“Can I get the tavern burger with extra bacon, mayonnaise on the side and extra fries instead of coleslaw, please?” Ashlyn asked as Catherine quickly added it to their order.
“Of course,” Catherine said as her gaze shifted to him. “And what can I get for you, sir?”
“I’ll have the same,” Shayne said, never taking his eyes off Ashlyn.
“I’ll put that order in right away,” Catherine said, closing her notepad and slid it back into her pocket with a warm smile as she grabbed their menus and walked away.
“Thank ye,” Shayne said as he considered the small woman sitting across from him. “Hoping ta get me drunk, lass, so that I’ll talk?”
“It couldn’t hurt,” Ashlyn said, making him chuckle. “This would probably be a good time to tell you that I know something that you don’t know,” Ashlyn said, looking adorably smug as she took a sip of her water.
“And what would that be?” Shayne asked as he watched the way that her eyes lit up as she gave a casual shrug that he wasn’t buying.
“I’m willing to tell you if you tell me everything you know,” she said, moving to take another sip only to go still at his next words.
“Patrick wasn’t a hitchhiker. He worked for the previous McClellan,” Shayne said, watching as she slowly narrowed her eyes on him before she reached for her bag. He watched as she tore through it, checking everything from her wallet to her pen, before patting down her bag and-
“She thinks ye bugged her,” Aidan said, chuckling as they watched her put everything back in her bag and dropped it before searching her pockets.
“I didn’t bug ye, lass,” Shayne said, watching as she went still only to slowly nod.
“I’m not playing this game with you. You either tell me something or you’re going to be walking home,” Ashlyn said as she leveled a look on him that told him that she was thinking about leaving his ass here anyway.
“Fair enough,” Shayne said, taking a sip of water as he considered her. “I can tell ye that this case has nothing ta do with the missing girls.”
“How do you know that?” she asked as a waitress paused by their table and placed a cup of coffee and a glass of beer on the table before quickly walking away to deliver drinks to another table.
“Because it doesn’t meet the criteria,” Shayne said, picking up his beer and took a sip only to wince when the taste of weak ale hit his tongue.
God, he missed real ale.
“And what criteria would that be?” Ashlyn asked, reaching for the small sugar bowl at the end of the table.
“And what would ye do if I told ye?” Shayne asked, watching as she dumped two packets of sugar into her coffee before reaching for a spoon.
“Make up an excuse to use the bathroom, go straight out the front door, get in my car and drive away, all while doing my best evil cackle,” she said, blinking at him.
Nodding, Shayne leaned back in his chair as he said, “And that’s why I can’t tell ye, lass.”
“You can tell me something,” Ashlyn said, taking a sip of coffee while he sat there, considering her for a moment.
“I tell ye what, lass, I’ll make a deal with ye. For everything that ye tell me that I don’t already know, I’ll tell ye something about the case,” Shayne said, watching as Ashlyn debated her next move.
“I’d rather find out something about you,” she said, taking him by surprise.
“Why’s that?” Shayne asked.
“Because I want to know what kind of man I’m dealing with.”
“And what type of man do ye think I am?” Shayne asked, taking another sip of his beer.
“A mentally unstable one,” Ashlyn said, making his brothers laugh their asses off. When he glared at her, she said, “I met you in an emergency room, where you were buck naked, wondering how I could see you.”
“Tell her that it was a drug interaction,” Aidan said, gesturing for him to get on with it.
“It was a drug interaction,” Shayne said, repeating the lie.
“And what drugs would those be?” Ashlyn asked, absently drumming her fingernails against the table while she waited for his next line of bullshit.
