AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, you don’t.” Despite the fact that Maddie is pissed off at me and probably won’t speak to me for days for going behind her back, hiring a PI, I can’t help but jump to her defense. She would never do anything to hurt me, at least not intentionally. Whatever the reasons she had to keep secrets from me, I know she thought she was doing what was best for me.
“I do know it, Jordan! It’s a mother’s intuition. Maddie is trouble and now she’s dragged you into a huge mess! We can’t afford an attorney, but we sure as hell can’tnothire one and let the sheriff’s office steamroll you into prison because they’re too stupid to figure out who the real killer is!”
“The Kings will sort this shit out, lil mama,” Colt promises her, soothing his palm up and down her arm. “It’ll be okay. We won’t let them charge the kid with a damn thing.”
6
Maddie
“So, there’s another murder victim?” Celeste asks when we walk into the bar together.
I give her a nod and take a seat at one of the first tables I come to. I can’t help but stare at the door behind the bar with longing, the one that leads to the kitchen.
But there’s no way I can go back in there just yet. I shut down all new orders last night and gave refunds to the ones pending that I won’t be able to send out. I hated it but didn’t have a choice since I’ll need to reorder supplies and gather up enough courage to actually step foot in the kitchen again.
“You want a drink?” Celeste asks.
“God, yes.”
“Anything specific?” she asks heading behind the bar.
“Is it too early for shots?”
“Not on days we have to deal with dead bodies.”
“In that case, whatever is the strongest, please.”
“A bottle of Fireball coming right up,” she says. I assume she’s referring to that strong-ass cinnamon whiskey that scalds the throat and stomach.
“Sounds perfect,” I reply. While she grabs the bottle and two shot glasses, I tell her, “I’m surprised that Greer let you come to the bar alone with all that’s going on.”
“Oh, no, hun. I’m not alone,” she says when she comes over, sliding the glasses and bottle in front of me before taking the seat across from me. “Greer’s upstairs looking through surveillance footage. He’d hear me if I scream.”
“Oh, shit. I forgot about that. Has he found anything?” I ask while she pours.
“No, not yet. He probably should have turned the video over to the cops, but he told them the cameras were fake ones meant to scare off thieves.” She swallows down her shot faster than I can pick mine up. “I think the murderer destroyed the cameras.”
My glass pauses halfway to my mouth. “Destroyed them?”
“Yes. Greer’s been going over footage looking for potential suspects since last night with no luck.”
I gulp down the shot, surprised when actual flames don’t shoot out of my burning nostrils. “Damn,” I mutter, scrunching up my nose but sliding my glass toward Celeste for a refill.
“Doesn’t RJ have surveillance at the shop too?” she asks while pouring.
“I think so. One on the front door like a doorbell thing,” I reply. “But now that you mention it, I was so focused on the tongue nailed to the door that I barely noticed the empty spot on the door where the camera is supposed to be.”
Celeste’s head jerks up so fast she overfills a glass, spilling the amber liquid on the table. “Atonguewas nailed to the door of the shop? Like an actual…person’s tongue?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.” She goes back to filling our glasses. When I pick mine up, she clangs it with hers in cheers before we shoot them. This one has us both coughing afterward.
After Celeste recovers, she says, “Well, thank goodness there wasn’t a tongue on the bar’s door. I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to come in here again.”
“No kidding,” I agree. It’s going to be hard enough to go back to working in the kitchen.
“So, has the sheriff’s office identified the second man yet?”
