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She stared at me for a moment, and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing as me – that solving this shit had been the goal from the beginning, and nothing seemed to bring us any closer. It was easy for me to pledge and promise answers, but actuallygettingthose answers was proving to be problematic beyond belief. But… somebody knew something they weren’t telling. I had to believe it would come out eventually, and bring us to where we needed to be.
“I think I’m going to take a bath,” she said, and I nodded again.
“You can use mine, if you’d like. It’s bigger. Got all the cool jets and stuff.”
Thatalmostbrought a smile to her face, and she stepped in, closing the distance between us. When she anchored herself with her hands on my biceps, pushing up on her toes, I met her halfway for a soft, lingering kiss.
“Iwouldlike that,” she told me. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
After that, I left her to it, going back downstairs to find Savi cleaning the kitchen up. Asher and Harrison were gone.
“You got him finished up?” I asked her, and she nodded as she looked up from the pile of bloody paper towels on the floor.
“Yep,” she told me through her surgical mask. “And gave him a little something that will make the details of tonight pretty fuzzy,ifhe decides to go to the police. I know you probably wanted to question him more, but we both know…”
I nodded. “Yeah. He’s told us all he will without more… extreme measures. And I wasn’t kidding about not having the stomach for it now.”
“I know,” Savi said, and I didn’t have to see her mouth to know she was smiling. “That’s why Harrison and I stayed to help.”
I sucked my teeth. “Come on, don’t play me like that. You’re a mother now!”
“Who held my bloody, messy babies right after birth, and dealt with literal shit of all colors and textures, and more kinds of vomit than you want to hear about. I’m not squeamish. You didn’t get Kay until she was older.”
“I… you raise a fair point, Sav.”
“Oh, I know. Harrison is taking tonight’s guest back to his car, and wiping everything down. We already cloned the cell phone we found on him. I’ll get you those files.”
“Thank you, Savi.”
“Mmhmm. Just know you owe me one. You’re lucky my babies are with their grandparents right now, but as soon as they get back, my husband and I are doing date night. Guess who’s babysitting?”
I cringed – Savannah’s kids were adorable little energetic bundles ofterror. “Uncle Chad from next door?”
“Damn right. How is Monica?”
“Eh… as you’d expect.”
Savi nodded. “Right. Do you need help? Between Inez and I…”
“Not yet,” I answered quickly, shaking my head. Between her and Inez, heads might roll, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. “I have a few avenues that I hadn’t taken before… things I was hesitant to do, but now… might be time to go blackhat, and get this figured out.”
“Just don’t get caught.”
I plucked a surgical mask from Savi’s open bag, then joined her on the floor to get Asher’s blood out of my tile.
“I never do.”
