Private Bodyguard. Tyler Anne Snell

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СКАЧАТЬ is why I didn’t think you’d be here,” Derrick said to Oliver.

      “The rest of the team is with him,” he repeated. “I came here to find out what’s going on.” Oliver sent a pointed look to Darling. “And how you’re involved.”

      Darling crossed her arms over her chest.

      “I was actually about to ask the same thing,” Derrick said. The two of them focused on the private investigator. She shifted under their collective gaze. A long exhalation escaped between her lips.

      “I was working a case,” she admitted. “It led me here and, to my surprise, right up to a dead body. But as soon as I found it, I called you,” she said to Derrick.

      The cop outdid her earlier sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

      “What’s your case?” Oliver had to ask.

      Darling set her jaw. “I’m not at liberty to say.”

      “Dammit, Darling, a woman is dead. You need to tell me everything you know,” Derrick said with tried patience. Oliver guessed murder wasn’t a normal occurrence in Mulligan.

      “So it is a woman, then?” she asked. Derrick nodded. It was her turn to skate around a direct answer. “I didn’t look hard enough. How was she killed?”

      “And how is Nigel connected, again?” Oliver tacked on.

      The deputy wasn’t happy about the questions. “It’s my turn to say ‘no comment.’” Darling opened her mouth to argue, but he held up his hand. “This is an ongoing murder investigation, Darling. I can’t give you anything right now. Not even for old times’ sake.”

      Oliver didn’t like the way he said the last part or the way the deputy brought up their shared past. The past that Oliver’s past few years didn’t even touch. However, a small part of him did feel a sort of odd joy to know that whatever relationship they’d had was now seemingly over.

      “Now, please go wait inside so I can take your statement,” the deputy said to Darling before focusing on Oliver. “And I suggest you head to the station. We’re going to need to talk about that client of yours.”

      He was gone after that, leaving Oliver and Darling speechless on the sidewalk.

      “You said Nigel was the last to see the woman alive?” he asked, voice low and serious.

      “He spent the night with her, Oliver.”

      “Are you sure?” Nigel had said he was in his hotel in the city until the morning. Neither Grant nor Thomas had said otherwise. “It could have been a mistake.”

      Darling’s lips turned down. “It looks like Nigel Marks isn’t the saint you thought him to be.” There was no mistaking the undercurrent of anger that coursed through her words. He was a step away from a dangerous territory with her.

      “This isn’t how I pictured running into you after all of these years.” Silence stretched between them as neither had a response ready for the topic of their past. Oliver then continued, “I’d still like to catch up, but it looks like tonight might not be good.” He had already started a mental list of things he needed to do. “Can I treat you to breakfast tomorrow instead?”

      Darling seemed to be thinking it over. Eventually she nodded before she, too, disappeared back into the building. Oliver retreated to his SUV, pulling his phone out to call Nikki along the way.

      The job was officially no longer boring.

Chapter Four

      Darling chewed on her bottom lip, not stopping until she tasted lipstick. She was standing in the lobby of Acuity the next morning, staring into a folder, confused beyond belief.

      The afternoon before had blurred by after she’d given a statement to Derrick and then been ushered home. He wasn’t happy with her investigating, or the fact that she wouldn’t say for whom, and had in so many words let her know that she wouldn’t keep that secret for long. So instead she had tried to reach Mrs. Marks. The resort manager she had spoken with had taken a message and promised to give it to her when she returned.

      It had eaten Darling up as she lay awake in bed, fuming that Oliver knew more about what was going on with Nigel than she did. Here he was, stepping into her town, and he had already managed to be on the inside loop with the infamous Mr. Marks. She could have called Oliver, sure, but her pride had shut that idea down quickly. Admitting she needed the fair-haired man in any capacity was something she refused to do ever again.

      After only a few hours of rest, she had opened Acuity to find a folder filled with curious things lying on the hardwood floor, slipped under the door as an unmistakable greeting.

      Now between her hands were four eight-by-ten pictures of Nigel Marks with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Each picture—printed on glossy card stock and dated—was focused on the businessman and a red-haired woman in four varying shows of affection. The first two had them in an intimate embrace, while the third and fourth were of the two sharing meals. In one of those, Nigel was even holding the woman’s hand, a smile splitting his lips. None of the four pictures had a clear shot of the female’s face, but there was no denying it was the same woman in each and that the couple was happy. All pictures were dated from the previous December up until March, the month before.

      Elizabeth Marks had been looking for proof that her husband had been seeing another woman in secret. From what Darling could tell, she was holding that proof.

      But why?

      She stood there, cycling through each picture again, when a knock at the door made her jump. The folder fell to the floor. She hurried to pick it up when she noticed there was something still inside it.

      “Knock, knock. It’s me,” called Oliver from the other side of the locked front entrance. “You in there?”

      Darling didn’t immediately respond. Her eyes were glued to a newspaper clipping that had been stuck to the inside of the folder. It was a picture of her parents that she knew to be almost nine years old. However, it was the words written in red across it that grabbed all her attention.

      Do the right thing this time.

      “Hold on,” Darling said after another knock sounded. She hoped Oliver didn’t catch the waver in her voice. She put the pictures, including the clipping, back into the folder and tucked it under her arm to unlock the door.

      “You okay?” Oliver asked immediately. Perhaps her poker face wasn’t at its best today. He wore a zip-up black jacket over a black shirt that looked good contrasting with his lighter hair. Staying away from the all-black bodyguard stereotype, he’d donned beige cargo pants with more pockets than she cared to count. She didn’t recognize the brand of tennis shoes, but she bet that he could run fast in them if needed.

      “Yeah, just tired,” she lied, leading him into the lobby. “Let me just freshen up and I’ll be ready to go.” She stuffed the folder into her purse and excused herself to the bathroom. There she turned on the faucet and took a deep breath.

      What had briefly felt like a gift that could close her case against Nigel now felt tainted and wrong. As far as she knew, no one in Mulligan was aware of her parents’ past, especially СКАЧАТЬ