The Killing Game(91)

He glanced up. “You okay?” His gaze fell to the willow ring and he looked kind of sheepish. When she went into the kitchen, he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Hanging this up.”

“Come on.” He laughed. “You don’t have to.”

She brought out a hammer and nail and opened the front door. Setting the willow branches on the ground, she hammered in the nail, then hung the wreath on her door.

“A talisman against evil spirits,” she said.

For an answer he came to her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”

“I know.” Her gaze fell on the vials still sitting on her table. She briefly thought about starting the antidepressants again, but having Luke around was better, and the urge she’d felt in the restaurant, the need for the pills as some kind of hopeful balm, had eased. “It’s early, but I want to go to bed.”

“Okay.”

When he didn’t follow after her, Andi looked back. “Coming?”

“No more couch for me?”

“Not unless that’s what you want.”

His answer was to bound after her. “I didn’t pick up any condoms.”

She switched on the bedroom light. “It’s not likely to matter. My pregnancy was an anomaly.” She started unbuttoning her blouse, but he swept her hands away.

“I’ll get some tomorrow,” he said huskily, pulling her body to his and tilting up her chin.

Andi already felt like melting wax in his hands. “I just want to forget everything.”

He kissed her gently, then with more urgency.

After that there was no more talking.

*

Poor, poor little bird. So distraught over your friend. You don’t see me here in the shadows, but I see the light in the bedroom beneath your shade. Are you sleeping alone? Not a chance. You’re all set to f*ck your knight in shining armor. Do you know about his other women? Maybe I should tell you . . . leave you another note. Y’see, I’ve been doing my research on the ex-cop. He’s got some honeys in the wings. There’s the hot one from the district attorney’s office and the even hotter one with the red hair . . . supposedly a client, but there’s no way he’s kept his dick out of that much woman.

Yes . . . a little note about ex-detective Denton. Maybe I’ll leave it in that god-awful wreath of sticks on your door. Willow branches . . . someday soon I’ll tell you a story about them.

But first I’m going to let you in on all the little secrets your lover’s not telling you.

I can hardly wait. Hurting is an important part of the game.





Chapter Twenty-One



Luke and Andi spent Sunday in bed. They slept, made love, talked about the Carreras and Trini, and Scott and Mimi, then made love again, slept some more, and talked some more. Andi had enough fresh vegetables to make a salad and some frozen hamburger that Luke thawed and they threw together a pasta dish out of a jar of marinara sauce and some bowtie pasta. “Butterfly spaghetti,” he called it, and Andi just let it all happen.

She could still scarcely process Trini’s death. And she was worried sick about Jarrett, who still hadn’t returned any of her calls.

As the day wore on, Luke outlined what he wanted to do over the coming week. Monday was the meeting with the Carreras; then he wanted to meet with Detectives Rafferty and Thompkins again and apprise them of the little bird messages.

“I also want to do some checking up on my own about the boyfriend, Bobby. Trini met him through one of her classes.”

“At the gym where she worked?”

“Um. That’s what she said. She said he was buttoned-down, like Greg. Not her type at all.”

“But she fell for him.”

“Yeah, big-time. So out of character. She knew it.” There was something else that was bothering her. “Oh, and she said he wore a toupee and glasses. Again, not Trini’s usual type. She was all for the rock-hard gym rat; y’know, most of her exes could have been male models. So it was all weird. I don’t think she thought anything about him at first, but then she was smitten.”

“Smitten. I like that word.”

He smiled at her and she managed a smile back. She almost felt guilty finding joy in anything with her friend gone. “Trini kept saying how crazy it was. He pulled back for a while and she thought it was over and was kind of crushed, then recently they were back on.”

“And he said he was allergic to shellfish as well?”

“That’s what she said.”

“We need to know more about him.”

“Maybe at the gym where she held her classes?”

He nodded. “My thought exactly. We’ll go there first thing tomorrow morning, before the meeting with the Carreras,” he said.

Andi inwardly shivered, but said, “Okay.” She wasn’t looking forward to that meeting at all.

*

September clicked off her cell phone and threw it on the couch in disgust.

“Still no response?” Jake asked her. He brought a bowl of popcorn for them to share as he sank down beside her on the couch.

September took a handful and munched away, scarcely tasting it. “Face-to-face is always better, but I’ve suddenly got lots to do. Tomorrow I’m meeting with the Winslow Sheriff’s Department, and George has that other case I told you about.”