“How did she get out of that relationship?”
Arik’s pride in his woman brightened his eyes. “She started killing him,” he explained, laughing at the Simon’s stunned expression. “Yeah, I know, I made the same face. She writes stories about killing abusive men. Female serial killers,” he continued. “Apparently, Sage is a best-selling mystery writer.”
“Seriously?” Simon asked, then laughed at Arik’s nod. He looked over at the two ladies again. “Jade mentioned that she was a writer, but I just assumed she was a blogger or a journalist.”
“She funneled her anger into her writing, submitted her first story to a publisher, and her career was launched. It gave her enough money to leave the ass.” He laughed. “Apparently, the ex-husband warned her that he wouldn’t give her alimony. Sage agreed. Got a quick divorce and moved out here to Wyoming.”
Simon chuckled. “Good for her! Too many women, and men, struggle to find a way out of those situations.”
Arik’s humor diminished. “Yeah, well, I don’t think the husband is done yet. I think he’s lurking out there, coming by her house when she’s not home and just…terrifying her.”
Simon’s jaw clenched. “That’s not good. He’ll escalate.”
“They always do,” Arik agreed. “When they don’t get satisfaction from one strategy, they’ll try a different one. I think the guy is messing with her mind. I just don’t know why.”
Simon punched his partner on the shoulder. “Let’s go find out.”
“First, I want to get Sage and Jade over to my place along with the dogs.”
“Dogs?”
Arik chuckled, then opened the back door and whistled. A moment later, the dogs came streaking across the backyard. He noticed that Xena shortened her stride so that Minx could keep up, and the smaller pup was giving it his all.
“Hi guys!” Sage cooed, bending down to greet her “babies”. She put an arm around each animal, who leaned against her happily, their tongues hanging out and their tails sweeping across the floor behind them. “Simon, Jade, this is Minx,” she introduced the little guy, “And this is Xena. Arik helped me pick them out yesterday.”
Arik rolled his eyes. “I had nothing to do with that walking mop,” he muttered.
Sage was already down on her knees, extending her hands for the pair to smell. She scratched their ears as they greeted her. “Oh my! You guys are very handsome fellows!”
“Xena is a girl,” Sage pointed out. “Minx is the male. He’s also the pseudo alpha dog, aren’t you sweetie?”
Minx stared up at Sage with adoring eyes as if agreeing with her. “You’re adorable!” Jade corrected.
Simon chuckled. “They are cute,” he agreed with his wife.
“The mop thinks he’s in charge, and the big one lets him, but she’s really the one in control.”
“As it should be,” Jade commented.
Arik rolled his eyes, and headed back so that he could talk to Simon. “Let’s get the ladies and dogs over to my place, then we’ll find this bastard.”
Chapter 10
“I don’t know why Arik wanted us to stay here,” Sage grumbled as she rearranged the cutlery in his kitchen, wanting to irritate Arik since he wouldn’t tell her what he was up to. “And seriously, why couldn’t we tag along to help with the investigation? I mean, you and I are the ones who know what Jerry looks like!”
Jade worked on the books on Arik’s shelf. He had them organized by subject, then by alphabetical order. She arranged them by color. “I’m with ya. But Simon insisted that they’d be able to concentrate better if we’re safely out of the way.”
“That sounds like a bunch of overly protective hogwash,” Sage grumbled, taking one of the cans of beer out of his fridge. Carefully, she poked a hole in the bottom, letting it drain into a glass. She took out another can, doing the same thing. When the cans were empty and returned to the fridge, she brought one of the glasses over to Jade. “I think they just don’t want us to know something.” She took a long sip of the cold beer, appreciating the crisp taste.
Looking around, she absently ran a hand over Xena’s back, feeling the dog sigh with happiness. “I think the sofa would look better on that side of the room,” she said to Jade.
Jade turned around, assessing the furniture in the room. “That’s doable. But…would we need to move the bookshelf?”
Sage considered that idea. “I don’t know. The books would be hard to take off the shelf if the sofa was there.”
“Good point.” Jade tapped a finger against her chin. She sipped her beer thoughtfully, as she looked around the room. “I think this room needs a décor update.”
Sage nodded. “Yes, I agree, and the guys asked us to stay indoors. We’re not supposed to leave until they get back.”
Jade grinned mischievously at her sister. “Are we really going to obey them when they won’t know that we’re gone?”
Sage laughed. “Are we really going to be like those movie women who don’t follow the instructions from trained police officers who asked us to stay hidden from the enemy?”
Jade grimaced, but agreed. “Okay. Fine! Let’s move the couch.”
For the next forty-five minutes, the ladies moved furniture around the room, shifting smaller pieces out of the way until they got the sofa exactly where they wanted it. Then they moved the lights and chairs, but left the television right where it was. But once they were done with the furniture, the television seemed like the next option to “personalize”. So they ordered pizza, finagled more beer from the cans in the fridge, while making sure to put the empty cans back exactly as they’d been before, then proceeded to find all of their favorite channels and reprogram the remote.
