Page 5 of Covert Chaos

"Well, that man is Charles Barnes, Beckwith's brother and business partner of Diamond Pie Baking Company," Hattie said. "Let's follow him." Then she took off across the parking lot, raced up the steps, and disappeared into the front door of the seedy, man-cave tavern.

Lucy didn't follow her. "You know, I think I may have been a little overzealous when I said how much fun this was going to be. I forgot about the whole murderers-actually-kill-people thing."

I shifted King Tut to the right side of my sweatshirt, and then tucked my left arm through Lucy's. "Well, let's go get Hattie, talk her into reporting it to the cops, and then go home and finish our drinks."

She looked over at me as we headed toward the front door. "Hattie's future freedom is at stake. Plus, she basically stole a body, and we were accessories after the fact. She'll never turn it over to the police."

I sighed. "I know."

Boy, did I know.

As I pulled open the front door, I hoped I was wrong about how dangerous Charles Barnes was.

But my mom had trained me well.

The odds of me being wrong were not nearly as high as I wanted them to be.

Four

The Ugly Man was packed with loud, manly men and the women who they'd sucked into their vortexes of bearded, beer-bellied hell.

Hattie was standing just inside the front door, her hands on her hips, surveying the boisterous crowd.

No one made eye contact with her.

Because she was Hattie, and she had more power in that seventy-something body than Lucy and I would ever have, even if we combined forces and added a thousand more of us. Unless we included King Tut. Then we might be almost even.

"I don't see Charles," Hattie said. "He must have gone in back. I'm going after him?—"

I caught her arm. "Hattie, if he did kill Beckwith and put him in your truck, I don't think you want to run into him alone in the back halls of the Ugly Man."

She frowned at me. "I think I do, actually. I liked Beckwith. I dated him for a while when he was a newbie chef."

Oh… "So, this is a revenge quest as well as a prove-your-innocence quest?" I shifted King Tut to my other side. Even supported by the sweatshirt, he was heavy, and I didn't have the arm strength that Lucy had.

Hattie nodded. "He was a good man, and a fellow chef, Mia. It would be impossible for me not to care."

Dang it. I was a sucker for justice. That was why I'd betrayed the man I'd loved and called an FBI hotline when I'd found the bags of white powder in our China cabinet. Stanley had given me the home and the family I'd never had, and I'd had to walk away.

Because I couldn't stand back and let bad people get away with bad things.

Was I trying to overcompensate for my criminal childhood? Maybe. Didn't really matter.

I was stuck with who I was.

If Beckwith was a good man, then this was about more than Hattie, and Hattie was already a good enough reason for me to get involved. "Let's grab a table and make a plan," I said.

"No." Hattie folded her arms over her chest. "I'm going to find Charles and?—"

"I'llfind him. He doesn't know me, so he won't try to attack me." Hopefully. I patted King Tut. "I'm armed with a demon cat, remember?" I tried to pull my sweatshirt back over his head, but he looked at me and growled, that low, dangerous growl that made me decide he was just fine where he was.

Hattie eyed me. "If Charles saw us together when we arrived, he'll know. He'll kidnap you as a hostage to force me to succumb to his amoral pressure. I won't sell the recipes to him. You'll be on your own."

Lucy hit Hattie's arm. "You're a big, fat liar, Hattie. You'd sacrifice yourself for Mia."

"Myself? Yes. My recipes? No." Hattie looked at me. "Go get him, then. I'll give you two minutes, and then I'm coming after you."

I shifted King Tut again. "You know by now that we need a plan. The reason my mom and I never wound up in prison, or even arrested, is because she insisted on a strategy." My biceps were starting to burn as King Tut purred, turning himself into dead weight in my arms. "So, we're going to sit down, and take three minutes to figure out the best approach."

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