Somewhere Only We Know (13 page)

Maddie enjoyed the uncomfortable look that crept into Burke's eyes and decided to play along. "You should do that, Burke. I'm sure you must know some single men around our age."

"Not anyone worthy of Maddie Heller."

"Oh, I bet you know someone," Eleanor persisted.

"I'll have to think about it," he replied.

"Or you could take her out yourself," Eleanor suggested, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"We could go on a date," Maddie agreed. "Unless you're still holding that detention against me." She looked at Eleanor. "I got Burke his first and only detention in high school. I don't think he's ever forgiven me."

"Were you doing something fun when you got in trouble?"

She said, "Yes."

Burke said, "No."

Eleanor laughed. "I think I'd like to hear this story."

"Some other time," Burke said. "It looks like dinner is ready. Can I get you a plate, Grandma?"

"Your grandfather always takes care of that. You two have fun," Eleanor said, then made her way back to her husband.

"Did you enjoy that?" Burke asked her.

"Yes. Your grandmother is a sweetheart. I've loved her since the first day I met her. She always had great stories to tell."

"That's true," he said quietly, his gaze turning reflective. "I wish now I'd been a better listener."

"Nicole told me about your grandmother's diagnosis. I'm sorry."

"She's hanging in there. Some days are better than others."

"Those are the days you have to savor," she said, knowing firsthand what it felt like to watch someone slowly disappear.

"Yeah. Let's get something to eat."

"Okay."

As they filled their plates, Maddie was happy to see her vegetable tarts were a popular item among the crowd. It was also the first thing Burke put into his mouth when they sat down together at a table on the back deck.

"Amazing," he got out, as he downed the tart in two bites. "I've been wanting to eat one of those since you took them out of the oven. You need to be in a restaurant, Maddie."

"I'm working on it," she said, pleased with his obvious enjoyment of her food.

"Does your upcoming interview involve you cooking? If it does, I think you'll blow them away."

"You've only tasted my omelet and my tarts, and this restaurant is very high brow. So I don't know if I'll impress them."

"I've seen you raise your brow," he said with a laugh. "You can compete."

"Very true." She liked this lighter side of Burke. She would have thought after the revelations he'd heard earlier, he would be in a down mood, but since his run and getting together with his family, his tension had definitely eased. She also liked to think that maybe she was a tiny bit responsible for his happier mood, or at least her tarts were doing that job.

"Are we interrupting?" Emma asked as she and her husband Max sat down at the table.

"Not at all," Burke replied. "Haven't seen you in a while, Max. What's going on?"

"Not much. How's your eye?"

"It's fine."

"Emma filled me in. Do you want to file charges?"

"No, I'm going to handle the situation on my own."

"I told you that's what he'd say," Emma said, sighing as she met her husband's gaze. "He's stubborn."

"It seems to run in your family," Max said dryly.

"How did you two meet?" Maddie asked. "Was it love at first sight?"

"Maybe on Max's part," Emma said with a wicked sparkle in her eye. "But not for me."

Max rolled his eyes. "Or me, either. Emma was annoying as hell."

"Because you were in my business."

"My business," he retorted.

Emma looked at Maddie. "Max was working a murder investigation, and I was working an arson case. They met in the middle and so did we. Eventually, we realized some of the tension between us was attraction."

"You left out the part where you were being stalked and Max had to save your life," Burke interjected.

"Oh, that," Emma said with a wave of her hand.

"It sounds terrifying," Maddie put in.

"Emma doesn't scare easily," Max said, slinging his arm around the back of his wife's chair. "Do you, babe?"

"No, but that was pretty scary I have to admit."

"You Callaways certainly have a lot of drama," she said.

Burke laughed. "You don’t know the half of it, Maddie." He stood up. "I'm going to get seconds. Anyone need anything?"

After everyone said no, Burke moved toward the house.

"I'm worried about Burke," Emma said as soon as her brother was out of sight. "He thinks he can handle Mitch, but the man looks like he's lost his mind. And Colton told me that Mitch has been missing work the last two weeks."

