“I’m just going to bring them along—”
“No. Absolutely not.” I crossed my arms. “Drop the boots, Dylan.”
“But what if we need to run from the co—oh, hi, Jake.” She grinned, still holding the boots.
“Dylan,” I warned.
“Hey, Dylan,” Jake said, shaking his head with a chuckle. “You look lovely.”
Dylan nodded toward him. “Thanks, Jake. So do you. Well, not lovely. Handsome.Guys probably don’t want to look lovely, huh?”
“Drop them,” I repeated.
“You know I’m just messing with you. Chill out. Jake, did you guys find Nicolai Barinov yet? I swear that name is burned into my brain.”
“Not yet. He didn’t show up for his shift at work, and his wife and kid claim they haven’t heard from him since the attack. We’ve got his house on twenty-four-hour surveillance, though.He’ll surface sooner or later, and we’ll get him when he does,” Jake reassured her.
“Good. What about Bonnie and Michelle?”
Jake frowned. “That’s part of the investigation. I can’t really get into the details.”
“But did they confess to the murder? Did they hire Nicolai to come after me? Did you figure out what money Nicolai was looking for?”
Jake held his hands up in surrender. “I can’t tellyou any of that, Dylan.”
I crossed my eyes and glared daggers at him. “So you can’t tell us whether or not she’s still in danger?”
Jake’s frown deepened. “I can tell you we found enough evidence to arrest both Bonnie and Michelle, and the investigation is still open.”
“Has Dylan’s name been cleared?” I asked.
He sighed. “No. We’re still missing some pieces to the puzzle, but I’m confidentwe’ll get it all figured out. I can also tell you that Dylan’s tire was slashed. Barinov must have been watching the apartment and wanted you to walk. You two need to be extremely careful until we find him.”
They slashed her tire? If I didn’t have a party to get to, I’d have called Daddy’s driver and made him take us around the city scouring for the dirt bag. We’d make him pay for the damagehe’d caused before turning him over to Jake.
“That asshole!” Dylan growled. “Seriously, who slashes tires? That’s so expensively rude.”
“The garage is monitored. Did you pull the security footage from the building?” I asked.
He nodded. “They wore hoods and made sure not to face the cameras. They knew what they were doing.”
“They?” Dylan asked.
“Yeah. There were two of them. The other guymust have been the driver, which is probably how Barinov escaped.”
Dylan took a deep breath. “Thank you for all your hard work on this, Jake. I”—she glanced at me—“wereally appreciate it.”
Yes, we did, but I still wasn’t letting either of them off the hook. “You know what I’d appreciate, Dylan? You putting those damn boots away.”
“You ruin all my fun.” She huffed and released them. They hitthe floor with a thud. “If I break my ankles tonight, I’m blaming you.”
“You won’t break your ankles,” I assured her. “Besides, Asher will be there to catch you if you fall.” The doorbell rang just as I finished my statement and I grinned. “Speak of the devil.”
Dylan’s eyes widened. “Oh crap. I gotta...” She patted down the sides of her dress while scanning the area. She put one hand over hermouth—like she was trying not to get sick—and used the other to pick up her discarded boots. “I gotta go put these away.” Then she sprinted out of the room.
“What was that about?” Jake asked.
Before I could answer him, the front door opened, and Asher peeked his head in. “Everyone decent?”
