In Too Deep

reason for getting an early start.”
    She gave him an expectant look.
    He drew her through the lobby toward the elevators. “We’re going to make a stop on the way back to the Cove.”
    “Where?”
    “Cactus Springs.”
    She halted abruptly, forcing him to halt, too. Her eyes widened. “That’s where my grandmother lives. Lived.”
    “I’ve done all the investigation I can do online. Now I need to take a look at the scene of the crime. Isn’t that the kind of thing Sherlock Holmes would do?”
    “But you don’t believe that there was a crime.”
    “I told you, I’m reserving my opinion until I have all the facts.”
    She gave that some thought. “Grandma warned me not to go to her place if something happened to her because she was afraid they might be watching, waiting for me to show up. But I suppose there’s no reason you and I can’t go there together. As long as you’re with me, it should be safe. Grandma is the one who told me to find you if I couldn’t hide from them. She said they would not want to involve Arcane.”
    “
They
being Julian Garrett’s people?”
    “Right.” She wrinkled her nose. “I know you don’t believe my theory of the case.”
    “Your
conspiracy
theory of the case,” he corrected. “Thus far I haven’t found anything to indicate that Garrett or anyone else was involved in any way with your grandmother’s death, assuming she is dead.”
    “It’s okay.” She gave him a glowing smile. “You don’t have to explain. You’re still investigating. That’s all that matters. Sooner or later you’ll find the proof.”
    They started up the stairs to the second floor.
    “You do understand that we may be trying to prove a negative here,” he cautioned. “There is no way to do that. Which is, of course, how conspiracy theories work in the first place and why they manage to stay alive.”
    “You never know, we might find a solid clue in Cactus Springs.”
    “Don’t get your hopes up,” he said.
    “I’m pretty sure that Sherlock Holmes never said that to a client.”
    “You’re my assistant, not a client.”
    They reached the landing and went down the hall to Isabella’s room. He took out the card key and opened the door for her. She stepped into the room on the impossibly high heels and turned to face him.
    “We didn’t really need to go to the expense of booking two rooms,” she said. “Evidently everyone back there in the ballroom knows that we’re personally involved.”
    “How the hell did they find out?” Outrage crackled through him. “Zack or Raine must have said something, although how they knew is an interesting question. I’ll have a talk with Zack in the morning.”
    “No, no, no,” she said hastily. “Zack and Raine didn’t gossip about us. It’s just something about our energy. Even nonsensitives can often tell when two people are involved in a physical relationship. The energy of that sort of attraction is very strong.”
    Annoyed, he gripped the door frame and checked the hallway to see if anyone was watching. Then he turned back to her. “Damn it, I won’t let anyone embarrass you.”
    “Trust me, I’m not in the least embarrassed.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Absolutely,” she said. “What about you? Do you mind people knowing that we’re sleeping together?”
    He gave the question a couple of beats, trying to sort out his reactions. Deep down he liked the fact that everyone knew that Isabella was his, at least for now. He wanted other men to know that she was not available. And since when had he developed a possessive streak?
    He finally got to the bottom line.
    “Only if it makes you feel awkward,” he said.
    She put her arms around his neck. “Poor Fallon. How did an old-fashioned gentleman endowed with such quaint Victorian virtues ever survive in the modern world?”
    He groaned. “You think I’m some kind of throwback?”
    “Only in the nicest sense of the word.”
    “Calling me old-fashioned and Victorian makes me feel ancient. I know I’m a little older than you, but not that much. I just look old.”
    “No.” She stood on tiptoe and brushed her mouth against his. “You don’t look old. You look perfect.”
    The touch of her mouth acted like an electrical switch. Everything inside him went to flashpoint in a heartbeat.
    “You’re the one who is perfect,” he rasped.
    He moved into the room and shut the door. The action plunged the small space into a shadowed realm, a world lit by the silver light