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“There’s two of us and one of her. We’d find her.”

It’s true. We would. Hunting people down is what we do. It’s what we’re good at.

He scoffs. “That’s not the point, Forge. The point is if we scare her, she’s not going to talk.”

“I can make her talk.”

He groans again, and we don’t say another word until we park on the street by Honeybun Bakery.

Chapter Eight

Pierce

The Honda is parked in the narrow driveway on the side of the building where the door to get to the upstairs apartment is. No one is in the car and the bakery lights are off with the CLOSED sign in the window, so they must be upstairs already.

We need to be cautious with this one. Raewyn is already scared. It’s why she ran. Our job is to find out why. Either she knows someone is after her, or she’s running from the law—which will catch up to her. I mean, we’re already here. If she did this, she will pay for it. There will be repercussions.

The last thing Forge and I need is for her to run again. Sure, we would find her, but we don’t need this taking more time than it already is. It’s bad enough our captain is on our asses about this girl and is waiting for us to get back to him. I’m surprised he hasn’t called since we’re taking longer than he gave us.

As far as we can tell, Raewyn has no ties to Falling Oaks and we’re not sure how she knows Trinity Meylard. They seem close. Very friendly, like old family friends. Maybe we didn’t look deep enough to find the ties. According to everyone in the village, she’s never left. Not even to visit her parents that moved to Florida almost six years ago.

“We going in or what?” Forge grunts.

I look at him, raising a brow but don’t say anything.

“What?” he says.

“That’s the exact kind of attitude we can’t have when talking to her.”

He rolls his eyes. “Oh, please—”

“Forge, there is a lot riding on this case—clearly. Captain is wound tight. We can’t have her scared of you. The quicker we can get her on our side, trusting us and talking, the better. You have to at least agree with that.”

He keeps staring out the window.

“Forge.” He waits a few beats, but finally glances at me. “Do you agree?”

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbles as he opens the door.

I follow his lead, getting out and walking toward the car. I glance through the windows but see nothing inside. Forge is already at the apartment door.

According to city records, Trinity owns the building. Her business is on the first floor and she lives above it. Has for thirty years. Honeybun Bakery is a staple in Falling Oaks; the most popular bakery in this town and surrounding towns.

There’s a doorbell beside the door, so I ring that while Forge tries the knob. It’s locked, which is what I expected. After two minutes, no one has come down, so I ring the bell again.

Forge steps back to look up at the windows, then moves around the building, scoping it out.

“Movement,” he says quietly, pointing up at one of the windows.

I bang on the door, then ring the bell again.

Finally, it’s pulled open.

“Impatient, don’t you think?” Trinity says as she pulls the door open, her fist on her hip.

“Detective Warren,” I say. “I’m here to speak with Raewyn Forester.”

“Uh-huh,” she says.