Page 67 of A Little Bit Whiskey
“Before what?” Fred inched closer. “Are you threatening the chief of police, because that’s not going to fare well for you, especially when your mother is wanted for murder.”
“That’s funny.”
Shit, antagonizing Fred was not going to defuse this situation. It was only going to make it worse. The last thing she wanted was for Noir to be collateral damage.
“Noir, just go,” she whispered. “I have this handled.”
“Fred, tell me something.” Noir ignored her, and she didn’t like it, but she let it go for the moment. “Now that I know everything—and I mean everything—how do you plan on disposing of me because it’s one thing to set up my mom, make my dad look like Tamsyn’s father, and even kill off Tamsyn, but don’t you see the ripple effect here? It’s too many bodies. Too many questions. State’s going to—”
“Wow. Your boyfriend has quite the imagination,” Anna said.
“Be quiet, Anna.” Fred narrowed his stare.
“I will not.” Anna stood tall.
“Why are you all out here anyway?” Noir asked. “Because I can’t think of any other reason than to make someone disappear.”
“My husband told you.” She lifted her chin. “Having a family conversation. We needed a place that allowed privacy.”
“My cottage would have provided that and you wouldn’t have had to blow off the lock.”
“If you must know,” Fred said. “We wanted to warn her about your mother’s arrest. We wanted to make sure she wasn’t in the—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tamsyn wasn’t going to listen to this shit. “You’ve been holding a gun to me. Telling me how you’re going to kill me and frame Weezer and Carter for it, and you think I’m going to stand here and let you tell this tall tale to Noir? Nope. No way. This is simple insanity if I’ve ever heard it.”
“Oh my. You must have hit your head when you tripped,” Anna said.
“Cut the crap, Anna.” Fred shifted his weapon toward Tamsyn. “You’re not helping, as usual.”
Noir might not be a cop, but Tamsyn knew his personality well. He wasn’t going to take that sitting down.
She inhaled sharply. She needed to calm the emotions before someone got killed.
Namely, her.
“There’s no reason keep up the ruse. The boy knows. And he’s right. We’re going to have to rethink how we play this out. It can work. We can make it look like Tamsyn and Noir uncovered the truth. They had a blowout. Yeah. Tamsyn first finds out that Weezer killed her mother.”
“Anna did that and you watched,” Tamsyn said.
“Not the point. It’s not how history will be written.” Fred had the audacity to smile.
The door burst open. Eddy and two of her other colleagues came barreling into the room.
“Drop your weapon, Fred,” Eddy said. “Anna, don’t you dare move.”
Tamsyn raced into Noir’s arms, groaning over the pain shooting through her arm. “Are you crazy? What the hell were you thinking coming in here like that? Unarmed. No backup. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
He cupped her face. “And here I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“You are not going to arrest me,” Fred said, hurling a few more superlatives. “I’ll have your fucking badge. You have no idea what you just walked into. It was me and my wife who were being held.”
“Save it, Fred.” Noir pulled out a phone. “Eddy heard our entire conversation.” He pulled out a gun from his other pocket. “And I wasn’t unarmed. I did have backup. Not just those three cops, but my dad and three brothers are standing right behind you.”
She glanced over her shoulder.
“In this family, you’re never alone.” He kissed her temple.
“This is bullshit. Get your fucking hands off my wife,” Fred protested.
