Donna placed her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to have Bailey’s, but surely you want ice cream.” Her voice was smoother than any treat.
Even though Bud had refused a bowl from me three times, he suddenly looked agreeable. “I guess I could have a small bowl.”
Tess jumped up and hustled to the kitchen to dish him a bowl. She quickly returned to hand it over with a spoon. “There you go.”
Donna sat on the loveseat next to the sofa, and Bud followed after quickly scouting the kitchen with his dark gaze. I wasn’t sure what kind of threat he thought might’ve just entered, but now wasn’t the time to tease him. He took a seat next to her and looked as uncomfortable as a guy could get.
Quint snorted.
I partially turned. “Why do you smell like whiskey?”
He hiccupped.
Donna poured Baileys into her ice cream and handed the bottle to Tessa. “Quintino?”
He grinned. “I might’ve had a few shots with the guys at dinner. Don’t worry. I didn’t drive here. Jolene brought me, and I invited her in, but she declined.”
I accepted the bottle from Tessa and poured generously over my ice cream. “That’s too bad.” I almost choked on the words. Then I poured some over Quint’s bowl.
Tessa laughed. “Bud? Are you sure you don’t want Baileys?”
“I’m sure.” The officer took a spoonful of the ice cream.
He and Donna looked good together, but maybe he was a little, well, dull for my sister. Oh, he was a nice guy, but perhaps his instinct in not asking her out was a good one. Then I caught him watching her out of the corner of his eye, and I changed my mind. He must be shy.
Donna settled back, crossed one leg beneath the other on the sofa, and delicately took a spoonful of Bailey’s enriched ice cream.
My phone buzzed, and I dug it out of my shorts to see it was Aiden. “I have to take this.” I set my bowl on the coffee table and stood to head to my bedroom while ignoring my sisters and my cousin making kissing noises at me while I left. “Hi,” I answered.
“Hi, Angel,” Aiden said. He sounded tired. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m having ice cream with Baileys,” I admitted. “My sisters, Quint, and Bud are all here.” It was too bad that Aiden couldn’t join us.
“Good. Sorry about the body found at your office. I can’t figure out who’s targeting you. Targeting us.” His voice was hoarse with a hint of anger. “I’m interviewing the real Lordes members to see if anybody thought they were doing you or me a favor by taking care of Sasha and Bev. It’s doubtful, but some of these guys are rough and clueless. They might’ve seen a way to rise in the organization? I don’t know. It’s crazy as far as I’m concerned.”
“Or it’s Barensky,” I said. “He’s involved in your current case, and Sasha was on it, and he came to my office.”
Aiden sighed. “I know, but this isn’t his style. He loves explosives. When I say love, I mean it in the most sociopathic, desperately-in-tuned way. Smashing heads not only isn’t his style, I don’t think he could do it, even if he wanted to. If he wanted either of those women dead, he would’ve killed them with a bomb. With fire and destruction. He’s pathological, and so is the way he kills.”
I shivered and dug into a drawer for a sweatshirt to put on and zip up. “Then why these two women? I don’t get it.”
“I don’t know, and we can’t find Kay Lewis. She’s the brunette who was with Bev during the car wreck and the food fight in the diner. She and Crash broke up the same night Carbine and Bev did.”
I sat on the bed. “Because of me?”
“No, because of me. Or because they’re assholes who’d rather ditch the women they were dating than ask them not to crash cars into my ex-girlfriend. They both wanted out and took the easy way.” He was quiet for several heartbeats. “I can’t wait until I’m out of this world. The cover should’ve been ended after the first drug bust.”
It was too bad he had to stay the night at the Lorde’s complex. “Can you sneak over again?”
“It’s too much of a risk,” he said.
I looked out at the deep and mysterious lake. “Have you had any luck finding Barensky or who hired him? Surely Sasha knew something?”
“No. She only met with an associate of Barensky’s who inquired about a delivery system, and she thought of the Lordes. The name of the associate was Abe, and she didn’t have any other information than that. Oh, before I forget. Her autopsy came back, and death was blunt force trauma to the head. There was no foreign DNA on her body, which is surprising since somebody grabbed her head and slammed it onto your porch.” Now anger sizzled through the line. “Somebody wore gloves and knew what they were doing.”
“I’m sorry, Aiden. I’d help if I could do anything,” I said.
“Just be you and that helps everything. For now, I think the lack of DNA works in your favor as a suspect.” His phone rustled as he must’ve moved. “At least something is going our way. Kind of.”
