“He is,” I admitted with a dose of pride. Lany didn’t take crap lying down. He fought back. “But he’s also a trouble magnet. If it’s out there somewhere, it’ll find him.”
“That must be taxing.”
“Well, it’s never boring.”
Lany kept me on my toes, me and everyone else who knew him.
“And yet,” Vinnie said, “I suspect you wouldn’t have him any other way.”
“No, I can’t say that I would.” I loved the guy just the way he was. “Although, I wouldn’t mind it if he got into just a little less trouble.”
I wasn’t sure how much more my heart could handle.
I stared at my phone again—willing it to ring—before sliding it into my pocket.
“Have you tried calling the man you said you left Edward and Lancaster with?”
“Not since Lany texted me. If someone is after them, and they are hiding, I don’t want to accidently alert them to Eddie and Lany’s location.”
“Good idea.”
I thought so.
I glanced out the window to see if I could figure out exactly where we were and just how long it would take us to get home. Except, we should have been a lot closer than we were.
Hell, we weren’t even headed in the right direction.
“Vinnie, do you have any weapons in here?” I asked as I reached down into my boot and pulled out the backup pistol I kept hidden there. I quickly checked to make sure it was loaded before sliding it back into my boot. If we were searched, I didn’t want them to find my gun in my pocket or the waistband of my pants.
I wasn’t thrilled that all I had was a little .38-caliber pistol. Something with a little more firepower would have been nice, but my main weapon had been turned over to investigators back at the art gallery. I hadn’t had time to get it back or replace it with another one of my guns.
Vinnie looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
I shot a quick glance to the front seat. Considering the guy was driving us in the wrong direction, I didn’t think he had our best interests at heart. I slid my cell phone out of my pocket again and opened the notepad app.
I quickly typed out a message to Vinnie, telling him we were headed in the wrong direction and I was pretty sure whoever had shot at us had something to do with it.
Vinnie’s eyebrows rose swiftly as he read what I typed out. His gaze shot to the front of the vehicle. I reached down and squeezed his thigh. When he glanced back at me, I gave a quick, small shake of my head.
If we were indeed being kidnapped, I didn’t want the driver to know we were on to him. The longer we had, the more time we had to plan our escape and get help if Lany or Clarke would answer their damn phones.
I started typing out messages to Clarke, Lany, Lyn, Wu, and Brodsky. I even sent a text off to the police commissioner. I had the sinking suspicion we were going to need all the help we could get.
“So, tell me more about this guy you are going to introduce me to.”
I stared at Vinnie for a moment, wondering if he had lost his marbles. When the man’s eyes flickered to the front seat, I understood. If we were being overheard, the conversation needed to be as normal as possible.
“Gino?”
“Yes,” Vinnie replied. “Is he cute?”
“I suppose so.” I had never really looked at the man that way. He was my cousin. “He’s an interior decorator. That’s kind of what made me think of him when we were talking. Gino would love your place.”
“I hired someone to take care of it when I bought the place several years ago,” Vinnie admitted ruefully. “I don’t have a single decorating gene in my body.”
“Gino does,” I replied. Hell, Gino was swimming in the decorating gene, and it had nothing to do with him being gay. He just lived to decorate…something about having OCD and a grasp of colors. I didn’t understand it, but it made Gino happy. “He can help you with that.”
Vinnie chuckled. “Can he?”
