Page 119 of Tenderfoot

“His last name was Clampitt?” I whispered to Willow.

She nodded.

That seemed to fit him somehow.

“And you remember Kev.” She gestured to Willow.

Willow gave him a short, awkward wave and said a short, awkward, “Hey, Jayden.”

Jayden jerked up his chin to her and muttered, “Yeah, I remember that guy.”

Well, it seemed Willow had been invited to Shanti’s family’s shindigs, and she’d taken Kevin along.

“We’re broken up,” Willow blurted.

“That’s good,” Jayden stated firmly.

She’d definitely taken Kevin along.

Willow bugged her eyes out at Shanti.

“Trev was Kev’s best friend,” Shanti shared with Jayden.

“And you think you can get what out of me…exactly?” Jayden asked his cousin.

“It’d help if you could tell me if the cops found anything when they searched Trev’s apartment, or if they knew what they were looking for or what Trev was into, considering, after whoever killed Trev did him, he went to Harlow’s place.”

Now she was gesturing at me. When Jayden turned to me, I also did the short, awkward wave.

Shanti kept going.

“And they tossed that because she’d had a kind of fake date with Trev that night, although she didn’t, she was supposed to be having a fake date with Kev.”

“A fake date?’ Jayden asked.

“That isn’t important,” Shanti said.

Jayden’s lovely brown eyes narrowed, making them still lovely, but also scary. “So you want info from me, but you aren’t offering full disclosure in return?”

I could see this wasn’t quite fair.

Shanti could too.

“Okay, so Kev was stealing stuff from women he met on dating apps,” Shanti said.

Bad idea.

Jayden looked mad again.

Or madder.

We all scooted back another step.

This time, when we did, Willow made a strange noise, so I looked to her to see her cheeks aflame.

I then looked beyond her to see she’d bumped into Gabe and was now butted up against his tall, built frame. It was then I saw Gabe’s rugged, gorgeous face seemed carved from stone, but he had a hand curled around her waist.

Interesting.

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