Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (24 page)

"Sometimes I wonder what is going on in your head."

"Huh?"

"Your eyes flick
er
when you think
hard
."

That sounded really unappealing. "Lazy eye," I lied.

"Or a very active imagination."

Definitely that, not that I would share.
I gave a little humph and tried not to let my eyes stray over to the bar I was staking out. Instead
,
I fixed my eyes on Solomon
,
which wasn’t so good for my heart rate either. Suddenly
,
the VW seemed very small and I could smell his freshly showered scent,
and
the
aroma
of rich dark spices from his aftershave filling the air.
I breathed him in and hoped my eyes
weren’t
dilated.

"Anything else to report?"
he asked, smiling now.

"Not a thing yet."

"
Lucas
tells me he's working on the hotel's computer system."

I explained my theory about someone from the outside hacking in
,
and Solomon nodded. "It's a possibility.
Lucas
can hack anything. If there's anything to find
,
he'll find it."

"Where did you meet
Lucas
?
"

"That's his story to tell."

I brightened.
"Sounds juicy."

"Not particularly."

I tried not to huff a sigh. "Any
luck with the stolen property?
Lucas
said Delgado was asking around."

"He did. Nothing came up."

"Isn't that odd? A lot of stuff went missing."

Solomon nodded, but I wasn't sure which bit he was agreeing too. Then he slid a hand into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small bundle, holding it out to me
before
depositing it in my hand,
and
folding my fingers over the top
with his very digits
.

I peeked straightaway
because I
love
gifts
. "What is this?"

"A wire. You've used one before. Tape it inside your shirt and set it to
‘
record.
’
It's linked to the voice recorder on your cell phone."

"How did you sync it to my phone
?
"

"
Lucas
."

I made a mental note to have a conversation with
Lucas
about respecting one's personal space.

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"Might come in handy." Solomon leaned over and kissed me on the cheek
,
causing blood to rush to the area
where
his lips
touched
. "Keep your reports up to date." Then he got out and left, turning the corner qu
ickly,
and
disappearing from view
.
I watched the smooth roll of his hips and long gait, his broad shoulders framed deliciously by the dark shirt
.
I laughed to myself and shook my head. I bet he didn’t
kiss Lucas on the cheek when Lucas
lied to him.

I checked the bar again, but Ted and Donna still hadn't reappeared
,
so I got out
of
my car and retrieved the camera from the trunk. If I w
ere
a better PI
,
at this point
,
I might have put a tracker on Donna's car
. However, since
I had no idea how they worked
, or, for that matter, actually have a tracker,
I
instead
,
returned to the driver’s seat and
waited for them to reappear.

Twenty minutes passed before
I spotted them
in the doorway. I snapped a couple of good shots of them
,
holding hands a
s they walked out of the bar—Ted
shaking
her off the
moment they stepped outside
.
I got another shot of them kissing as Donna got into her car, and Ted leaned in to say something. She caught him by the lapels, gave him a tonguing that
turned my stomach
and left Ted
wobbling,
stupefied
, on the sidewalk
while she drove off.
A moment later
,
he got in his car and followed.

I took my cue and drove to my parents' for dinner, thoroughly grossed out.

Chapter Ten

While stuck in a traffic snarl
,
I called Lily and asked her to meet me at my parents' house
,
rather than wait for me
. By the time I got there, she was ensconced in the living room, wedged, funnily enough, between Jord and my sister-in-law
,
Alice.

"Sorry I'm late," I called
, while waving
hello, then ducked my head into the kitchen where my mother was pulling the roast chicken out
of
the oven.

"You're just in time," said Mom, placing the roasting pan on the metal trivet. "Will you set the table? There's no Serena
and Ted
tonight, but Daniel and Alice are here."

"I saw them. Saw Jord and Lily too?"

"When is he going to ask that girl out?" asked Mom.

Jord yelled through. "We can all hear you, Mom."

Mom shrugged. "Then do it!"

"You're embar
rassing Lily," Jord yelled back, apparently
,
not thinking
first.

