The Killing Game(41)

“Pretty much the same as always.”

“Y’all still having trouble with the Carrera brothers?”

Andi’s brows lifted. “You pay attention to our dealings with them?”

“The Carreras get a lot of airplay, and that lodge you’re building at the end of the lake keeps coming up.”

Andi grunted an assent. She’d seen the lodge on the news as well. It was like time-lapse photography; every time it was shown it was a little closer to final framing.

“One of them was at Lacey’s,” he said. “Don’t know which one.”

“What?” Andi’s pulse leaped. Jarrett was regarding her intensely, waiting for her reaction.

“One of the Carreras. In fact, Trini was talking to him, or trying to, anyway.”

“Trini?”

“She walked right over to him and gave him some shit. You know Trini.” Jarrett smiled.

“Oh no. She shouldn’t have done that.”

“Relax. She was half drunk. Blake or Brian or whoever didn’t pay much attention.”

“How do you know that? I don’t trust the Carreras as far as I can throw ’em. And none of this is like Trini.”

“I know. How well does she know them?” he asked.

“She doesn’t. She didn’t, anyway. I don’t get what this is about.”

“I guess she was just drunk and flirty.”

“She was flirting with him? You said she got in his face.”

“Yeah, well.” He shrugged, as if dismissing the conversation. “It coulda been anything. I didn’t talk to her.”

Andi sensed he was starting to shut down on her, but now she wanted more information. “She was in a relationship the last I heard, although it wasn’t going well,” she admitted.

“Must be over now. Or else she’s cheatin’ on the guy.” He hitched his chin toward the window and the darkness beyond. “You oughta get a boat. This’d be a sweet place to keep one, take it out on the water at night.”

“Why were you at Lacey’s?” Andi asked again. “I mean, seriously.”

“Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Another lift of a shoulder, but he was suddenly tense. “I stopped in at the bar. Don’t make a federal case out of it.” He moved toward the door.

“Wait! I didn’t mean to piss you off. It’s just you’ve never gone there before, at least to my knowledge, and I get the feeling you’re holding back.”

His expression shifted, his lips flattening. “I knew Trini’d be there, okay?” he finally spat out. “I texted with her and that’s where she was going.”

“You planned to meet her?”

“I just wanted to talk to her. But like I said, I think she went there to find somebody.”

“Bobby?”

“Who’s Bobby?” he asked.

“The guy she was seeing. The relationship that’s maybe over now.”

“Well, she gave the impression that she was there to meet other guys. Her eyes were on the door until Carrera walked in.”

“And then she got in his face?”

“I was talking to her and she just lost the conversation as soon as he came in. She went right over to him.”

“What’d she say?”

“Like how great the lodge you’re building was and how happy she was that some properties were going to stay intact. A kids’ camp, or something?”

“I didn’t know she knew so much about it.”

“I think she said something about you and a treadmill?”

“Oh God.” Andi paced across the room. “What the hell is she doing?”

He dismissed her. “I wouldn’t worry about it. He just blew it off.”

“She wasn’t waiting for him, was she?”

“Nah. She kept looking at the door, so she was waiting for someone, but I don’t think it was him.”

“Was she still there when you left?” Andi asked.

“Uh-uh. She took off. By herself,” he added when he saw the question forming on Andi’s lips. “She was picked up by Uber.”

“Oh. Good.”

Jarrett headed back toward the front door and Andi said, “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“I should probably get going.”

“What did you want to talk to Trini about?”

His answer was another shrug. “Nothing that matters.” He gave her a quick smile, then he was out the door and striding toward his Land Rover. Through the front window she watched him reverse in a tight circle and head back toward her green canopy of firs, evergreens that didn’t lose their needles. His vehicle disappeared beneath the trees like a magician’s trick.

As soon as his taillights flashed out, she grabbed up her cell and texted Trini: You were at Lacey’s and saw one of the Carreras?

Her answering text came back a bit slowly. Who did you talk to?





Jarrett said he stopped by.





Yeah, I saw him.





He said you saw one of the Carreras, Andi texted rapidly.





Brian. I gave him hell for scaring you.