"Burke can take care of himself," Max told her. "You need to stay out of it, Em."

"You know I don't like to do that."

"This time you should," Max said. "But it probably doesn't matter what I say, does it? When it comes to your family, you're a force of nature. Actually, when it comes to anything, you're a force."

"I can't help it. I love my family and Burke is the only one of us who doesn't have someone." Emma paused, her expression changing slightly as she gazed over at Maddie. "You and Burke seemed awfully friendly when we came out here. Is there something between you two?"

"We're friends," she said. "He used to tutor me in high school."

"That was a long time ago."

"Leave her alone, Em," Max said. "You have to stop trying to match Burke up with someone."

"Fine, but I'm still going to worry about him. If you don't want me to butt in, I think you should, Max. Why don't you go talk to him? Maybe you can make him see that he needs our help."

"I seriously doubt that will be the outcome, but I will give it a shot." Max kissed Emma on the cheek, smiled at Maddie and returned to the house.

"You have that man wrapped around your finger," Maddie said.

"Not really. Max and I have our moments. We're both pretty strong-willed, but it works. I like that he challenges me, and hopefully he feels the same way."

"He looks at you like he adores you, so I think it's safe to say he definitely feels the same way."

"I'm lucky. I had a bad relationship before Max. I wasted a lot of time on a loser."

"I know what that feels like."

"Live and learn, right?"

She sighed. "I think I've done enough learning. I'm ready for everything to work out now."

Their conversation was interrupted by Nicole, who popped out on the deck long enough to tell them to come inside for cake and presents.

As they got up to go inside, Emma gave Maddie a sly look. "Even if there's nothing going on between you and Burke now, that doesn't mean there couldn't be. You're friends. That's a good start."

"I would drive your brother crazy in a second. We are very different people."

"That could be a good thing. And maybe it would be an interesting kind of crazy."

Maddie laughed. "I've had interesting. I've had crazy. I think the combination could be deadly."

"Or amazing. Aren't you the girl who isn't afraid of anything?"

"I used to be," she said. "Sometimes I wonder what happened to that girl."

Chapter Nine

Burke was sitting on the front porch railing in front of Nicole's house when Max came out to find him. "Emma sent you out here to talk to me, didn't she? You're not really going to jump every time she says jump, are you?"

"Only when warranted, or when I want to have a really good night—later."

"Too much information," Burke drawled.

"Then let's talk about you. What's going on between you and the firefighter that attacked you last night?"

Burke hesitated, torn between wanting to say nothing and knowing he might need Max's help to get to the truth. "Up until today, I thought Mitch was just caught in a circle of grief, but now I know it's more than that."

"What happened?"

"I'd like to tell you, Max, but I don't want Emma involved. Can we have a conversation that doesn't go back to her?"

Now Max was the one who hesitated. "I don't like to keep secrets from Emma, especially when it comes to her family."

"Then we shouldn't be talking."

Max stared back at him. "I'll keep this conversation between us. But if we need to have another one, we'll have to renegotiate."

"Fine. Mitch came to my apartment building with some new information about Leanne. He told me that he and Leanne had an affair and that she was pregnant when she died, possibly with his child."

"What?"

"Yeah, he dropped a bomb on my head."

"Do you believe him?"

"I don't want to, but he showed me a medical report stating Leanne was pregnant. So that part seems to be true. The rest I have to figure out." He took a breath. "Mitch believes that Leanne's hit-and-run was deliberate and that I hired someone to take her out, kill her, kill the baby that wasn't mine."

Max's gaze hardened. "That's unbelievable."

"Not according to Mitch. He was obsessed with Leanne, and now he's obsessed with making me pay for her death, a death he believes I'm responsible for. He has a private investigator working with him. Apparently, that's who dug up Leanne's medical records. I don't know where they're going next."

"They're going to the night of the accident," Max said. "When I get into work tomorrow, I'll see if I can pull the reports from that night."