"No manners," said Mom
, poking
the chicken with a fork,
and
nodding approvingly
as the juices bubbled clear
. "Set the table please, Lexi," she reminded me
, opening the drawer
,
just in case I’d forgotten where she kept
the silverware for
the past twenty-nine years.

I
obediently
set
the table, just sliding onto a chair
as the family tro
o
ped through
, taking
up their usual seats. "Where's Garrett and Traci tonight?" I hoped to
speak to
Garrett and see if anything had turned up
on
his end regarding Marissa. I was certain he would have called me if anything pertinent came up
since his call yesterday
,
but it didn't hurt to check.

"Sam is sick and Traci doesn't want everyone infected. Ga
rrett's
working. Do you think he's working too much?" asked Mom, as she passed the plates around.

"We're short
-
staffed, Mom," said Daniel. "We're all pulling extra time."

Dad made some kind of noise
in
agreement a
s he
reached for the gravy.

"And what about you? Did you hear about your exams?" Mom asked Jord.

"I hear next week," said Jord.

"Another detective in the family?" Lily nudged him. "This is exciting."

Jord sighed
, lift
ing
one shoulder
before letting
it fall
. "I might not pass."

"You will," Lily assured him
kindly,
but Jord didn't say anything
. I
nstead
,
he leaned
forward to grab the bowl of minted peas
. I wondered if he worried what would happen if he
failed to
pass, thus ending up as the only cop in
our
immediate family who got to stay in uniform. I wondered if he resented Garrett and Daniel's swift rises, but then
,
they joined up a lot earlier than he. Plus
,
he'd never have to worry about being the resident failure; my
résumé
had
assured me that position, especially after the
A
rmy fiasco.

"How's the hotel, Lexi?" Dad asked, ensuring the subject changed.

"It's good. I'm still learning." I accepted a plate and breathed in the delicious aroma of chicken, perfectly roasted potatoes
,
and a mountain of vegeta
bles which I promptly heaped on before smothering everything
in gravy.

"I'm surprised you gave up the detective work," Dad said
, his thoughtful look aimed more at the chicken legs than
at
me
. "I thought you were happy with it."

"I am. It's just
pretty
quiet right now."

"People not committing crimes?"

"I guess not."

"How odd. Crime is normally non
-
stop." Dad shrugged. "Will you go back to it? It seems a waste of training for you to give up now. And you have a gun."

"You have a gun?" my mother gasped.

"Everyone in this room has a gun," I said.

"I don't!
"

"I don't either," said Lily.

"Nor
I
," said Alice. "I have plenty of syringes though."

Eek. "I don't carry it with me. It's just for shooting at the range," I told my mother
.
A
pparently
, somewhat
appeased, she sat
down again
, though she did dart a suspicious glance at Alice.

"So... you're going to keep on with the investigating?" Dad prompted.

"We'll see when things pick up," I said, keeping my voice light and my words non-committal
,
but Dad coolly assess
ed me with one
glance
,
then just nodded and left it
alone
.

I joined in the chatter occasionally as we discussed our weekly news and put the world to rights. Mom filled us in on her latest course
at the adult rec center
, Krav Maga, which put the fear into all of us
.
T
hen
she
announced that an Irish
O’Shaughnessy
cousin
whom
we'd never met
just
had a baby girl.

"I'd love to stay for dessert
,
b
ut
I'm meeting a friend,"
announced
Lily
;
then to me
,
"I'm meeting Ruby from the bar at The Coffee Bean
in
Fenway Plaza
. And I have a date tomorrow night."

I frowned. "Is she your date?"

"No. Like I said, that's tomorrow night. Tomorrow is H-U-N-K," she spelled out.

"Who'
s hunk?" said Mom, passing the food around again, on a mission to let no Graves go hungry.
My mother liked
her
Graves
filled
.

"He's not really called Hun
k. His name is Nick," I told my mother
as I remembered the ripped man from Marissa’s building
. "But he is a hunk. He looks like Thor."

My mother fanned herself.

"I thought you wer
e dating Anderson," said Daniel as he reached for the juice pitcher.

