“Yeah, don’t touch it. You’ll stain your clothes.”
“We should give it to the police and make a report.”
“Let’s talk about it later. I’ve got company.”
She tucks her hair behind her ear and nods. “I saw Erik. I didn’t realize he was coming by.”
I don’t answer as I put a hand on her back and usher her toward the house.
When we get to the porch, Sorensen stands. “Morning.”
“Hi,” Avery says in return. “Do you want coffee?”
“No, we’ll talk out here,” I say. “You go in, Ave.”
She glances between us, looking like she wants to argue. Instead she complies, disappearing behind the front door.
Once the door’s closed, Sorensen leans his massive bulk against the bricks. “So, last night?”
“Yeah, thanks for coming to Boston to meet me. Sorry I had to cancel. The hotel room was all right?”
Sorensen’s pale blue eyes study my face. “Why’d you keep me in play all night?”
Lowering my voice, I say, “I thought getting out of town was a good idea for both of us.”
He glances around, verifying no one’s nearby. “The TB accident?”
I nod.
I sent Sorensen to Bardoratch’s class to intimidate him, and Sorensen stepped in to lend a hand during the frat party fight. If I’d realized that things would escalate to the point of my putting a contract on Bardoratch, I never would’ve involved Erik. I don’t want him pulled in as a suspect if the police realize that what happened to Bardoratch wasn’t an accident.
“If someone looks, the text chain is suspect,” Sorensen says.
“No, it’s fine.” A police investigation couldn’t do anything useful with my luring him to Boston and then blowing him off. Schedules changed. There’s nothing remotely related to Granthorpe or Bardoratch in the texts.
“I don’t mean the ones from last night. I mean the earlier ones.”
Yeah, those early ones could’ve been a problem. But not with our alibis in place. “Should be fine. Sorry I didn’t meet up to lay things out. Avery was with me.”
He glances at the front door. “Seems like the girl’s never out of your sight anymore.”
“True statement.” My gaze cuts to the window where the shade sways. Avery must have looked out.
“You’ve got her in your house. You trust her?”
I suck on my bottom lip a moment and then shrug again. His interests are tangled with mine, so I appreciate the mild tone with which he questions her loyalty. I wish I could tell him there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to Avery being installed in my house, but I can’t swear to it. “I can resist everything but temptation.”
The corner of Sorensen’s mouth twitches, and he shrugs his brows. “The most dangerous food is wedding cake.”
That draws a chuckle from me. “Is that a Wilde quote, too?”
He shakes his head. “Thurber.” His giant hands push against the brick, setting him forward on his feet. “The money was higher than expected this month. Profit sharing?”
Officially Sorensen’s on my payroll as a shelf-stocker at a convenience store I own. It’s one of the fronts I use to launder our money. After some careful vetting, I brought him into my illegitimate businesses a year ago as a minor partner. His cut is normally fifteen percent, but I paid him more this time.
“Of sorts. I gave you an extra ten percent from my share. The past couple of weeks you’ve gone beyond what we agreed to, so let’s call it a Christmas bonus.”
His light brown brows rise. “That help was for blood’s sake.” He runs a hand through his hair that’s well into lion’s mane territory these days. It’s a good thing the football season ends soon. “For family, favors are free. So you’ve said and proved yourself.”
