Page 223 of Sticks and Stones
“What did Alice and John send over?” he asked as he walked into the living room of their condo.
Ethan laughed.
“It might be easier to ask what they didn’t send over. Let’s just say we have burgers, fries, containers of soups, fried fish, stew, and about an entire pig’s worth of pulled pork.”
Corbin wasn’t shocked.
“That sounds about right. Are you guys going to tell me what the secret conversation was about?” he asked, catching them off guard. “I’m battered, not stupid.”
Gene reassured him.
“It wasn’t about you. We think Sasha is a spy for our boss. It kinda just happened in the hall by the door. It wasn’t intentional.”
As Gene helped Corbin up, they headed into the kitchen to get some food.
Once there, Corbin took a burger from Ethan since they were all having burgers and fries.
Corbin kept talking since it was nice not to be thinking about his issues.
“Oh, that’s awkward since she’s sleeping with Greyson.”
Yeah, tell them about it.
“Oh, well, spies get their asses caught every now and again,” Gene admitted. “She’ll get hers, and it’ll be from me if she puts one hand on Ethan’s body. That’s mine,” he said.
Corbin laughed.
“I’ll get him yet, and he’ll be mine,” he teased, trying to be more like himself.
Gene ruffled his hair when Corbin sat down.
“I’ve seen your game. You couldn’t catch Ethan if he was nailed to the ground.”
Corbin snorted.
Plus, Gene trusted the man. His fear had everything to do with the fact that he didn’t know if one day, Ethan would go straight again.
At the table, they sat down, and Ethan had his notebook, his favorite pencil, and notes ready for them.
“We’ll eat and talk. We have to be at that hotel at eight thirty,” Gene admitted.
That gave them two hours to go over everything and get there.
Blackhawk was up to bat.
“Well, I went over the victims, and I cross-checked everything that Corbin did. He was pretty thorough,” Blackhawk admitted. “Good job,” he offered.
Thank God.
It was nice to know he didn’t fuck it up.
“I tried,” Corbin said. “The minute Vice found the three sets of bodies together, they called me in. I had minimal information to go on with them.”
Well, Ethan found more. Granted, that was the difference between a city cop and an FBI agent—one had more time to dig deep. Ethan and Gene only worked one case at a time. The city cops were overwhelmed.
“I thought about the students and ran a few things,” he stated. “What I found was interesting.”
They ate and were all ears.