Lily shook her head. "No, we have a date next week."

"Is there an
yone you don't date?" said Jord, scowling as he glanced at her.

I swear the whole table went quiet. My mother gasped a lungful of air, Alice's mouth dropped open
,
and my
d
ad shot him a nasty look.
Even the kids looked appalled.

Lily breathed in sharply through her nose and turned to him. "You," she said.
“I wouldn’t date you
,
if you were the last man on the planet.”

Jord stared back at her, looking every bit like a bull about to charge
as his eyes narrowed
. My mother gripped the table and my dad took the moment to grab
his
second chicken leg before shooting a warning glance at his youngest son.

“Quite right, dear,” agreed my mother. “Gravy, anyone?”

"I thought we had plans tonight?" I said to
shatter
the deafening sound of silence.

Lily shook her hair out, turn
ing
her back on Jord
,
and said
,
"You can come, too. Ruby's really nice."

"
Are you replacing me?" I pouted as conversation started up again. I slid a look at Jord from my peripheral vision. He stared at his plate, chewing sullenly
, like a child who’d just been told off
.
He stabbed a potato with far more force than was necessary.

"No! She was at my gym this morning. We said we'd meet up for coffee is all." She turned to my mother. "Thanks for another fantastic dinner."

"Any time, Lily. Thank you for the cookies."
My mother beamed, but I didn’t miss the unhappy look she shot at Jord when she thought no one was looking.

"You brought my parents cookies?" I whispered
, wondering
if Lily was a better daughter than
I
. "And you're cheating on me with Ruby?"

"I'm not cheating on you with Ruby. It's just coffee!"

"Next
,
you'll be
going to O'Grady's together
,
then you'll take her to Anton's spin class instead of me," I teased.

Lily looked at me
,
aghast. Anton was our favorite gym instructor. He had long
,
black d
readlocks, buns of steel and a “you can do it!”
attitude. We both loved and feared him. "No! That will never happen!
Plus, she already has a job at O’Grady’s.
"

I pretended to wobble my lip and she gave me a quick hug. "Only you and I get to appreciate Anton while trying not to
swoon
."

"I'll walk you out," said Jord, surprising us all into silence
as he scraped back
his
chair. Lily pulled a face at me
,
but she let him
follow her out
. I think we were all eager to see if he returned
un
damaged.

“Is it bad to look through the living room window?” I asked, half rising.

“Yes,” said my mother. “Sit down.”

"Jord is walking Lily out?"
asked
Alice
, her eyebrows raised,
as I sat
back down
. "Wonders never cease."

"
Do you think he’s
going to ask her on a date?" said Mom. "Finally? Oh
,
thank God."

"I don't think so, Mom. He just insulted her."

"If
anyone
insulted my sister like that, I'd beat th
e crap out of him," said Daniel, giving a head roll like a boxer heading into a fight. He cracked his knuckles. Alice sighed, her mouth dropping slightly open as he flexed his biceps. I gave them a little headshake and looked away as Daniel peacocked a little more for his wife’s benefit.

“But we have to unload him on some girl,” pointed out Dad. “At least
,
Lily knows what she’s getting.”

We all
agreed on that,
turn
ing
to watch Jord when he came back a few minutes later. "What's for dessert?" he asked, ignoring
our hopeful faces and refusing to
be
interrogated
on what he said to Lily.

I stayed another hour
,
then left,
and sat
in my
VW
,
calling Maddox
,
just
wanting to hear his voice
.
I still got a rush every time he answered.

"Hey," he said. "I was just going to call you. Where are you?"

"At my parents'. I just had dinner. You?"

"Just got home. I was going to invite you to dinner
,
but you've eaten."

"Rain
check," I said.

"Want to come over anyway?"

"Sure, but I can't stay."

"You just ruined my evening."

"Boo
-hoo
for you. I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Just come on in when you get here. Door's open."

"Very lax for a cop."

"My downstairs neighbor broke her key in the
lock
. It gets fixed tomorrow. Plus
,
I have a gun."