AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Patterson? That was it?”
Bambi nods. “He’s a police detective. Easy to find. Actually, you’ll find this interesting: he’s Greg Everett’s partner.”
“No shit.” I make a mental note to order two sets of molds for those cement shoes I really want to try out now. “That explains a lot.”
“Does it?”
“No, not really.” I sigh and lean back in the chair. “I mean… fuck, I don’t know. The guy’s a fucking asshole.”
Bambi’s mouth twists into an amused smirk I know she’s trying her damned hardest to suppress. “What makes you say that?”
“You should have seen the way he texts her. The bruises he left on her. And the kid—you heard what she said.”
This makes Bambi sober up a bit. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “I heard it.”
That annoying mental itching resurfaces. “Speaking of the kid: who’s watching her?”
“She’s asleep. It’s naptime.”
“Ah.” I’m about to leave it alone, but then… “Same time? Every day?”
Bambi nods. “It’s important to keep kids on a schedule.”
“Fine.” Something else occurs to me. “Ease up on the sugar, too. Don’t want her rotting her teeth out.”
I don’t have to turn my head to see the brow creep up her forehead.
“Anything else,Dad?”
“Shut the fuck up, Bam.”
She snorts a laugh and thanks the server for her drink, takes a very long sip, then lies back in her chair. “You know what I don’t get?”
“The concept of leaving a man alone to his thoughts?”
“Aside from that.” Her smirk shifts into a slight frown. “Why are you keeping her around?”
I roll my eyes. “We’ve been over this. Clara lied about what she saw and put my brother in prison on a life sentence, and even though I could just have her recant her testimony, she won’t because her asshole father is the same detective who made the arrest and there’s no way in hell he’ll changehisstatement?—”
“The kid, Demyen. I was talking about the kid.”
Oh.
Right.
“The kid’s collateral.”
“With a custom bedroom under the stars and an unlimited menu paired with Daddy Warbuck’s black AmEx, no less.” The blinking she does is every bit as sarcastic as her words. “You do realize she has a grandfather? An aunt of sorts? Why not send her to them?”
“And explain what when they ask about her mother?”
“She left town.”
I shake my head. “That won’t pan out. Clara’s a devoted mother who sacrificed everything for her child. They’re broke as fuck but she’s always put Willow first. Even I wouldn’t believe she just up and left town without her daughter.”
“Fair point.”
“Plus…” Again, the absence of Greg Everett in Clara’s missed calls, unread messages, her photo library—it all presses an unsettling feeling in my gut that I don’t like for a multitude of reasons. “I don’t trust the Chief Detective.”
