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The pistol was… wait a second.
For Christ’s sake, that wasn’t a pistol. Lucien was threatening us with a damn BB gun.
I dropped my hands to my side. The door was a hand’s length away. I reached out and turned the knob, the sound seeming to throw Lucien out of his crazy daze. He dropped the BB gun down to his side but kept his eyes glued on us until we had gone and shut the door.
In the hallway, both of us took deep breaths. Fox reached over and massaged one of my shoulders, the touch welcome. Especially after that roller coaster we were on. When I saw the gun, my first instinct was to protect Fox. I didn’t think twice about it. And with the way he was struggling to get in front of me, I knew he was feeling the same instinct.
That meant something. I thought about it on the elevator ride back down, which had us stopping on five different floors, picking up a few different families who got in with their bathing suits and suntan-lotion-smeared cheeks without a clue in the world about what Fox and I had just experienced.
In the elevator lobby, I had to laugh as we filed out behind a group of kids chatting excitedly about the Disney trip they had just come from.
“What a fucking whirlwind,” Fox said. We were on the street, looking up at the hotel where all our answers seemed to be. “This is going to be difficult.”
28 Gabriel “Fox” Morrison
The courtyard at our Stonewall Investigations office was completely transformed, thanks to Andrew and Holly, who had spent weeks putting it all together. There were twinkling amber fairy lights strung up and through a beautiful ivy-covered trellis that Andrew had personally ordered and oversaw the construction of. A big banner hung in the center of the courtyard read “The Stonewall Family is Growing.” A bold and bright rainbow streaked through the center of the banner. There was an open bar area with a bartender wearing a very fitted white button-up shirt so that his biceps bulged at the seams of his sleeves. He was charismatic and, most importantly, knew how to create some excellent drinks.
Next to the bar was a photo booth inspired by an old-timey detective aesthetic. The oversized brown and black hats Andrew had talked about were there, along with Sherlock pipes and comically large magnifying glasses. Currently, Penny Navarro, one of the detectives who had come in shortly after me, was trying to convince Beckham to don the hat and trench coat for a photo. She was doing this as she spoke from the side of her mouth, the Sherlock pipe hanging out the other end.
She was a funny one, and also a tough-as-nails detective. She may have had a genuine smile and approachable eyes, but she turned into an iron fort the second she needed to. I had seen it when one of her clients turned on her, upset with the results she had delivered.
Some people react adversely to the truth. In this case, her client got physical and started to swing. I’d heard the commotion and hurried to her office, only to find Penny holding the man against her desk with his arms twisted behind his back, his head pressed against the table, Penny smiling at me without a brunette strand of hair out of place.
I was looking forward to tonight. After the fucking disaster of an interview we had yesterday, a party was needed.
And a party with an open bar? Shit, that was exactly what we needed.
The interview with Dylan and the guys was a bust. It went way worse than I could have imagined. The second that gun was drawn, the situation morphed. Life or death. Instinct kicked in, although Jonah stepped in front of me before I could do the same for him.
Imagine that. Fighting over who gets a bullet.
Of course, it only took me seconds to realize Lucien was threatening us with a BB gun. Jonah had said the same on the way to the office after the interview yesterday. Still, a BB gun could have caused serious damage if he had shot one of us, and so I was extremely glad that we were able to get out of there without anyone getting hurt.
We also left with some really useful intel. It painted an even bigger target on the Club Trinity men, specifically Lucien. His reaction was outrageous, and it wasn’t a coincidence that his painting was signed with the same initials accidentally left behind in the text messages. Jonah and I had gotten close to an answer in that hotel room.
The sound of music starting knocked me out of my thoughts. The DJ had finished setting up and was starting on his set.
Wow, Andrew and Holly really went all out.
