Page 9 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

“How about this? We’ll sit down. Eat a little dinner. You make a list of people who might have some inclination of where you’re leaning with your findings. Then I’ll work on finding out if any of them have a silver sedan that matches the one following you.”

“And what will I do while you work on that?”

“Whatever you need to. You have your computer in that giant purse, right?”

She wrinkled her nose and held it a little closer. “Yes.”

“So, work. That’s what you’d be doing back at your rental, isn’t it?”

She hated that he knew that about her. Even if it was just an educated guess.

“Sit. Make a list.” He rummaged through a drawer and then handed her a pen and a pad of paper. “I’ll put together something for us to eat.”

He used to do that. He wasn’t as good a cook as she was, but he was adept enough in the kitchen. He’d always been closed-lipped about his background, but as they’d gotten closer, things had slipped out.

Abusive father. Moved a lot. Mother murdered. She didn’t know at exactly what age he’d been when that had happened, but she knew he’d been a teenager and had only been kept on the straight and narrow—ish—by his older brother. Then Zeke had enlisted the moment he’d been able. He’d done a stint in the army for a few years before he’d moved over to North Star.

Did he remember the things aboutherpast that she’d told him? Things she’d never told anyone outside of the people who’d known against her will.

It all made her feel tired and sad, so she sat at his kitchen table and focused on petting the dog. “What’s his name?”

“Hername. Viola.”

She smiled at the dog’s warm brown eyes. “Viola. Named after a pretty flower, and you’re a pretty thing, aren’t you?” she cooed at the dog. Then worked on her list while Zeke did the domestic work of throwing together a meal.

He put a bowl of pasta in front of her after a while and then plopped a plastic canister of Parmesan cheese next to her. “And before you say it, I know the fresh stuff is better, but this keeps longer so it wins for a single guy.”

Their gazes caught across the table.

He’d just made it clear he remembered her pasta cheese preferences, all these years later. And her foolish heart fluttered at the thought. Just as bad, he’d also made it clear he was single. Like that wasrelevant, when it was decidedly not.

She looked down at the list she’d made. Slid it over the table to him. “It’s short.”

“Then it’ll be quick and easy.”

He looked over it then crossed off the first person on the list. “I know Hart doesn’t have a silver sedan.”

Detective Thomas Hart was the lead detective on the case, along with his partner, Laurel Delaney-Carson. Brooke liked them both, and knew they weren’t the ones behind whoever was following her, but she didn’t say that. She let Zeke draw his own conclusions.

“In the morning, I’ll take you to your car. You can do everything you normally do in a day. I’ll just be... watching. See if we can find that sedan, get a plate, an ID on the driver.”

She frowned at that. “What are you going to do? Pull them over?”

“No. We’ll play it by ear.”

She rolled her eyes.We, her butt. Much as she hated to admit it though, she felt more at ease here than she had at the diner or her rental. She could have all sorts of issues with Zeke’s heavy-handed overbearingmalenonsense, and her reaction to Zeke as amanshe’d once known intimately, but she knew he’d keep her safe. Regardless of how he felt about her. Or how she felt about him.

She sighed and then, when they were done eating, she cleaned up. An old habit from living in the same North Star places. Because those who cooked, didn’t clean and vice versa.

“I’ll show you your room,” he said once they were finished.

An awkward silence settled over them. She nodded, grabbed her tote bag and followed him up stairs that had clearly been recently fixed. The hallway was a bit of a disaster, but he led her to a pretty room. Sparse, certainly. It could do with some... softer touches, but the bed looked big and comfortable, and the window gave the same view as the one down in the kitchen.

“Just one night,” she said firmly. Because she was determined.Determined. She could butt heads with him and win. She would. And she could do it on her own. After they figured out the silver sedan.

She turned to face him in the doorway, ignored the way his gaze still hit her bloodstream like heat and want. But she did not want him.

She would not.

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