"I've seen those reports. There's nothing on them. The police had no clues, no witnesses, nothing."

"Well, sometimes a fresh eye helps when you're talking about a cold case."

"I'd appreciate the help," he said. "I still think it was an accident, because I didn't do it, and who else would have a reason to hurt Leanne?"

"Aside from you and Mitch, I can't think of anyone. Unless there are other things you didn't know about her."

"I hope not," he murmured. But if Leanne had not told him she was pregnant, or that she'd cheated on him with Mitch, it was more than a little possible that she had other secrets. Had one of those secrets killed her?

* * *

"Emma saw us leave together," Maddie said as Burke drove them back to his apartment just after ten. "She came out on the porch right after I got in the car."

"Then I'm sure one or both of us will be getting a text message very soon."

"You don't seem too upset about it," she said lightly, unable to gauge his mood.

"I don't really care what Emma thinks. Do you?"

"No. You disappeared for a while. Where did you go?"

"I was talking to Max. He's going to look at the police reports from the night of Leanne's accident."

"That's good, I guess."

"I know you think I should let this go, but even if I were willing to do that, Mitch wouldn't let this go. He's going to keep pushing and prodding and digging until he comes up with an answer he likes. Or maybe he'll just make one up. I don't know. But I can't keep playing defense. I have to go on offense."

She understood, but she had a feeling things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

Her phone rang, and her heart jumped at the number. It wasn't Emma; it was Paul—again. She'd really hoped she'd heard the last from him. "It looks like neither one of us can escape our past," she muttered. She muted the phone, letting whatever Paul had to say go to voicemail. Then she played it back on speaker.

"They know you're in San Francisco, Maddie," Paul said. "I don't know how they know, but they sent me a photo of you walking in the city. They said if I didn't pay up, you were going to get hurt. Call me back. Tell me where you are. We need to figure this out." She sighed. "He has to be making it up."

"You said you felt like someone was watching you earlier."

"That was my imagination."

"Or not." He shot her a look. "Looks like we both have problems."

"Paul has made stuff up before. He's a liar."

"Text him. Ask him to send you the photo he saw."

"Okay, good idea." It took a minute for Paul to reply. "He says he doesn't have it. They showed it to him, but they didn't give him a copy."

"Ask him what was in the photo—if there were any landmarks."

Paul's answer was vague. "He doesn't remember. He was just shocked to see that they were following me. He remembers that I was wearing jeans." She looked over at Burke. "I pretty much live in jeans. He's just trying to scare me. He thinks I can get help from my parents or from friends." She put her phone into her bag as Burke drove into his parking garage.

Despite the fact that she thought Paul was just trying to rattle her, she was more than a little happy to have Burke's strong body next to hers as they made their way up to his apartment. She must have gotten a little too close, because Burke gave her a speculative look.

"You're scared, aren't you, Maddie?"

"A little. I'm worried that I might bring trouble to you, Burke, and you have enough on your plate. Maybe I should go to a motel."

"You're not going anywhere. And tomorrow we'll call Max and see if he can also look into your problem."

"We're going to be keeping Max busy."

"He won't mind."

As Burke opened the door to his apartment for her, she felt like she was coming home, and that worried her even more than the threat from Paul.

She couldn't let herself get too comfortable here. This wasn't home. She was just crashing here until she found somewhere else to live, and that was something she needed to start focusing on very soon.

"What time do you go to work?" she asked as she took off her coat.

"My shift runs seven a.m. tomorrow until seven a.m. Tuesday. You'll have the place to yourself."

"I really appreciate this, Burke."

He put up a hand. "You've already thanked me too many times, Maddie. Please stop."

"All right, but—"

"No 'buts'."

As they stared at each other, she was suddenly acutely aware of how alone they were. It was a Saturday night, almost ten-thirty, but a little too early to go to bed. What on earth were they going to do?

The ideas that ran through her head at that question were all bad.