“Okay, all right. I understand.”
15
The brief respite I had between my morning shift and overnight shift was filled with attempting to apologize to my mother and her shooing me away, acting as if nothing happened. Classic avoider. She’d mope and hold a grudge until she was damn well ready to forgive me, and there was nothing I could do about it. But I had to try.
When she decided she absolutely had to make her second trip to the grocery store for the day, I retreated to my room and took a nap with Fizzy. I woke up in a haze, my brain not fully realizing why I was forcing myself out of bed long before the sun came back up.
I put my uniform back on and prayed that my mother had left me a plate of dinner in the refrigerator. She hadn’t. I guess she was madder than I’d thought.
I slunk out of the house and drove as quickly as I could to the phone shop to pick up a new phone—there went my first paycheck—before hitting up the local McDonalds for a burger and fries. I pulled into the reservoir just as Nikki was closing the gates.
“We’re closed,” she snarled into my partially open window. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Yep, I’m here for the overnight shift with Kyle.”
“Good luck with that. If you thought he was a peach in the daytime, just wait until he’s bored and tired.”
The smile on her face made me cringe. “I think I can manage.”
“Did you hear?” she asked, her smile turning into an evil grin.
“Hear what?”
“That I got the full-time position?”
My heart sank. It wasn’t as if I really thought I would get it, but the way Ursula had smiled at me . . . oh well.
“Congratulations,” I said with as much peppiness in my voice as I could muster.
Her smile drooped a bit. Kill ’em with kindness, my dad always said.
“Oh, and Luke is taking me out tonight so we can celebrate and catch up. It was so good to see him again.”
Tears burned in the corners of my eyes, but I would not let her think she was winning. I blinked.
“Have a great time.” I put Cherry Anne in gear as I muttered, “wench.”
Once at the shop, I swiped the tears from my cheeks and took several deep breaths before I stepped out of my car.
Kyle and Antonio stood with two women, presumably their wives. On top of everything else, I really wasn’t ready to meet the woman Antonio claimed to detest.
“Hi,” I said with a small wave to the four of them.
Kyle’s wife was his exact opposite. Short and bubbly. She shook my hand with a megawatt smile and more energy than a child hopped up on caffeine and sugar.
Antonio kept an obvious distance from his wife. She was tall and slender, with the body of a supermodel and the face of a horse. She didn’t smile.
“So you’re the new one, huh?” She glanced from me to Antonio with an ugly look in her eye. I just nodded.
Kyle’s wife shifted from one foot to another. She leaned toward Antonio’s wife. “We should probably be going. It would be unfavorable for the hosts to be late.” She winked.
“Oh yeah, there’s another game on tonight, right?” I did my best to smile. “The Avs look pretty good this season.”
“It’s just a shame Kyle has to miss another game.” His wife pouted. “Between work and the flu, this poor guy just can’t get a break.”
“The flu?” I hadn’t heard about Kyle getting the flu.
“Oh yeah, he had to leave the party early last game because he didn’t feel well. Then tonight he got stuck with the overnight shift again.”
Ummm, pretty sure he volunteered for the overnight shift. In fact, so had Antonio, even though he’d had a party to host. What were they playing at?
“It’s all right,” Kyle shrugged. “It’s good money, and I don’t like hockey nearly as much as I like football.”
“I didn’t know you were sick,” Antonio said, his face a mixture of emotion.
“Just a twenty-four-hour thing. Nothing major,” Kyle replied.
“Let’s go already,” Antonio’s wife grabbed him by the arm. “We can’t be late to our own party.”
Antonio peeled his gaze from Kyle’s face and studied me. Something wasn’t right. Did Antonio know something? Did Kyle?
“Maybe I should stay and help you two out,” Antonio said, pulling his arm from his wife’s grasp. “I mean, there is a killer on the loose.” He said the last part with his breezy Italian accent cranked up.
Some weird part of me was screaming, “Yes! Stay!”
“You can’t be seriously considering blowing off all of your friends and your wife,” his wife’s voice was growing shriller, “to stay back and, and . . . work!”
Antonio shot her a glare, but Kyle cut in.
“It’s really okay. I was here last night and nothing happened.” He glanced at me. “Nothing important. I’m sure we’ll be just fine.”
“Rylie?” Antonio asked, obviously not caring what his wife or Kyle thought.
“It’s okay. We’ll be fine.”
“If you’re sure.”
“She said they’ll be fine,” Antonio’s wife hissed. Kyle’s wife wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Antonio offered a short nod. “Okay. But call if you need anything.”
This was the last straw. His wife let out a frustrated yelp and stomped off to her car.
“It was nice meeting you, Rylie.” Kyle’s wife smiled. “And I’ll see you tomorrow.” She patted Kyle on the arm, her smile melting away, and then followed after her friend.
Antonio hesitated for a moment longer and then said his goodbyes before turning and following his wife. My gut told me to follow him. That tonight was going to go badly. But if Dave wasn’t the killer, I needed to find out who was.
“So, do we share a truck or take our own trucks?” I asked when the other three had driven away.
“We have to share, so I can show you the ropes. Overnight shift is different.” He turned on his heel and huffed over to his truck. “Get in, and don’t get any dirt in my truck.”
