Page 53 of The Pretender

She smiled and treated them to a little wave. “Surprise.”

“How long have you...” Jesus, how much had she heard? Harris replayed the entire conversation with Damon in his head and winced. “Okay, we need...”

What? He had no fucking idea what.

She glanced at Damon. “Is he going to finish a sentence?”

“I’m not sure.”

Just what he needed. The two of them working together against him. Harris couldn’t imagine verbally battling them both.

While Harris continued to reel, she pressed on with her conversation with Damon. “How long have you two known each other?”

“We just met,” Harris said, rushing to keep his head in the game.

Damon shrugged. “For more than a decade.”

Fucking hell. Harris turned to Damon. “What are you doing?”

“Come on. She is a smart woman,” Damon said. “Unless you want to sleep in the pool tonight I’m thinking you need to be a bit more careful with your answers.”

She smiled at him. “I’m starting to like you, Damon.”

“That will wear off.” Harris would bet on that.

“Unfortunately, that’s probably true.” Damon looked from Gabby to Harris. “Okay, you two lovebirds have a lot to discuss, including the fact Harris and I were roommates for—what?—a few years. It was before we realized grown-ups needed privacy. And he’s got a neatness thing that drove me nuts. So fucking annoying.”

“Jesus, Damon.” At this rate, Damon might spill every last secret. Harris could almost hear it.

Gabby put a hand in Harris’s face. “You stop.” Then pointed to Damon. “You should keep talking.”

“I will, but this thing between you two—whatever it is, because Harris doesn’t seem to know—will have to wait. The bigger issue is the house, the videos and the paperwork.”

Gabby’s hands dropped to her sides and she started to frown. “Who exactly are you?”

“Huh.” Damon shook his head. “Harris, you want to take that one?”

Harris rarely didn’t know what to say. He always had the right phrase ready. A cover he could fall back on. It was part of why he’d been successful liberating artwork and delivering it from one place to another. He had a Plan B handy. Today’s Plan B was the truth. Between the fire and the sex and the secrets and Damon’s shit-eating grin, this was where they were.

Harris took a deep breath and plunged in. “We are here investigating Tabitha’s murder. I really am an art appraiser, but he has law enforcement skills.”

She looked at Damon. “Well?”

He nodded. “True.”

That was annoying. He finally told the truth and she fact-checked it. “Why are you asking him?” Harris asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Keep going.”

In this deep, Harris dove even deeper. “Stephen thinks we’re working for him. We’re not.”

“Then who’s paying you? The insurance company or the court? Who?”

All fair questions. It was not as if he could just drop Wren’s name and end the discussion. It likely wouldn’t mean anything to her, but it would cause trouble if she started asking around. “An interested party.”

She shook her head and shot him a “gotcha” look. “I was with you until right there.”

“There are people in this world who insist on knowing the truth. Who want answers to difficult questions.” Harris realized that summed up most of his friends. All of the Quint Five possessed that trait. The driving need to solve puzzles, especially if those puzzles dealt with human lives. “A mutual friend of ours is one of those people. His girlfriend works for this place called the Doe Network. She helps to find answers for families with missing relatives.”

---