Good Girls Don't (Donovan Brothers Brewery 1)

“Stop!” she yelled. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Fine. We’ll talk about it tonight. All of us.” Jamie grabbed a clean towel from a rack and tossed it over h

is shoulder. “Don’t worry yourself sick in the meantime.”

But Tessa’s tension only got worse. Her shoulders pulled tight, her stomach even tighter. Eric had never walked away from her like that. Never. And Jamie…he acted like he didn’t even care. Even Wallace eventually gave up on the show and retreated into his glass cave.

Tessa walked slowly to her office, grabbed her purse and went home to cry.

MONICA KENDALL SMILED at them from behind the vast expanse of her giant desk. She was pretty, Luke supposed, though there was a sharpness about her that turned him off. Still, she had the type of in-your-face beauty that lots of men admired. Maybe Jamie had gotten caught up in that.

“Did you say you were from the Boulder Police Department?” she asked. Her smile slid even higher, but there was no joy in it. Her fingertips were white where they pressed against the desktop.

“Yes,” Simone said. “I’m sure you heard about the break-in at the Donovan brewery?”

“No,” Monica answered. “I hadn’t heard about that.” She looked only at Luke. It was his turn to play good cop.

He smiled and leaned forward a little, establishing intimacy. “It happened the night you were there.” Her eyes widened, and Luke eased back, giving her psychological room. “With Jamie,” he clarified. “Did you notice anything strange?”

“Oh, no.” She sighed, tension leaving her on a deep sigh. “No, I didn’t notice anything. He locked up and drove me home. That’s all.”

“And when did you make it back to the brewery that night?”

Her smile eased toward flirtation. “I didn’t. Jamie drove my car that night. I dropped him off at his car the next morning.”

“What time?”

“Around seven-thirty.”

Simone interrupted their friendly talk with a far colder tone. “And what about that night, Ms. Kendall? What did you see before you left with Jamie?”

“What do you mean?” She’d already lost her fear. Her natural arrogance had returned, buoyed by Luke’s appreciative look.

“What do I mean?” Simone asked. “I mean I’m going to get a call in a few minutes from the tech unit, and I’m pretty sure they’re going to tell me your prints are on the lock of the brewery’s front door.”

The color fell from Monica Kendall’s face as if someone had opened a drain. “What?”

“I also expect your cell phone records will show that you called your brother just before the robbery took place.”

Her eyelids fluttered. “I talk to my brother all the time.”

“Really? Is that when you two plan the robberies?”

Monica’s sharp inhalation punctuated the end of Simone’s sentence.

“Hey,” Luke soothed, holding up his hands. “Let’s calm this down a little. Here’s what I think…” He set his hands on her desk and pondered them solemnly. “I don’t think you’re in charge of this crime ring.”

“I’m not!”

“I think your brother pulled you into this. You’re obviously not a bad person. But he’s your brother. What are you supposed to do?”

Her eyes darted toward the phone.

“I have a brother,” Luke lied. “If he asked me to do him a favor… No big deal…just head into a business once or twice a month. Do a little flirting…”

“That’s not how it happened! I mentioned that I was going over to the brewery. Graham asked me to do him a favor. That’s it. I didn’t know what he planned to do!”

Well, that part was a lie, but the rest of it looked like the god’s honest truth.