali was looking at him.