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“Abusive ex-boyfriend, who probably deserves it.”

“Cheery,” Marianne said drolly.

Davina ignored her. It sure as heck cheered her up.

Jack was halfway home when he did a U-turn on the motorway and headed back to the house. His spidey sense was tingling. Sure he was still a little wound up from his encounter with his tenant, but it was more than that. He knew she was hiding something. In his house. It grated. He was a police officer – ex-police officer, he corrected, feeling the same pang of loss that had kept him glued to the couch and living off pizza for months. Still, being on the force was in his blood and he knew suspicious behaviour when he saw it. He looked back at the house. Davina Davenport was suspicious all right. And not just because she’d tied him up and then climbed all over him like a lap dancer desperate for tips.

He pulled his SUV into a quiet spot behind a large rhododendron at the bottom of the drive. Would it really matter if he wandered up there to see what was going on? After all, it wasn’t as though he was trespassing. He did own the property. His phone rang.

“Don’t do it,” Andy said in his ear.

Jack frowned into the darkness in the direction of the house.

“Do what?”

“Whatever stupid scheme you’re currently hatching. Don’t do it. Put the car in gear and head home.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed.

“How do you know I’m not driving?” He took the phone away from his ear to look at it suspiciously. “You downloaded one of those apps parents use to track their kids, didn’t you?”

“So sue me. You’re not the only one with instincts. You’re sitting outside your aunt’s house about to do something stupid. Now, put the car in gear, go home and wait the two weeks you’re supposed to wait.”

“I’m getting mixed messages here Andy. You spent the last couple of months trying to get me out of the house and now you’re eager to send me back.”

“That was because you’d cemented your backside to the couch. It reached the stage where the guys at the station were drawing straws to see who would make you take a shower.”

“Well I’m off the couch and shower fresh. So back off. I’m just going to wander up to the house and make sure everything is okay.”

“She has the right to privacy.”

“Yeah and I had rights when she tied me up and climbed all over me.”

“You didn’t look like you were suffering.”

He couldn’t argue with that, so he said nothing. Two mopeds passed him and turned into the driveway. One held two people. Jack’s attention zoomed in on them.

“Three people just arrived on mopeds,” he told Andy.

“I’ll sound the alarm, tell them we have a moped sighting.”

“You’re a real funny guy.”

“Seriously.” Andy sounded tired. “You need to back off and act normal. You’ll never get your job back if you go all Rambo again.”

Jack gritted his teeth.

“I hit one guy. One time. Hardly Rambo.”

“It was the Chief Superintendent, Jack, not one guy.”

“I know who it was.”

Jack didn’t regret it for a minute. The guy was dirty. Unfortunately there wasn’t any evidence and who was going to believe a burnt-out cop over the Chief Superintendent? No one.

“The guys at the station put their jobs on the line for you. They believe in you.”

There was the rub. They might believe in him but they didn’t actually believe him. No one did.