“Lem thinks this isn’t Cold Winds business,” she said. “That it shouldn’t be your business either. I’m good at my job, Cade, but not a lot of people who take on City Hall, or the police department, come out of it happy with how things went.”
The elevator stopped as it reached the ground floor.
“Are you and Lem back together?” Cade asked.
Beth snorted. “No.”
“Then what do you care what he thinks?” Cade asked as the doors swung open. He stepped out as the handful of people waiting to get on shuffled out of his way. “Are you coming?”
Beth shook his head—to the question or the situation, could be either—and stayed put.
“I forgot my phone,” she said as she leaned in to press the button to go back down. “Go on ahead. The office will send my bill over.”
He left her to it and checked his messages as he headed back to his car. A text from an unknown number made him frown, the back of his neck itchy as it missed his hackles. Piper? He’d not been in touch since he put his deal on the table. Cade had tried to get in touch, but no one answered the contraband phone, and Maria insisted she had no other way to contact him.
He swiped the screen and broke stride briefly as he stared at the cryptic message.
Not Piper.
Probably Marlow, but Cade wasn’t sure. One month, however intense, wasn’t enough time to build that sort of code on.
That said, if itwasMarlow, then Cade knew exactly where he meant, and he had half an hour to get there.
The restaurant didn’t open for lunch.
Cade sat three buildings down, on a rickety metal chair outside an Italian café, and let his pasta get cold as he waited. He picked at the congealed ragu idly whenever the server came out to glare at him and tried not to check the time.
It had been twelve-thirty the last time he looked, and Cade didn’t want to know exactly how long Marlow could keep him on a string—or dwell on the other reasons that Marlow might be delayed. Cade snorted to himself and ate a bit of the duck he unearthed from the sauce. Look at that; he’d rather Marlow had stood him up than gotten himself killed.
Maybe this was true love after all.
He waited for the cynical snort to chase that thought like the bite of lime after a shot of tequila. Nothing. Just the twee, teenage yearn of the idea. Cade felt a sort of unmoored panic for a second. But before he could commit to it, Marlow slid into the seat opposite him.
“Sorry I’m late,” Marlow said as he rested his elbows on the table. He looked younger without his glasses, softer. The flick of freckles on his nose was more obvious, and there was nothing to disguise the tiredness that bruised under his pale eyes. “Traffic.”
There were a lot of threads tangled up in the relief that relaxed Cade’s shoulders. He decided to focus on the one he wanted to deal with.
“I know you didn’t shoot Franklin,” he said. “Did you kill the wolf?”
Marlow shook his head. “Lyons was dead when I got there.” He picked up the cold coffee and took a long, appreciative drink of the tepid brew. Once he was done, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and gave Cade a curious look. “How do you know that I didn’t shoot—?”
“I suppose the romantic thing would be to say I know you’d never do something like that,” Cade said dryly. He paused to let Marlow snort at him and then admitted the truth. “But I happen to know who did shoot him.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
Marlow stared at him for a second, eyebrows raised. “I appreciate the thought,” he said with a flash of dry humor. “Not so sure of the logistics. Those urban legends about wolves shooting themselves with unsecured guns aside, paws aren’t designed for triggers.”
“Did you see the footage?” Cade asked.
Marlow shook his head as he finished his cold coffee with every sign of enjoyment. He set the cup down and leaned back in his seat as he casually glanced down the street. Without the coffee to keep his hands occupied, he tapped his fingers absently on the table.
“No,” he said. “I caught bits and pieces, enough to get the gist of how they’ve spun the story, but I’ve not seen any footage. Drone?”
A couple walked out of a side street down the block. The blond woman pushed the baby stroller with one hand while she pulled her partner’s hand down so she could look at his phone. They bickered as they walked. From the way they squinted at street signs, it was over whether they were going the right way.
Both Cade and Marlow stopped what they were doing and pointedly didn’t watch as the two approached.
