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“I was just passing on a message.” Clary looked down the aisle. She hadn’t noticed anyone following her, nor did she feel anyone staring at her.
Then again, she’d been pretty focused on getting everything on their list until they ran into Betsy.
Elton looked around, only he seemed to be simply going through the motions rather than actually searching the place for anyone suspicious. “Who is Pete Laker, anyway?”
“A private investigator who’s been texting me to warn me about your brothers,” Clary said when neither Zane nor Seth seemed keen on answering.
Elton arched a brow. “Warn?”
“He’s an ex-detective,” Zane added. “I worked with him and got him kicked off the investigating team.”
Elton tipped his head back, then looked around again. “You think he’s dangerous?”
“I didn’t think so, but he seems rather persistent.” Zane folded his arms over his chest. “Way too persistent to be normal.”
“If Persistent Pete is annoyed with you,” Elton jabbed his index finger in Zane’s direction, then moved the finger toward her, “why is he contacting you?”
Clary shrugged, and Elton’s eyes narrowed.
“I really don’t know,” she said. “I just got a text from an unknown number warning me about Seth.”
“Seth?” Elton redirected his attention to Zane. “Are you sure this is about you?” Elton asked. “This doesn’t make any sense at all. Why is he going after Seth if this is about what you did?”
Again, Zane shared a not-so-secret glance with Seth.
“When did you get Persistent Pete kicked off the investigation team?”
“Over two years ago,” Zane said.
Elton’s brows drew closer together.
“We know it doesn’t make sense,” Seth said. “But we don’t know what’s going on.”
They might not be sure what was going on, but it seemed Seth and Zane might have had a conversation about their suspicions.
A corner of Elton’s lips hooked back into a smirk. “The old Eolenfeld has a lot of private investigators working for him, no?”
Was that what Zane and Seth thought? That Mr. E was behind this?
“This has nothing to do with Mr. E.” Clary started pushing the cart forward.
“Running away won’t change the facts.”
She really shouldn’t engage in this. Elton was simply goading her, and she should know better.
But her feet disagreed. “What’s your definition of facts? Because your ‘facts’ sound like assumptions.” She turned back to Elton. “Do you have proof that Mr. E is behind this?”
Elton folded his arms over his chest and glanced at his brothers. “That’s what you guys think, right? That’s why Seth hasn’t told her about it.”
Clary looked over at Seth before she could stop herself, and caught him sighing. She’d thought the comment he’d made about Mr. E being involved was simply a passing remark.
Apparently not.
“I don’t even know why you guys bother,” Elton added. “It’s never going to work for you two. You might as well be Romeo and Juliet.”
“That’s enough.” This time, Seth grabbed the cart handle and put a hand on Clary’s back to nudge her ahead before she could say anything. “You should just go buy whatever’s on your list. We still need to—”
“Right,” Elton said, drawing out the single-syllable word. “We have to show the poor orphans how sweet and gracious the Eolenfelds are.”
