Simon Says Die

motels, traveling all over the country when I met you. And from what Logan told me, that was the norm.”
    The anger in his tone had her clenching her fists. “Well, it’s not the norm now. I’m tired of not having a real home, not having any roots. Maybe I’ve finally found the place where I belong.”
    He cocked a brow. “Belong? Here? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s no Ritz-Carlton around here, no Metropolitan Opera house.”
    She sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not fair.”
    â€œIsn’t it? Where’s the excitement for someone like you in a small, lazy town on the river?”
    Was that what he thought of her? That she was a big city snob and couldn’t be happy in a small town? Or was it more personal? Maybe he just didn’t want her in his town. Well, tough. She wasn’t letting him, or anyone else, force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m. Not. Leaving.”
    His brows drew down in a deep slash. “When you should stay, you don’t. When you should leave, like now, you dig in and fight tooth and nail. Why do you always have to make everything harder than it has to be?”
    Braedon glanced back and forth between them. “Um, guys, shouldn’t we be discussing the stalker?”
    Pierce scrubbed his hands over his face, as if he were trying to calm down. “You need to leave town, Madison. Let me handle the investigation. When it’s all clear, you can come back then.”
    â€œNo. I want to face . . . this person, whoever he is, and end it—now, rather than spend the rest of my life wondering and worrying.”
    â€œYou’re not going anywhere.” Hamilton stepped up behind Pierce. “Not until I get the forensics on that note and your computer. I want you to stay in town.”
    Pierce frowned at him, but before he could say anything, the doorbell rang again.
    â€œWho the hell is it now?” He shoved past Hamilton back into the family room. A few seconds later, he came back, his expression grim. “The B-and-B team found more vandalism in the backyard.”
    The house quickly emptied, with everyone heading around to the back of the house. Madison would have gone with them, but Pierce’s harshly whispered command to stay inside had her sitting in the front room. And even if she did want to disobey his Neanderthal order, Hamilton had posted Officer Williams on the porch to make sure she couldn’t leave the house.

 
    Chapter Fifteen
    P IERCE STEPPED OVER the ruined valves that controlled the sprinkler system, and stood on one of the few portions of dry lawn in Madison’s backyard.
    Braedon shook his head, his hands on his hips, as he surveyed the muddy mess. “Someone deliberately cut every wire and broke the valves, causing the sprinklers back here to go nuts and flood the yard. Why would anyone do that?”
    â€œMy guess is whoever did this doesn’t want you digging,” Pierce said. “The question is, are they trying to stop you from digging—specifically—or just from being here at all.”
    â€œThat doesn’t make sense,” Matt said. “We weren’t even supposed to be here until next week. No one could have known we’d be here today to dig the footers.”
    â€œGood point.” Pierce glanced around. “This is recent, within the last few minutes. The water has just started to pool around the side. If you hadn’t shut it off, the water would be running into the street by now. Whoever did this wasn’t trying to hide their work.”
    â€œThe ground is soaked,” Braedon said. “We definitely can’t do any digging today. We’ve turned the water off to the house. We’ll have to put a shut-off valve on the main sprinkler line like it should have been done in the first place before we can turn the water back on.” He shook his head. “Sloppy work not to have a proper shut-off valve. Just sloppy.”
    Pierce glanced over at Hamilton. “You’re not going to try to blame this on her too, are you?”
    He shook his head, looking just as perplexed as Pierce felt. “No, I don’t see how she could have done this. She didn’t have the opportunity.”
    â€œI’ll have to go to a supply store to get what we need to fix this.” Matt motioned to the rest of the B&B workers. “You all