Page 44 of Innocent Intent

“I’m sure you didn’t, so no offense taken.”

He nodded. “Maybe I should go.”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea. Wouldn’t want there to be any reason for anyone to question the authenticity of the department with you being here and all. Even as a supportive friend, they might assume the lines are blurred.”

He nodded again as he stood and followed Cassidy to the door, fidgeting once he was on the porch. “Cass, I really am sorry if I offended you.”

“Don’t be because you didn’t. I know who I am, Harper, and I don’t have room for others’ opinions or judgments about my life. In case you’ve forgotten, I have more important things to focus on.”

A second detective pulled into Cassidy’s driveway as if the universe decided to complicate matters further. The one she was initially hoping to see today. Harper didn’t bother hiding his animosity once his eyes returned to Cassidy.

“I guess duty calls. You take care, Cass. I’d warn you to be careful, but don’t think you’d listen anyway.”

She watched from the porch as Harper traveled down the driveway to his vehicle, which Davis had parked beside. The two engaged in a heated exchange, with Harper leaning a little too close to get into Davis’s face. Harper’s tightly wound stature and red cheeks showed he wasn’t happy, while Davis maintained a smug grin the entire time. His posture only changed after he watched Harper navigate out of the driveway and then made his way to Cassidy, delivering a curious stare.

“Since he’s no longer on your case, I assume that was a friendly visit.”

“You assume right, but what was that about?” She pointed to where their exchange had taken place.

“Office politics,” Davis smirked and stepped into Cassidy’s home without waiting for an invitation. She followed the path he traveled, watching as Davis stood, waiting for her to shut and lock the door.

“Was that anything I need to be concerned with?” She narrowed her eyes on Davis, who still sported a smug grin.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because he called you a dick, and from what I’ve seen, the two of you are not fond of each other. I don’t like being in the middle of a dick-swinging contest.”

Davis’s face lit up with amusement. “I wasn’t aware that you were sleeping with Harper.”

Cassidy’s eyes went wide. “What! No. Why the hell would you say that?”

“Because the only way I would entertain a dick-swinging contest with you in the middle is if it involved something more intimate than me investigating the murder of your husband, Cassidy. I’m very good at my job and have nothing to prove in that department. No need for swinging body parts.”

“And you would have something to prove in relation to being intimate with a woman?” She arched a brow, and Davis stepped closer. Dangerously close. His presence, the scent of his cologne, the intensity of his stare, and the unspoken promise that lingered in the air made her feel slightly overwhelmed.

“No, not there, either. I’m actually quite skilled in that department too. No complaints to speak of.”

She gasped softly. “Which is irrelevant because I’m not sleeping with either one of you and don’t plan to.”

Cassidy didn’t appreciate the smugness of his smile before he chuckled lightly as if taunting her with some unspoken promise.

Not yet.

“Why are you here?” She locked her arms over her chest, attempting to hide the visibility of her nipples, which were no doubt visible beneath the thin cotton of her shirt. The way his eyes followed the motion was proof enough.

“We touched on you not knowing much about your husband’s past. I was curious how much you knew. You were married for three years. Have you ever met anyone he was connected to outside of the people in your life?”

“No. He told me his parents passed when he was in college. He didn’t have siblings and wasn’t close to any other family. He was alone like me. That isolation is one of the ways we bonded. I guess that was stupid on my part.”

“Not necessarily. You trusted him. No situation is black and white. What about friends? You never met any of his old classmates, colleagues, acquaintances?”

“No. Wait, yes, once. A couple, Jake and Zoey. We once traveled to New York on vacation, and they met us for dinner.”

“And how were they? Did they discuss details from his past? Is there anything we could look into?”

Cassidy shook her head. “After this happened, I started going over all the details of my life with Niles in my head, attempting to make sense of how I couldn’t have known. I doubled back to them. Thinking about it now, I realized their conversation that evening was generic. They didn’t tell funny stories about Niles’s past or give insight into who he was. Everything flowed easily and felt comfortable, but the discussions were more or less about our recent lives, jobs, things like that.”

Davis nodded. “And that was the only time you met them?”

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