Page 25 of Texas Scandal

“I need to let Prescott know about this,” he said, pulling out his phone. He snapped a picture of the “present” before shooting over a text to the lawyer. “Let’s leave that alone until we get instructions on how to move forward.”

“Okay,” she said with a hollow quality to her voice that brought out his protective instincts. “I’ll just grab an overnight bag and throw some clothes inside.”

He nodded as she excused herself.

“Hold on,” he said before she entered the hallway. He held out Loki’s leash. “Take him with you.”

A flash of relief passed behind her eyes as she took the offering. Tiernan planned to join them in a minute after he scoped out the place and made sure the area was secure. Law enforcement didn’t exactly turn her apartment upside down. There were a couple of bills scattered on top of the counter. The place looked picked through but not ravaged. Throw pillows had been tossed onto the couch rather than neatly placed. A few drawers were ajar.

Tiernan walked through the living area and into the small but efficient kitchen. Her apartment had a clean but feminine look. Her furniture was in mostly neutral tones with soft throw pillows. The round marble table against one wall in the kitchen had two chairs that looked like something he’d find in one of those cool cafés. Modern? Contemporary?

Either way, he could see himself comfortable here. There were a few plants to give the place enough green. Other than that, the look was simple.

Once he’d checked in the pantry and behind doors, he moved into the hallway. There were essentially three doors. The first one on the right housed a washer and dryer. The second was a bathroom with all the essentials. The third was a reasonably sized bedroom. The decorating carried over from the living room and kitchen. The platform bed had a cloth headboard. There was an overnight bag sprawled out on top of the covers.

Loki came running toward Tiernan as he entered the room. His run was abruptly halted when the slack ran out of the leash. Rather than get her arm jerked out of its socket, Melody let go.

“Hey, buddy. Sit,” Tiernan said, but this wasn’t one of those times Loki could calm down enough to obey. Tiernan balled his fist and raised it to chest level. The hand signal had a better success rate once Loki hit a certain level of energy.

It worked. He plopped his butt on the wood flooring.

“Good boy,” Tiernan reassured.

All the drawers in this room were closed at this point. Only the closet door was still open. He imagined Melody had gone through and straightened up the place.

“Have you noticed anything missing so far?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I keep important papers inside the nightstand. They all look to be in order.”

“The law would be looking for a weapon or possibly your laptop,” he said.

“Oh. Right,” she said. “I guess I should have been looking around for that. The necklace freaked me out, and just seeing anything out of place like drawers still being opened when I walked in is strange. Knowing people were in here without my permission.” She shuddered. It was easy to see the physical impact in her body language. The mental had to be twice as rough.

Loki heard a noise. He whirled around toward the window, giving the sound his full attention.

“It might be nothing, but we should get out of here as soon as possible,” Tiernan said as he followed the dog over to the window. He kept out of view in case someone was downstairs watching, leaning his back against the wall beside the curtain.

After a few seconds ticked by with all three of them frozen, save for Loki’s swishing tail, Tiernan risked a glance. Whatever the dog heard must be gone now. For all he knew, it could have been a bird or squirrel in a nearby tree. Dogs had far more sensitive ears than humans.

“Looks okay out there,” he said to Melody.

She immediately jumped into action, filling the last of the space in the overnight bag. After zipping it up, she shouldered the strap. Tiernan met her in the middle of the room and took the bag from her.

“I’ll just take a quick look around,” she said. “To be fair, I usually keep my laptop on my bed because I check email at night. The fact that it’s not here means the sheriff’s office must have confiscated it.” She issued a sharp sigh. “Is that even allowed?”

“If they have a search warrant signed off on by a judge, I’m afraid they can take anything they view as evidence,” he said, thinking he needed to update Prescott. Although, the lawyer most likely already assumed the worst. Lawyers were good at that in Tiernan’s experience. The good ones decided everything that could go wrong on the case already had.

He followed Melody into the next room where she scanned the place. She walked over to the scattered mail, swept it up with her hand and then dropped it inside her purse.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to pay my bills without my laptop,” she said on a frustrated sigh. “My accounts aren’t on my phone.”

“We’ll sort it out back at my place if you’d like to stay over again,” he promised, fully expecting her to reject the offer.

“Okay,” she said with a look of relief. “Then, I won’t panic about my electricity being turned off because I didn’t pay the bill on time. My brain is scattered right now and I suddenly can’t remember if it’s due or if I paid it.”

“I have to get some work done in my shop this evening,” he started. “I can always lend you a laptop. You can come out there with me if you don’t want to be in the house alone.”

Her gaze widened and she tilted her head. “You wouldn’t mind?”

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