“How does an icicle fall on someone in June? Even better, how does an icicle big enough to crush a car fall…ever?”
Oh. Oops. I remembered that. One of the people on my list had a meeting in City Core. He didn’t get out much so that had been the best opportunity for me. I’d been standing on the balcony of a vacant unit overlooking a low foot-traffic area. The lawyer walked under me, and I’d dropped a larger-than-necessary icicle. It had missed the guy, landing on a SUV parked on the street instead. The owner of the SUV had run out of the building, absolutely losing his mind. Seriously, his rage was offthe charts. I definitely saved Violet from a giant red flag if that was the date she had planned.
“Seriously? Did you forget about the smoking hot, snow-wielding villain you tracked down a month and a half ago?”
“Well, then it’s probably a good thing I’m staying away.”
“How do you figure?”
“Avalanche has been single handily rooting out the corruption in the city for years. If he went after O’Neill, he’s probably bad news.”
I grinned. He wasn’t on my list, but if she thought he was a bad guy… I wasn’t going to correct her.
“Chris is literally a saint. It’s way more likely that Avalanche was trying to sabotage your date.”
Violet shook her head.
“I didn’t even know him last year. Why would he be trying to sabotage my date?”
“Maybe he saw you from across the room one day and became obsessed with you.”
There was a good possibility that would have been accurate, but alas.
Violet burst out laughing. “Okay, you and Amber need to read some fluffy books. All these stalker romances are rotting your brains. I’m proposing a fluffy read at our next book club meeting.”
Okay, book club friends made a lot of sense. From what I’d gathered Violet didn’t go out much, which was probably good because she seemed to get mugged every time she did.
“Amber and I will never. We’d rather die.”
“Keep going like this and one of your dates will make that happen.” The sound of sirens made Violet look up. “Ah, saved by the siren. They’re here.”
“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy. You don’t get to judge me; youlovestalker romances. You’re trying to tell me that youwouldn’t fold in half if you found out that gorgeous man has been stalking you for years?”
“That’sfiction, Kels. Where I can read exactly what’s on his mind. I don’t know Avalanche; I met himonce.”
The lie rolled off her tongue easily. Although, I supposed she wasn’t truly lying. She’d only met the persona of Avalanche once, for the most part I was myself with her—even if she didn’t know my name.
“But—”
“Bye, Kelsey.”
She hung up just as the police car pulled up to the mouth of the alley. Two guys stepped out. The driver was definitely the owner of the car I totalled—blond hair, brown eyes, medium build. He was grinning ear to ear and his partner—red hair, blue eyes, on the thinner side—looked indifferent.
The former greeted her with sarcasm, “Miss Hayes, staying out of trouble as always, I see.”
“Can’t help that trouble seems to find me.” She shrugged.
“Might have something to do with your villains,” the partner muttered; Angry Icicle elbowed him.
“Always a pleasure to see you, Nate. How’s Abby? She was absolutely glowing the last time I saw her. Her due date’s right around the corner, isn’t it?”
His face lit up, smile growing. I was pretty sure Abby was a nurse that worked on the hospital on 65th. I was doing a bit of assuming because Violet had chatted with a pregnant woman during Hemlock’s visit.
“Another two months to go: January tenth. She’s hoping she’s not early; she doesn’t want a Christmas or a New Year’s baby.”
“I don’t blame her. Way too much going on that time of year. You must be so excited.”
“That’s an understatement,” Angry Icicle cut in. “Guy won’t shut up about it.”
