Walk the Line (Man of the Month 12)

"Good." Elena flashed what she hoped was a supportive smile. "It should." But even though she meant what she said, she couldn't shake the sense of shock and awe.

Because the truth was, Elena couldn't imagine defying her parents in the way that Hannah had. She was damn proud of her friend, true, but what if the dispute had been between her and Tyree?

She'd only just gotten to know her dad; could she close the door on their relationship like Hannah had with her mom?

She didn't know. And as she took the eggs off the heat, she damn sure hoped that she never had to find out.

Chapter Three

"Right there," Brent said, tapping the pause button on his tablet's video player. "Do you see how he tilts his head up at the end? Right after he's finished spraying? The camera's not in the right place, but if I could enhance the video, I might be able to pull a few facial details."

Detective Landon Ware leaned forward, peering at the screen. "I doubt it."

Brent sighed, then sat back in the hard, plastic chair. Police departments tended not to splurge on furnishings, and the chairs in the break room were no exception. "Honestly, I doubt it, too," Brent said with a small shrug for his friend. "But I'm running out of options."

Landon nodded. "I get it. But man, you need to let it go."

In theory, Brent couldn't argue with that. In practice, he and Landon both knew he wasn't going to back down. They'd worked together before Brent had turned in his badge and taken up the mantle of head of security for The Fix on Sixth. They'd suffered through boring stakeouts and explosive raids. They'd shared beers and swapped life stories. And over the years, they'd become good friends. Which, of course, was why Brent had hauled himself to the police department's downtown station on a Saturday morning in September.

"It was probably just teens being assholes," Landon said, as if that would magically make Brent back off.

"Not teens." Brent thought of the vulgar graffiti that had covered almost the entire eastern exterior wall. "Not unless they were goaded on by adults."

"You sound certain."

"This wasn't the first incident."

Landon's brows rose with interest. "Yeah? Tyree hasn't mentioned a thing." The detective was engaged to Taylor D'Angelo, who worked as the stage manager for the Man of the Month contest. As a result, Landon had been spending even more time at the bar. Which meant he was hearing more of the gossip.

"I asked him not to. I don't want word spreading that he's disturbed by it. Or that he's investigating it."

"What's happened?"

"In addition to the tagging, a couple of broken window and some structural damage to a couple of the support columns. That one could have been bad if we hadn't caught it in time." As the head of security for The Fix, Brent's job ran the gamut from making sure all the employees had the proper ID and their references checked out, to investigating and pursuing any incidents against the property or its employees. And there'd been more incidents in the past month than he'd seen in all his years at The Fix. Whatever was going on, he was determined to find the perp and shut it down.

The corners of Landon's mouth curved into a frown. "What happened with the support?"

"Spencer noticed it."

"Was it part of the remodel they're doing for the show?" Brooke Hamlin and Spencer Dean were the stars of a real estate themed reality show that centered around a remodel of The Fix--with a little bit of sex appeal thrown in by virtue of the Man of the Month calendar guy contests that The Business Plan included in the show.

Brent shook his head. "The major structural work took place months ago. But Spencer's sharp. He saw the damage and realized it was vandalism. But the cameras were running, so that's not what he said. He told Tyree and me the full score later when the cameramen weren't around. And he offered to fix it for free."

"The broken windows ... was that how the perp got in?"

"Found some denim threads on the glass. So it looks that way."

Landon studied him from across the interview table. "You have a theory."

"I think someone wants the property. And I think I know who."

"Make the place too much trouble, and figure Tyree will sell to rid himself of an albatross? I get it. So who's doing it?"

"Well, I've narrowed the list down substantially. But if I want to make progress with any kind of speed, I need to figure out who's in that sweatshirt."

In truth, he was certain that the perp was someone from Bodacious, a competing bar, the owners of which had made no secret that they would be thrilled if Tyree disappeared so they could acquire The Fix's prime real estate.

"Fair enough. But like I said, there's no tech here that's gonna make that picture any clearer. I know it's been almost six years since you quit the force, but you k