Page 92 of Tessa's Trust

Louise reared up again.

“No,” I said. “We’re not doing this. You just stay calm.” Maybe I wasn’t as forgiving about shooting the aquarium as I’d thought. Something could have ricocheted and hit me or anybody else in that restaurant. “Louise, you’ve been given a second chance here. You should take it.”

She swallowed and looked down at the table. “Fine. I’m sorry I spent all your money, Bobbo.”

“Oh, it wasn’t all of it.” He grinned. “I’m glad you’re out of jail, and I’m sure if you get a good lawyer, you’ll probably get probation and not do any jail time. You’ve never done anything else wrong.” He looked down at Kelsey. “Don’t worry, I’m not paying for the lawyer.”

Kelsey’s smile was radiant. “How about we go to The Clumsy Penguin for dinner? That was really good the other night.”

I nodded slightly. That was a phenomenal idea.

“Okay,” Bobbo said. He patted me on the shoulder, and I nearly fell. Man, he had heavy mitts for hands. “Thanks again for helping us out, Tessa. You’re a sweetheart. Is there any chance you and Hank are going out again?”

Considering I’d nearly been arrested during our first date, I didn’t think so. Besides, Nick Basanelli was in my heart, whether I liked it or not. I just had to figure out what to do with him. “I don’t think so. He’s a great guy. Maybe we can find him somebody else.”

“All right.” Kelsey chucked me on the arm. “You’re a pretty good matchmaker. I’ll give you a call next week, and we’ll see what we can come up with.”

“That might be fun.” Perhaps I should open a matchmaking service. I felt I had a gift.

The two left, and Louise wiped away a tear. “What about me? Could you hook me up with somebody?”

“You should probably wait until your legal troubles are over,” I offered.

“Huh,” she said. “Look who’s talking.”

Chapter 32

After closing up the diner around nine that evening, I drove around town and toward the smaller Tamarack Lake, parking at Nick’s condo.

At this point, I felt we were in this mess together, so I might as well include him.

I carried the metal box and two roast beef sandwiches from Smiley’s to his front door and knocked. After the first few hectic minutes at the diner, things had gone smoothly. It gave me hope that I’d be able to run both restaurants and give Smiley a break.

He was still in the hospital, and I wanted to see him, but I needed to figure out what was in the box first. It was probably nothing, or maybe it held cash. Plus, I didn’t even know if it was Rudy Brando’s. The box might have been hidden beneath that board for eons, though it felt fairly new. Although, what did I know?

The door opened, and Nick stood there in faded jeans, a ratty Marines T-shirt, and no socks. He let me in and shut the door behind me. “Are you done with breaking the law today?”

“Not even close.” I handed him the bag with the food.

He padded over to his kitchen to fetch plates for the sandwiches, his chiseled face looking serious. I carried the metal safe over to his table.

He shook his head. “You’re tampering with evidence?”

“Maybe. We don’t know that it’s evidence. This thing looks older than the first Sadie Brando,” I retorted. “Plus, the police didn’t find it. I did.” I lifted a shoulder. There was definite luck and timing involved. “If they had been there at the same time of day I was, they would’ve likely seen the shadow. But, Nick, there’s something in here, and we have to figure out what it is.”

“Or we could give it to the police and let them figure it out. But even so...” His stunning brown gaze cut to the box and back.

Hope filled me. He was as curious as I was right now. “Come on, Nick. There’s probably nothing in there.”

That was a lie. There had to be something important in the little safe. What? I had no idea. Maybe a confession from Rudy that he’d falsified the deed. Yeah, that’d be fantastic. My luck had been fairly good recently, but it wasn’t that good.

“Fine,” Nick said. “I’ll be right back.” He went somewhere in the condo and then returned with a bunch of tools. “This is actually a pretty flimsy lock.”

He took a screwdriver, inserted it where the numbers were, grabbed a hammer and started beating on the screwdriver. It was impressive how quickly Basanelli could go from law enforcer to lawbreaker. I found it incredibly sexy, which was probably something I shouldn’t admit to anybody, maybe even myself. But I should probably examine it at some point in my life.

He worked for about fifteen minutes, grunting. I was surprised it took that long. But then the container suddenly flipped open. I rushed forward.

“Huh,” Nick said.

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