Page 15 of June 7

Standing alone on the sidewalk, holding homemade cookies, he fought the desire to go after her.

Whatever bothered her was her problem. Not his.

It was evident that she wished that night hadn't happened. Maybe she wanted to keep her drinking problem private.

She worked at a public pool. The city would fire her if she had an addiction problem. Other people would be in danger if she weren't alert and on duty. Kids could drown.

"Fuck," he muttered.

He had no time or interest in getting dragged into her problems. Little Miss Sunshine needed to fix her own problems.

Link walked past him, stopped, and returned to his side. "What is that? Is that cookies?"

He put the container in his other hand, out of Link's reach. "Not yours."

Bane walked over to his motorcycle, opened his duffle, and shoved the container inside. Jagger whistled, getting his attention. He jogged over to his president.

"I need you to drop this off at the planning department." Jagger held out a packet. "I want the inspection done by Friday. Can you make that happen?"

"Sure." He slipped the papers into the inside pocket of his vest. "I'll leave now."

"Take your time. We're all going to finish up here and then break for dinner. They'll be pizza brought in."

"Sounds good. I'll probably swing by the duplex and shower before I return." He walked to his Harley.

Once the papers were dropped off with Allison at the front desk of Seaglass Cove's Planning & Zoning Department and he got the ball rolling with the inspector, he rode over to the duplex. He found himself glancing in the shared driveway for Daisy's Jeep, but like every other day, she was at the pool, and he had the place to himself.

He parked in the middle of the concrete pad and toed the kickstand. The front door of Daisy's side of the duplex was wide open. He glanced out at the street in case she parked at the curb. But the area was vacant.

Knowing she had gone back to the pool after approaching him about the other night, he walked over to close her door. She probably left in a hurry and forgot to lock the door. As he'd discovered, the wind could pick up in a second as it rolled off the water.

He opened the screen and reached inside to grab the door handle when an overturned chair stopped him. He stepped inside. The main room was thrashed.

The cushions for the couch were on the floor. The flatscreen dumped, hitting the corner of the hearth of the fireplace. He walked over to the small table in the kitchen. There was a ketchup bottle on the top. Someone had squeezed the contents all over the top of the table.

Raising his gaze, he studied the kitchen. Cabinet doors were open. Pots and pans littered the floor.

He took out his cell phone and called Jagger.

The president of Havlin answered on the second ring. "Yeah?"

"I need a favor."

"Ask."

He checked the sliding door. It was still locked. Whoever entered came through the front door.

"I need you to go to the pool and speak privately with Daisy Hill. She needs to come to the duplex as soon as she can get away," he said.

"Isn't that the hot chick?"

He gritted his teeth. "Yeah."

It irritated him the way the other Havlin members referred to Daisy. She wasn't the type to go for any of them.

He stepped over an upturned chair. "Her place got broken into and is thrashed."

"Shit." Jagger yelled to Dio in the background and then said, "I'll go over there now."

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