Page 44 of Spy With Me
“You’re dealing with chickens?” Daisy asked. “Did you getone of those egg aprons?”
“Oh, if only I could eat the eggs. I’m inveganvilleNorth Wales. Wait. Maybe you shouldn’t tell KalaI said that.” She was a terrible spy. Like awful. Oh, it wouldn’t be pain ortorture that made her talk. It would be gossip. All anyone had to do was sether two besties down, give them a bottle of tequila, and let the state secretsflow.
Lacey might have a point, but then if they wanted to keeptheir secrets, Zach shouldn’t have brought her to this… She wanted to sayhellhole, but it was a bucolic paradise where she sometimes sat and talked tothe pigs. They were surprisingly good listeners. And they did not judge.
“Are you okay?” Daisy asked. “I could tell my da they’rehorribly mistreating you and he will find you.”
Daisy’s dad, Liam O’Donnell, was considered the deep thinkerof McKay-Taggart. Uncle Li had been her mom’s partner for years, and they nowhandled the trickiest of cases, the ones that involved some kind of mysterybecause between the two of them, there wasn’t one they couldn’t solve. Likelyover a burger and some beer. “I need time here, Dais. Please tell everyone I’mfine. I can handle some vegan meals. Lacey is actually good at them.” It wasthe first time talking to her friends, and she had to hope they would be honestwith her. “Can you tell me how Landon is doing? Does he hate me?”
“Oh, he was in the doghouse for a while, but then he helpedHarlow Dawson kill a bunch of what he called criminal douchebags, and now BigTag likes him again,” Daisy promised. “Nate said Landon is fine, though he iscurrently taking what he called the don’t-lose-the-girl course. We’re allhelping out. Every couple of days he’s supposed to watch one of us, and we’resupposed to get away from him. I tried climbing out of my dad’s second storyoffice and managed to break one of the limbs on the big oak, but Landon totallycaught me.”
“Uncle Li is paying for his chiropractor because he didn’treally catch her, more like she landed on him, but Big Tag gave him a pass,”Bri explained. “I’m supposed to try to escape from The Hideout on Saturday. I’mgoing to have Marley Brighton distract him with her boobs.”
She missed them. Missed the club they all belonged to.
Missed sitting in the lounge with Zach and pretendingeverything was perfect. It had felt perfect.
But she was starting to wonder what had been perfect aboutit. Had it been having her friends around her? Being in a place she loved? Notknowing exactly who Zach was?
Or had it felt perfect because Zach was the person she wassupposed to be with, and damn all his problems.
“That sounds like fun,” she said, shooing the chicken awayagain and easing out of the stall. She moved on to the sweet old race horsewith the gimpy leg who loved treats and wandering around the fields. She pulledthe carrot out of her pocket and offered it up. “Please tell him how sorry Iam.”
“You can tell him yourself when you come home,” Bripromised. “Now let’s talk because since you’re gone, Kala is letting hersisters and her mom handle the whole wedding, and she said she didn’t care whather wedding dress was like.”
Oh, no. This was a drama that could kill the planet. “Kenzieand Tash will put her in something froufrou, and Kala will run. I have to fixthis.”
She hung up and immediately called her cousin.
“Tell me where you are. I told Zach I would keep him in theloop. I did not tell him he could kidnap my cousin.”
Kala was smart, but the last time Devi checked her cousinwasn’t psychic. “How did you know it was me?”
“Like I don’t already have that programmed in. Zach did agood job, but I have smarty pants on my team. The number changes, but Lou’sfigured out how to ID it,” Kala said in her grumpy fashion. “She hasn’t figuredout how to locate it, but she will. I’ll be on your doorstep in a couple ofdays, and Zach and I are going to talk.”
“He didn’t kidnap me. I mean he sort of did, but it’s cometo my attention that I am not entirely innocent in all of this, and I sucksometimes. So I’m taking a time out. Trust me. I’m not under lock and key. I’mcurrently in a barn.”
There was a gasp over the line. “He’s keeping you in a barn?I thought at least he would be banging you in some luxury hotel.”
She was confused. “I thought you didn’t want him to kidnapme. Now you’re mad he isn’t banging me?”
Kala sighed. “I just thought at least you two could work acouple of things out because you, my cousin, have been brutally bitchy since heleft. A couple of good orgasms and maybe you’re happier.”
She wished her cousin was wrong. “I did not call to talkabout my lack of a love life, nor do I want to discuss why I won’t sleep with aman who lied to me. I called to warn you.”
“Shit.” Kala’s voice went low. “He’s in trouble, isn’t he?Is it that woman he’s working with? He won’t give me any info on her, so Ithink she’s shady as fuck. Like I have a feeling about her.”
Kala kind of had that feeling about almost everyone. “Laceyis fine. You don’t have to worry about her.”
“Her name is Lacey?” Kala asked, and then she soundedfurther away like she was holding the phone out. “Lou, we need to find a chicknamed Lacey. Probably not her real name.”
Again. Terrible spy. The good news was she could distracther cousin. “If you let Kenzie pick your wedding dress you’re going to looklike Little Bo Peep. She will drown you in lace and put you in a hoop skirt.”
“Wait. What? Why would she… Oh, shit. She won’t be dressingme. She’ll be dressing herself. She’s in a whole ‘woe is me, the world isagainst my love’ phase because she hasn’t talked to Ben in a couple of weeks.Devi, you have to help me.”
She settled on a bale of hay. “That I can do.”
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