Page 15 of Tessa's Trust

Pierce was one of Timber City’s finest. He had darkish blond hair and piercing green eyes that matched his name. I’d always thought that was interesting. He often worked with my sister, and by the irritated glint in his eye, he wasn’t happy to be working with another Albertini.

“Why are you here, anyway?” I finally asked after he’d finished his questioning. “Don’t you deal with homicides?”

“Normally,” he muttered. “But when the Albertini name is mentioned, they call me in for some reason.” He didn’t sound too happy about it.

“Well, I didn’t recognize the knife, and I don’t understand why it was in my fridge,” I said for what had to be the thousandth time. “Yes, it looked a lot like the one protruding from Rudy Brando’s chest, but I can’t say for sure.” They both had dark wooden handles with hooks on the ends. That was all I knew. “It’s not my knife, it’s not a knife I’ve ever seen before today, and it most certainly isn’t one the diner uses.”

Pierce shook his head. “All right. I’ve already called Sheriff Franco in Silverville, and we’re going to send both weapons to the state crime lab. We’ll see what’s going on.”

I bit my lip. “You don’t think there’s another body out there, do you?” If so, why leave the knife in my fridge?

“I hope not,” Pierce said. “I’d love it if this case stayed in the other county. I’m swamped right now.” He stood. “Come on, I’ve already interviewed Basanelli. He’s waiting to take you…well, somewhere.”

I didn’t think Pierce cared where I went.

He walked me outside. “Do you have somewhere to go?” All right, scratch that. Maybe he did care.

He was tall and lean with a swimmer’s body. And if I remembered right, he had a killer smile. I hadn’t seen it in a while, but I wasn’t usually around Detective Pierce. I thought he’d asked my sister Anna out once, but they’d never made it, and she told me a while back that she was pretty sure he was glad they hadn’t gone on that date. Now, she was safely living with Aiden, her one true love.

So, Pierce would have to look elsewhere, although rumor had it he wasn’t looking anywhere near the Albertini women.

I couldn’t blame him. We did seem to have a plethora of dead bodies showing up. As a homicide detective, that probably didn’t sit well with him.

Nick waited at the end of the hall, somehow not appearing as exhausted as I felt. In fact, he looked slightly dangerous. It wasn’t the clothing or even his expression…it was just the man. Not for the first time, I wondered what he’d done in the Marines besides being in the JAG Corps. From what I’d heard through scuttlebutt, he didn’t talk about those times. They most certainly weren’t my business. So, I kept my thoughts to myself as I reached him. “Is she good?” he asked Pierce.

“Yeah, you’re both good. She can’t go back to her place, though. It’s a crime scene.” It was a fact he’d already informed me of. At the moment, I didn’t want to go back there. It was a huge mess, and I didn’t want to deal with it.

“Thanks, Detective Pierce,” I said, zipping my coat and turning to jog down the stairs to the main entrance of the Timber City Police Department. Nick opened the door for me, and we both ducked our heads against the keening wind as we ran to his Jeep and jumped inside.

“Where to?” He started the ignition and began driving across the snowy parking lot.

I considered my options. Anna’s little bungalow had been blown up the week before, and she was currently living in Aiden’s new and sparsely furnished cabin that was still, at this point, a fixer-upper. Plus, they were living in new domestic bliss, and I didn’t want to intrude. I had a lot of cousins around town, but most of them had small apartments, and a lot of my family resided in Silverville; no way were we driving the pass again tonight.

There was only one choice. “Just take me to Donna’s.” I wasn’t surprised when Nick automatically turned the car, somehow knowing where my sister lived. Basanelli seemed to know everything.

“Should you call her and tell her we’re coming?” he asked, flicking the windshield wipers up faster.

“Oh, she’s not in town. She left this morning, but she’ll be back in a couple of days.” However, I had a key to her place, so it wasn’t a big deal.

He engaged his blinker and turned, driving away from Donna’s neighborhood.

“Where are you going?” I looked out the back window. Maybe Nick didn’t know where she lived.

“You’re not staying at Donna’s by yourself tonight,” he murmured, driving away from town and toward the smaller and even quainter Tamarack Lake.

My heart zinged sharply against my rib cage. “I’m not staying with you.” Nope. No way. I was only human, and I needed to be smart.

“Why not? You’ve stayed with me before.” He easily slowed to drive over several thick chunks of ice that looked as if they had fallen from a nearby tree.

I gulped. “Yeah, but that was when Anna was staying there.” My sister had had a bad reaction to some brownies and ended up at Nick’s house just in time to throw up in his potted plant. She then became paranoid and called me, and I had stayed the night with her to keep her calm. I didn’t like remembering that night, but Nick had been a sweetheart. He’d braided her hair, took care of her, and then cooked us both breakfast.

Anna had gotten a twinkle in her eye the next morning, and I couldn’t prove it, but I think she had then enlisted Nonna to help with her matchmaking scheme. If I proved my theory, I would make her pay. Revenge was a religion in my family, but so far, I couldn’t truly prove her guilt. Everybody around us seemed to be trying to matchmake, and it just wasn’t working.

“I really don’t think I should stay at your place.”

“That’s unfortunate.” He reached the lake road and wound around the southern shore. “Because I’m not driving you back over the pass, and I’m not leaving you alone. So, it’s either my place or Devlin’s. And I don’t even think they have a bed yet, do they?”

“I think they have a bed,” I said softly, though I wasn’t sure if Anna and Aiden had a bed or not. They had been staying in Anna’s place until it blew up. The good news was that the bad guy bomber had been caught, was now dead, and nobody was after Anna any longer—at least not this week. “Nick, I’m fine.”

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