“So, how did you and Avery meet?” she asked Eliot, offering up what I might’ve suspected to be a flirty smile under different circumstances.
“Um, well, it’s a long story.” He slid me a look, amusement lurking in the depths of his eyes.
“I love long stories,” Sabrina enthused. “As long as they’re romantic. Is your story romantic?”
“Is it?” I matched her tone, sarcasm on full display. “Eliot and I met when I was getting threatening notes on my front porch and needed a gun. I went to him to buy one.”
“Really?” Sabrina reminded me of a wide-eyed ingenue on some teenybopper show. “That is ... really intense. What did you think when you first met her?”
If Eliot was bothered by the breathy delivery of the question, he didn’t show it. “I found her intriguing,” he replied, offering me a wink. “She was the mouthiest person I’d ever met. I was so intrigued, in fact, I followed her to the Star Wars Symphony later that night.”
“I don’t know what that is.” Sabrina flicked her eyes to me. “Is that some sort of underground thing?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. There was a symphony performance, and they played Star Wars music.”
Jake snorted. “I remember that night. The Wookies and Stormtroopers got into a big fight and we had to arrest about fifty people.”
“You were there too?” Sabrina looked genuinely baffled. “I don’t understand why. I mean ... Star Wars is so lame.”
My muscles tensed, as did Eliot’s grip on my knee.
“Those are fighting words around here,” Jake offered with a laugh. “Avery lives her life according to Star Wars.”
Speaking of that, I kind of wanted to engage the hyperdrive to escape from Sabrina’s clingy web of judgment. She was like the Emperor ... or Jar Jar Binks, only ten times more annoying.
“That’s ... very weird.” Sabrina sipped her water. “You’re a very complicated figure, aren’t you?”
What a stupid thing to say. I mean ... good grief. She talked like a reject from Gossip Girl, and not one of the good characters. She was clearly an Ivy or Lola rather than a Blair.
Eliot chuckled. “Avery is a very complicated figure. She’s so complicated, in fact, I struggle to understand her sometimes.”
“You and me both.” Jake bumped fists with Eliot, both of them smirking. For some reason, it soothed some of the frayed nerves jumping in my stomach. It was ridiculous, something bro-dudes the world over embraced, and yet it signified things would be fine between them. I needed that ... desperately.
“I don’t believe I’m complicated at all,” I argued, leaning back in my seat. “I’m an open book.”
Jake and Eliot made the same derisive sound in their throats.
“I’m an open book,” I repeated. “What you see is what you get.”
“I will agree with that,” Eliot supplied. “You’re a very open person, sometimes so open that you’re obnoxious.”
Now he was on my list, too. “I’m never obnoxious.”
Jake and Eliot made twin noises to reflect their doubt again. I was starting to feel ganged up on.
“Your idle speed is obnoxious,” Jake countered. “I can see this conversation is heading into dangerous territory, though, so I’m changing the subject. Where did you go after you left my office?”
There was no way I was answering that. “Well, I waited in the parking lot for thirty minutes and got stood up.”
Sabrina turned sheepish and stared at the table. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how that happened. I feel awful.”
“You should,” I encouraged. “After that, I got some coffee and convened with nature.”
“You convened with nature?” Jake’s eyebrow winged up. “Why doesn’t that sound likely?”
“Because you’re a suspicious individual,” I replied. “It’s not very becoming.”
“Ha, ha. What did you do after you convened with nature?”
I cast a warning look toward Eliot. “I ... spent quality time with my boyfriend.”
The glare Jake shot me was full of annoyance. “You said when you sat down that you had something. I want to know what that something is.”
“Well, I want to know what you’re hiding.”
“I’m not hiding anything. We don’t have anything. We’re still waiting for all the bodies to be identified.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m sorry you’re having trust issues.” Jake scratched his chin and glowered at me, a mannerism I recognized from when we were teenagers and he’d had enough of my hormonal swings. “You should take that up with Eliot.”
“Hey, let’s not go there,” Eliot cautioned. “Don’t make things weird.”
Jake looked as if he was going to push things further and then raised his hands in defeat. “Fine. You’re right. I just want to know if you have something good. If you keep material information from me, that is an enforceable felony.”
Oh, he wanted to play games, did he? “We don’t have information. We have a line on where we might get information.”
“And where is that?”
“I forget.” I tapped my lip and glanced at Eliot. “Do you remember?”
Eliot had the grace to shoot an apologetic look at Jake. “Sorry, but I can’t remember either.”
“Fine.” Jake’s expression was dour. “Just remember, two can play this game. If you guys want to hide information, then it’s on.”
“I guess it is.” I snuggled a little closer to Eliot. “May the best reporter win.”
“Or the best sheriff.”
We fell into emotionally-charged silence, which Sabrina took it upon herself to interrupt.
“Being a reporter is so cool,” she enthused. “I can’t wait until it’s me one day. But you said something about bad pay. How bad are we talking?”
“You won’t be living in Washington Township,” I replied. “Try Eastpointe.”
Her smile collapsed. “Maybe I should aim for a bigger market or something.”
“Maybe.”
10 Ten
Sabrina was ready and amped after we’d finished lunch.
“Where to first?”
She was way too perky, which had me envisioning ways to un-perk her once we were out on the sidewalk. “I was thinking you could go back to the office,” I started.
Sabrina immediately started shaking her head. “I’m supposed to stick with you.”
That sounded like pure and unmitigated torture. “You know what? Just one second.” I lifted a finger and sidled
